Upon first read of headline I assumed, not unreasonably, that it was a story about how Amazon.com was paying for some wildlife crossings as a kind of community philanthropy.
Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
101–110 of 131 posts
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always wonder how the world would look if the bible had said "Respect the earth and all living beings" instead of “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…"
A lot of Christians argue that it does say exactly that. In Genesis 2:15, God tells Adam to care for the planet: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Of course fundamentalists tend not to see it that way.
A lot of Christians have also argued that god would not allow a species he created to go extinct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction#History_of_scientif...
So perhaps holy books are not the best manuals for environmental stewardship.
Genesis also gives the impression that plant life primarily exists for humans to eat. Humans don't need any encouragement to favor edible plants over inedible, to judge by their tendency to cut down forests to grow crops.
"Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food."
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#103This is the kind of stuff Republicans in the US hate.
"big government wasting their money on a bunch of critters"
I'm pretty left. The one thing I will never understand is how the right does not care about nature. Just insane to me.
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do they tend to clock in on the doomer scale? I'm trying to find alternatives to the regular news that don't feed my doomerism.
I'd actually say climate/environmental news has had an optimism bias because there was a strong strain of thinking reporting on how dreadful certain things are would cause people to give up. I'd say Mongabay is mostly focused on solutions but does not shy away from covering environmental injustices. If you want something more hopeful, it's hard to suggest news in general, but I really like Shareable's focus on commun…
Mossy Earth have, and sponsor some wonderful work (and their videos are great) though it’s worth nothing that they are quite explicit that they are not a charity, nor are they a non-profit. It’s owned by the founders, and operates much like a charitable foundation in terms of their mission - this is outlined in their transparency page here:
https://www.mossy.earth/methodologies/business-ethos
Also in their FAQs:
Is Mossy Earth a charity? We are a social enterprise incorporated as a private limited company in the United Kingdom with a for profit structure. In other words, we are a business and the membership is a payment for a service we provide, not a donation. You pay us to rewild nature, and we do our best to make sure that your money has the biggest possible impact.
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always wonder how the world would look if the bible had said "Respect the earth and all living beings" instead of “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…"
There are infinite alterations you can make to the bible to make it more moral, like remove the parts where innocent people are punished on someone else’s behalf (raped, stoned, killed) or commanded to enslaved others and take virgins as the spoils of war. Thankfully over the centuries some people have used their human moral intuitions to gloss over some of the worst parts. But would’ve been much nicer to not have th…
tbh that’s my biggest problem with it, the cherry picking.
Either everything is true or nothing, but once they start cherry picking the whole thing falls apart step by step
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#106Just wanna say, Monga Bay is an incredible publication that doesn't get enough attention. As someone who follows a lot of environmental news, they routinely cover important topics and do original journalism on stories I hear nowhere else. Their YouTube channel is full of extremely high quality videos that often get less than 2k views. I would highly recommend checking them out https://www.youtube.com/@MongabayTV/vide…
403'd :(
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#107This is the kind of stuff Republicans in the US hate. "big government wasting their money on a bunch of critters" I'm pretty left. The one thing I will never understand is how the right does not care about nature. Just insane to me.
Yes, you would think 'conservatives' would be big on conserving "god's creation", but no. Apparently having 'dominion' over nature means killing it, not looking after it.
Also, the disconnect between Jesus's politics and what the Christian Right practices is pretty jarring.
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the idea of more opportunities to cross is good but the pricetag is absurd still. After all, they are terraforming a hillside. I think it is a little misplaced though. We assume animals need this to cross but it seems they can take a regular old bridge just fine. You can probably build a cheap "animal only" overpass, e.g. maybe a light load mesh metal or plank bridge or somesuch, for a fraction the cost and o…
Do you know how much accidents cost? $100M is nothing in comparison over the long term. Plus this was a 10 lane overpass and a unique build during a high inflation period. That is not simple terraforming amigo.
So build more bridges and fencing along the highway for less money then if that is about the accident rate?
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the idea of more opportunities to cross is good but the pricetag is absurd still. After all, they are terraforming a hillside. I think it is a little misplaced though. We assume animals need this to cross but it seems they can take a regular old bridge just fine. You can probably build a cheap "animal only" overpass, e.g. maybe a light load mesh metal or plank bridge or somesuch, for a fraction the cost and o…
Instead of guessing you could look into the research literature on animal road crossings. Its a surprisingly large area of study because it is hard to get animals to use these constructions. Maybe they did a bad and expensive job, but you have nothing to base that on at all.
I base it on the mountain lions in question already urbanized enough to walk on sidewalks in los angeles. I mean there were people seriously claiming the griffith park mountain lion was somehow isolated to griffith park, and yet it was showing up on people's ring cameras miles away from the park. I think a lot of people assume that animals are only found in "nature" and don't know what to do in an unnatural setting. They can figure it out. Look at your housecat figuring out your entire home, and realize this is basically a smaller brained mountain lion.
Re: Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the idea of more opportunities to cross is good but the pricetag is absurd still. After all, they are terraforming a hillside. I think it is a little misplaced though. We assume animals need this to cross but it seems they can take a regular old bridge just fine. You can probably build a cheap "animal only" overpass, e.g. maybe a light load mesh metal or plank bridge or somesuch, for a fraction the cost and o…
Dunning Kruger effect at work.
Why discuss anything if there could be a chesterson's fence right?