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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

#391

Post by ghoogl »

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…

[dead]

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

#392

Post by sgu999 »

flagrant_taco wrote: post #374
aziaziazi wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about the planet being fine or not, it’s about the planet being a nice place to live for our descents. Your ascends made a nice job to get you a better life. Removing birds species won’t help in that direction, as well as a ton of other direct and indirect stuff we make happening here.

I completely agree and in no way do I like what we are collectively doing to this planet. I try to live a pretty minimal life and limit my impact on the environment. But the fact is that we seem hell-bent on running the planet for our own gain and it would take a miracle at this point for us to pull out of the tailspin, even if we actually had the will. I can only speak to the people I've engaged with in the US and p…

Once you've established that and, luckily, don't fall into the camp of the ones who don't give a damn and just profit. How do you cope? It's a very depressing thought that puts in perspective absolutely everything, including reproduction.

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

#393

Post by sgu999 »

mtsr wrote: post #327
oefnak wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we left them on top, right?

Materials yes, but easily accessible sources of large amounts of energy are mostly gone.

Petrol is renewable, just not at our scale. I'm not sure where all the materials we left on the surface will be in a couple million years however.

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

#394

Post by jorvi »

arcticbull wrote: post #281
bmitc wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think it might have something to do with feral and outdoor cats killing 1.4-3.7 billion birds per year in the US alone. [1] Individuals can do something here I wager, between education and taking responsibility by spaying and neutering. It’s pretty wild to me that cats aren’t mentioned at all in this article since they’re absolutely massacring wild birds. They’re the leading cause of both bird and small mammal deat…

I am pretty pro-climate / nature, but from a pure scientific bent and it is enlightening (and frightening) the frothing rage you get from most “green” people if you point out that having outdoor cats and having kids are two of the most damaging things you can do to your environment.

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

#395

Post by superultra »

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…

Most people don’t want to hear the hard truth, which is that political activism - that is, incentizing large institutions to change behavior - is the single most effective individual action we can take for both things like birding and things like climate change (which are of course linked).

It’s not fun to hear this. It’s a lot more fun and rewarding to build a bird house or start a local bird park. These aren’t net zero effect things but if we’re ultimately concerned about efficiency and impact, they are nominal.

We are clearly at the stage of human civilization where we have to start looking beyond immediate gratification. Is that possible? I don’t know.

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

#396

Post by sgu999 »

dryrun wrote: post #351
1over137 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, you have tree requirements, but you also have mandatory car parking requirements!?

I don't know about the tree requirement, as I don't believe I have that in my hometown, but we do have a mandatory 2 parking slots rule, within the limits of the property. The idea is to ease the parking space (less traffic jams, less people turning around searching for a place, less pollution also), avoid cars being on sidewalks and general security (better view of the surroundings when driving)

Yes, abstracting away that if people can conveniently park and use their car, they will use it for absolutely everything. That's why France is also champion of surburbia in Europe... We're are ruining our landscapes and cities with single family homes, only for that stupid summer bbq we've all seen on every bloody ad since childhood, and PSA's profit of course.

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

#397

Post by mtsr »

zerodensity wrote: post #380
adrianN wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had water and wind power for centuries before the industrial revolution happened.

Your point being?

It’s hard to extract the huge amounts of energy we get from fossil fuels from these sources without having a cheap energy source available to get you started.

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

#399

Post by bryanrasmussen »

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.

>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.

Humans may be the only species to understand the concept of a species, and it seems some members don't care at all if the whole species disappears, as long as 'the planet' is fine. Intelligence may be an evolutionary dead end.

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

#400

Post by eastbound »

1over137 wrote: post #289
eastbound wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it’s common that my city (France) requires 1 thick-trunk tree per ~80 square meter (9m x 9m). Also there is a ratio of concrete-vs-earth of 10% (posh neighborhoods), 15% or 20%, and parking spots per living surface. My yard is 30x50m => 1500sqm => 1275sqm must be kept as earth, I must have 18 trees (thick-trunk) (and 2 parking spots and the street must have 0.5 guest parking spot).

Wait, you have tree requirements, but you also have mandatory car parking requirements!?

Yes, does your country allow building houses without parkings? Both parking and guest parking requirements are in proportion with square meters built.
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