A third of North America’s birds have vanished • Hacker News Board

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#261

Post by bobbylarrybobby » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:27 AM UTC

zizee wrote: post #65

leeoniya wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people don't change even with the threat of human life being lost then there's no way they care if multiple species of birds goes extinct. people won't change. they are addicted to convenience, low prices, diversity in options, and unlimited availability. which is also great for corporate profits. as a species, humans plan and invest very little beyond our own lifetimes. but we're just animals after all. all the…

> all the talk about becoming an interplanetary (mars) species for our own survival has to be the most absurd statement that can be made to dismiss the very real problems...but billionaires need an excuse to play Tony Stark. This is a thinly veiled dig at Elon musk. It's so weird that you think what he's doing is the problem, with his efforts bringing about electric cars earlier than what would have happened. He migh…

Elon Musk proposed the hyper loop specifically to decrease investment in actual rail. He had no plans to build it. He has no interest in improving transportation or making it greener (which rail would certainly be). He only wants to enrich himself.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#262

Post by ChatGTP » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:29 AM UTC

Does anyone else see headlines like this and instantly interpolate birds with people?

We still heavily rely on the biosphere for our well being and survival and with the advancements of AI and Robotics designed to super-charge corporations ability to rape and pillage faster and harder than ever before, I just can't imagine a situation where we don't see headlines about humans disappearing either. I mean who knows, it might get to the stage where robots have their own economy and really decimate the fuck out of the biosphere .

Fist it's the little guys, insects, frogs, krill, then bigger birds, bears other mammals, and then us.

99% of people think we're just going to get out of this magically coz we're people, but we won't unless we sort ourselves out real quick.

Regardless of any of this, if we were truly the intelligent, amazing species we like to jack off over ourselves for, then we should be able to sustain our lives quite well without being so destructive.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#263

Post by dn3500 » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:32 AM UTC

fferen wrote: post #2

At least from the graph, it's leveling out?

I hate that graph. Not only is it not zero-based, a common mistake made by amateurs and people trying to mislead, but you can't even tell where zero is, even though the author of the graph clearly must know. They tell us in the text that 3 billion is one-third of the total. But if you didn't already know that, the graph would be meaningless. Suppose the total number of birds in 1970 was 3 trillion. Then the loss would be a tenth of a percent, which is negligible. You just can't tell by looking at that stupid graph.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#264

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:37 AM UTC

23B1 wrote: post #35

One thing I dislike the most about these problems – and the information/media/activism around them – is the "solutioning". Yes, we should recycle and reduce carbon emissions and learn to live in a more integrated fashion with earth. But the problem is so diffuse and requires substantive work against powerful forces (government, business, apathy). What I'd like to see more of, when presented with these sorts of proble…

I find it hilarious, that no one mentions the real solution. Of course, once it's spoken it's obvious why it can't even be spoken aloud...

5. Exterminate all stray/unlicensed cats, exterminate all indoor cats if caught outside and fine the registered owners $50,000.

If I posted this on reddit, I'd have maniacs stalking me and issuing death threats. Maybe here it'll only be hatemail.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#265

Post by bobbylarrybobby » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:37 AM UTC

Blackstrat wrote: post #99

Why do we assume that the biosphere should remain largely unchanged? That it should or even could strikes me as extreme vanity. It never has. Long before humans, long before fossil fuels, etc. species came and went. Climate changed continuously. I’ve been watching this for most of my nearly 70 years, the population bomb, the coming ice age, global warming, the Club of Rome, and on and on. None of it ever happened. Fo…

“Your honor, it doesn't matter that I murdered him. He was going to die at some point anyway.”

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#266

Post by zorrotorro » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:44 AM UTC

23B1 wrote: post #35

One thing I dislike the most about these problems – and the information/media/activism around them – is the "solutioning". Yes, we should recycle and reduce carbon emissions and learn to live in a more integrated fashion with earth. But the problem is so diffuse and requires substantive work against powerful forces (government, business, apathy). What I'd like to see more of, when presented with these sorts of proble…

My garden is full of birds. The neighbour forgot to trim his huge tree one year and it was full of bird nests.

Birds are left with no place to live near / in cities if there's so little gardens and trees.

But put some water, grass and trees and birds show up.

Having a water source is also huge. Saw migratory birds too, multiple years.

I don't think it's on purpose or not but our small towns and back yards are just not welcoming for nature. If there's a little room, animals do come.

But real estate is all about room! People need to keep storing stuff. My neighbors on basically all sides keep building sheds and extending their homes. Pretty soon they will have no grass to speak of. But plenty of room for storage.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#267

Post by tlow » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:49 AM UTC

23B1 wrote: post #35

One thing I dislike the most about these problems – and the information/media/activism around them – is the "solutioning". Yes, we should recycle and reduce carbon emissions and learn to live in a more integrated fashion with earth. But the problem is so diffuse and requires substantive work against powerful forces (government, business, apathy). What I'd like to see more of, when presented with these sorts of proble…

Bird friendly yards don’t save birds from predation by human domesticated predators which are uncontrolled — cats.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#268

Post by eastbound » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:50 AM UTC

OO000oo wrote: post #145

wilg wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit confused by this: > Unless governments take action and penalize corporations for the harm they've done and take measures to prevent further harm, we won't be able to stop what's coming. What corporations? It sounds like your neighbors are just individuals? And can you clarify "what's coming"?

The owning/ruling class is directly responsible for the overwhelming majority of the pollution and environmental destruction on the planet. This is not complicated.

The voting class is responsible for always wanting to “save the mother and the orphan” (metaphor, but it’s a “let’s save everyone, allow everyone to prosper, increase wages and let everyone massively live in consumerism” attitude), effectively massively overpopulating the earth, requiring more concrete poured in cities and even more poured concrete in tourism because their home city is unbearable, and all of it requiring, in a word, mass industry.

But somehow it’s the industry that’s at fault.

But “how do you dare say no to more humans!” is somehow at fault. I get it, we can be 10bn if we all ate crickets, but surprise, food is not even the reason why land gets urbanized and overexploited and polluted. Plus, creating more high-density humans, the kind who never sees any patch of earth, the kind who believes travelling across the world to see Kylie Minogue in a casino and buy some flamboyant clothes, is the best way to get voters who understand and care nothing to nature.

Ruling class just executed what you wanted. Guess what, what we want is to leave no human behind, help everyone, and raise them all to high levels of consumerism, whether in the West or in the third world. I really don’t see how the ruling class has any stake in pollution. Every time they try to get us to reduce our lifestyle, we vote them out.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#269

Post by boeingUH60 » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

mptest wrote: post #96

JackFr wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norway’s economy is dependent on fossil fuels which represent over 50% of their exports and 20% of their GDP. The idea that Norway holds some sort of moral high ground with respect to fossil fuels is offensive.

>The idea that Norway holds some sort of moral high ground with respect to fossil fuels is offensive They at the very LEAST deserve the moral high ground of largely distributing the economic benefits of those fossil fuels to their citizens rather than to a dozen billionaires while their nation's infrastructure becomes dilapidated

True, but Norway still has more billionaires per capita than the US, several of them from the oil sector.

Re: A third of North America’s birds have vanished

#270

Post by Thorrez » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 5:51 AM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #194

23B1 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does have a memory of cut height, and I mow it with a reel mower once a week. WRT other things taking over the yard, it's been rainy as hell here past few weeks and so the weeds have deff. sprung up unaccounted for; I just spend a day weeding mechanically, using a weed grabber tool. Both count as my workout. Headphones + podcast = no gym membership required. You'd be interested to know that this month I'll be fini…

>I never have to mow, to > I mow it with a reel mower once a week. Maybe you mean you don't use a 2-stroke engine to mow as the point you were making, but if not, what the huh? There's evangelizing, and then there's just being the crazy guy on the corner making stuff up that sounds like evangelizing. You're leaning towards the latter with these kinds of non-ambiguous contradictory statements.

Was the comment edited? I don't see a comment saying "I never have to mow".