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A third of North America’s birds have vanished

nautil.us

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

#301

Post by soundsgoodtome »

bmitc wrote: post #114
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…

Individuals cannot solve this. I leave trees up, dead or alive. I plant native plants. I remove invasive species. I only keep invasive bushes if they house birds. I don't spray for insects except around the base of my house, I don't kill off chipmunks, voles, squirrels, rabbits, etc. How can this compete with the dozens of neighbors in a half-mile radius that have removed in excess of hundreds of trees, big ones like…

Right, but that won’t happen until things become sufficiently painful enough (for the masses or corporate profits or both). Not ideal, but that’s the world we live in.

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

#302

Post by 1over137 »

leeoniya wrote: post #60
tspike wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t forget that if you don’t saturate your lawn with poison, coat it with industrial fertilizer, water it from depleted aquifers and burn that gasoline to cut it, you run the risk of getting fined or being foreclosed upon.

> you run the risk of getting fined or being foreclosed upon yes! i was fined because my dandelions crossed the magical 8" threshold for a week a few seasons ago. i happily paid it of course. you see, i had saved up the $20 by then with all the money i didnt spend on weed killer and fertilizer. i'm just the worst person in my HOA. the irony, of course, is that immediately behind my 0.2 acre property is a massive wetl…

What is HOA here?

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

#304

Post by bmitc »

flagrant_taco wrote: post #248
jjallen wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah when 99% of people don't care about this sort of issue or are unaware of it and keep cutting trees down it doesn't matter if a few people are doing all they can. I go home to my parents' neighborhood in Florida and more and more of the trees are disappearing in a 100-year-old neighborhood. It's not even new houses being built. These are 50-year old houses. There is 1 house in the entire neighborhood (has to be a…

The planet will bounce back one way or another, short of a global nuclear war I don't see how we can do more damage than the asteroid that took out the dinausaurs. Humans just may not be here to enjoy it if we can't get out of the way and stop consuming natural resources for the sake Of GDP growth.

Of what use is this argument? It always comes up. The entire planet is suffering.

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

#305

Post by ekianjo »

LastTrain wrote: post #56
ekianjo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats what happens in countries with powerful welfare states. People will default to think that the government should solve all of their problems

Sure, but it’s even worse in the non-nanny states

How so?

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

#306

Post by bmitc »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #253
flagrant_taco wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The planet will bounce back one way or another, short of a global nuclear war I don't see how we can do more damage than the asteroid that took out the dinausaurs. Humans just may not be here to enjoy it if we can't get out of the way and stop consuming natural resources for the sake Of GDP growth.

Right, no one cares about the planet, and rightfully so. The planet will be fine. It's humankind that's at stake.

> The planet will be fine. It's humankind that's at stake.

This is oft repeated, but it fails short of anything meaningful. The planet, as in a rock floating around in space, will be fine, yes. But what about the untold amount of species of plants and animals that are suffering and will continue to suffer in our wake?

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

#307

Post by bmitc »

debaserab2 wrote: post #292
jjallen wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah when 99% of people don't care about this sort of issue or are unaware of it and keep cutting trees down it doesn't matter if a few people are doing all they can. I go home to my parents' neighborhood in Florida and more and more of the trees are disappearing in a 100-year-old neighborhood. It's not even new houses being built. These are 50-year old houses. There is 1 house in the entire neighborhood (has to be a…

It's common in a 50+ year old neighborhood for trees to be diseased or dead or have a root system that is growing into the foundation of buildings or other infrastructure. It's not that people don't want trees, it's that people don't want trees that are a liability during the next storm (which I'm guessing is especially true in a place like florida).

But just think about that. Imagine someone just up and moving into your yard, without your permission, and then they decide to bulldoze your house because it's getting in the way of .

I do understand the practicalities and constraints of homeownership, but I do wish we, as a species, did a bit more thinking ahead and had more empathy for literally anything else besides us.

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

#308

Post by therealdrag0 »

aperson_hello wrote: post #27
leeoniya wrote: post #5

climate change is always framed in terms of how many coastal people it will affect when sea levels rise a few meters. the canadian wildfires going on now. the only thing i hear about it in the media is how bad the air quality will be in this or that city, or how many oil/gas/logging jobs will be lost. the amount wildlife that is being displaced or burned alive? fuck it! did you hear that 10k humans had to be evacuate…

Who are we kidding...It'll recover within a century or so without humans. Millions of years for birds to re-evolve, but general recovery happens pretty quickly!! We're getting bombarded with messages from the fossil fuel industry like "recycle," "ban nuclear," "ban straws," "ban plastic bags" that distract from the industry's real impact. If we want to solve the problem, we have to focus on the core issue: burning fo…

Extinct animals won’t recover in a few centuries and humans are way more adaptable than most animals.

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

#309

Post by bmitc »

thebigjewbowski wrote: post #249
nemo wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah a lot of inhabitants of a healthy habitat are labeled culturally as "pests" and "pest control" does a lot of damage to native plants, insects, birds, and other wildlife. I go out identifying insects under my porch lights or out in the yard submitting iNaturalist observations. There' an amazing, diverse natural world out there that can be accessible in a local yard that's a native habitat. I'm up to 400 species a…

> But in reality there's a lot of people who see any snake, insect, or arachnid, and respond with "kill it with fire." Did you have a natural (or learned) revulsion for bugs? If so, how did you get over it? I’ve gotten over mice completely, never felt right killing one in the first place. I’ve been trying to make peace with bugs; I unplugged my mosquito zappers last summer shortly after getting them when I realized t…

Hang a bat house. :)

I have seriously considered it, but I do wonder about the neighborhood response. Although I don't think there's any danger and that there's actually more danger from the mosquitoes carrying every disease under the sun, I'm not sure if it's a battle I want to take on if someone has an issue with it. Once the bats are in place, I believe it requires engaging with state wildlife authorities to relocate them. Maybe I'm being too paranoid. I mean, there are already bats in the area anyway. They probably just have a hard time finding shelter.

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

#310

Post by bmitc »

tguvot wrote: post #231
bmitc wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I use a battery powered mower, but because the fescue and clover retain so much moisture and has grown so thick, it has been really struggling (I think any mower would really) to mulch except at the highest height setting. I let it grow unhindered in the spring, and since it's been raining like crazy, I can't stay on top of it. (I should note that my lawn is probably only a 1/4 of my property.) What reel mowe…

try to use some PGR. Like primo-maxx (or generic). it should make things easier

What are the environmental repercussions of that? I don't do any chemicals, weed killer, or chemical fertilizers. All I do, to feed the soil and not the grass, is dolomitic lime and organic fertilizer.
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