101–110 of 141 posts
Is the motive behind the felling still unknown?
The motive behind many crimes is never found out. Turns out that even if the accused did have a logical motive for committing the crime, they tend to not reveal it to investigators to have a better chance at not going to prison.
"It may well make no logical sense, as many have pointed out, to be more upset at the felling of one picturesque tree than at the destruction of whole rainforests. Yet, that is how humans are, for better or worse: we connect emotionally with individuals. The capacity of trees to embody a sort of individuality — to be anthropomorphised, if you like — may go some way towards explaining why our ancestors held them sacred. It is surely the reason why in our own day trees are amongst the most potent symbols of humanity’s unbalanced relationship with nature: dumb victims of our rapacious disregard for living beings with a much longer life cycle than our own."
— https://thecritic.co.uk/sycamore-gap-and-britains-sacred-tre...
"Opposition to felling ancient trees is a peculiar cause because it seems to unite progressives and conservatives. There is something about taking the life of a being far older than the span of any human life, which has taken many centuries to reach such a size and whose roots and branches support entire ecosystems in miniature, that seems morally repugnant to many. [...] "It may well make no logical sense, as many h…
I see this with myself, not just with living beings but with anything historical. I noticed myself getting much more upset with ISIS' destruction of ancient sites than human lives, which was quite shocking.
I once decided it would be a cool idea to walk in straight line across England and began wondering how I would plan it. For some reason I noticed and realised my half way mark was a few meters away from this tree. As in if you look at a map the tree sits in the center of England where its diameter is at its narrowest - check it out. An odd thing. Looking at the topography from google maps and I remember thinking what…
Not quite a straight line nor the shortest, but a well known route. Someone posted about it on HN within the last couple of weeks.
There was a local project here on the railway lines. As part of the project they had to cut down a long row of giant pine trees in the park next to the train line. So when the railway project was complete I took my 8 year old son to the native nursery about bought ten mountain ash seedlings. Together we planted them in a long line in the park. Here's pictures of how big mountain ash gets: https://wilderlands.earth/st…
In Portland they recently started cutting trees down to widen the road for extended bus and bike lanes. That spawned a conversation that we've lost a third of our tree cover due to various things and the city hasn't kept up. That week I started burying cones from my Douglas Firs, which aren't nearly as big as the Mountain Ashes you planted, but are fairly large. With any luck I'll have five in my yard.
Just want to note, this is definitively not true. Coastal Dougs routinely reach 100m in height, and there's some anecdotal evidence[0] of a Doug which would likely have been the tallest tree ever recorded, if we believe the measurements putting it at 142m in height (and 10m in circumference!).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of chopping down trees to build a bike lane, they should simply take lanes away from the road and make those into protected bike lanes. This has multiple benefits: 1) leave the trees alone, and keep the street looking nice, 2) not waste more space on vehicles, 3) make biking safer, 4) discourage people from using cars by making it more inconvenient for them. The other thing they can do is to restrict parking:…
Waging war on cars is waging war on the economy. The economy is our life support system. Aggressively pushing bikes as the only future of transport is kind of ableist. Fine for healthy young people, in flat areas, on dry days. But not for the elderly, disabled, or unfit. And public transport options need to be safe and comfortable. That doesn't fit with currently-trendy soft on crime policies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The motive behind many crimes is never found out. Turns out that even if the accused did have a logical motive for committing the crime, they tend to not reveal it to investigators to have a better chance at not going to prison.
Regardless of conviction, does having a motive for a crime typically increase the sentence? I would have thought it would be more likely to be the other way round.
But before conviction, not having a motive furthers certain defenses, and those possibilities can be useful in the context of plea bargaining.
Is the motive behind the felling still unknown?
Two people have been arrested, and there is a ton of speculation but those suspected deny having anything to do with it. https://www.perthnow.com.au/travel/europe/sycamore-gap-was-t... (that's an Australian site but I've yet to see a UK one with the same level of balance and detail)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of chopping down trees to build a bike lane, they should simply take lanes away from the road and make those into protected bike lanes. This has multiple benefits: 1) leave the trees alone, and keep the street looking nice, 2) not waste more space on vehicles, 3) make biking safer, 4) discourage people from using cars by making it more inconvenient for them. The other thing they can do is to restrict parking:…
Waging war on cars is waging war on the economy. The economy is our life support system. Aggressively pushing bikes as the only future of transport is kind of ableist. Fine for healthy young people, in flat areas, on dry days. But not for the elderly, disabled, or unfit. And public transport options need to be safe and comfortable. That doesn't fit with currently-trendy soft on crime policies.