Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard an article on the radio measuring the proteins in trees. Apparently much of it in the Pacific Northwest forests comes from salmon carcasses that bears fetch from the stream and discard. I have no idea how they'd determine the source. Maybe I was paying attention to the road when they explained. So if the fish disappear, maybe the forest does, too.
Ummm, trees incorporating protein from animals? I'm not sure that's how it works... Nitrogen at best, but not protein...
One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
101–110 of 154 posts
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#102What was the name of the recent book, which describes nature in its pristine state? Not "Paradise Lost".
Sounds interesting!
I don't think you're after The World Without Us but I guess it's on the same, ish, topic. Looking forward to hearing the correct answer.
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
My idea is to preserve nature so it can safe us. If there are large areas where no human being has access to, nature will thrive and we can then use that area to take whatever we need, whatever has been extinct through us and grow it back. Think of it as a safe for your most valuable things, in this case, nature
Islands as Noe's ark. Why not. It's a good complement to old seeds data banks like kokopelli's.
Exactly. It won't save many from dying, once some regions start collapsing, but it'll help us to survive as a species
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#104So, honest question: Why are invasive species like the gigantic asian carp so reviled, when they seem to be quite successful animals, thriving in an otherwise unforgiving environment? I get that invasive species can stress their environment until it collapses and ruins even their own capacity to thrive or even survive, but sometimes I get the sense that asian carp are denegrated because they annoy humans by jumping o…
They are an ecological destroyer and they don’t taste good
bad taste is a evolutionary trait that has kept them in the gene pool
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#105One of the more depressing things to read, is how back in the early days of America, one could just reach into the river/sea and grab a fish. E.g. lobsters were once so plentiful that native americans used them as fertilizer[0]. And there's photographic evidence of overfishing too. [1] is a nice NPR piece about how the largest catch of the year at a particular spot in Florida has been dwindling. [0] - http://www.gma.…
Equally terrible is the same comparison about bugs, but it's easier to make people flip because it happened in our lifetime (recent and so fast!): When I was young, I was driving a small bike. Having mosquitoes or flies clouds was a common occurrence on the road and the best motivator to wear a helmet for a youngster not bothered by security. Nowadays, I'm still driving a bike, although a bigger one. But I encounter…
">>But I encounter a bug cloud maybe once a year. Our garden is also quite silent"
Where most people live, virtually everything is covered with concrete and whatever is left green is routinely sprayed with lots of chemicals.
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, caddis flies, crane flies, are all substantially reduced in number. Just gone, by comparison.
People bitch about wasps, but there are almost none now a days. I used to see plenty. The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc. Those don't pollinate plants, they don't eat plant parasites , they pollute the water and air, and because we feed them with so much crap, even the land instead of fertilizing it.
>The only species that thrive are the opportunist ones that tied their fate to the humans: cockroaches, fruit flies, dogs, cattle, chicken, etc.
rats :-(
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#107One of the more depressing things to read, is how back in the early days of America, one could just reach into the river/sea and grab a fish. E.g. lobsters were once so plentiful that native americans used them as fertilizer[0]. And there's photographic evidence of overfishing too. [1] is a nice NPR piece about how the largest catch of the year at a particular spot in Florida has been dwindling. [0] - http://www.gma.…
>>E.g. lobsters were once so plentiful that native americans used them as fertilizer
Plentiful for that population, at that time. We're now 7+BILLION people and a lot of them are rich enough to demand fish, lobster and so on. Just in China we have millions of newly minted millionaires. Not to mention their middle class. Maine lobster is good? So get me some.
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#108One of the more depressing things to read, is how back in the early days of America, one could just reach into the river/sea and grab a fish. E.g. lobsters were once so plentiful that native americans used them as fertilizer[0]. And there's photographic evidence of overfishing too. [1] is a nice NPR piece about how the largest catch of the year at a particular spot in Florida has been dwindling. [0] - http://www.gma.…
Equally terrible is the same comparison about bugs, but it's easier to make people flip because it happened in our lifetime (recent and so fast!): When I was young, I was driving a small bike. Having mosquitoes or flies clouds was a common occurrence on the road and the best motivator to wear a helmet for a youngster not bothered by security. Nowadays, I'm still driving a bike, although a bigger one. But I encounter…
Don't forget "solving world hunger" which means causing a human population boom, exasperating the above problems.
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current point of concern is that I can go out and sit all evening without a mosquito bite. That was unheard of even 30 years ago when I was a kid. You'd be lucky if you didn't have one for every minute you spent outside. I think the insects are dying, and it's frightening. Second item would be watching the bison migrate on the plains. Literally horizon to horizon, a hundred thousand individuals or more in a group.…
I never understood why such changes -- dramatic as they may be -- were seen as a cause of concern, except in cases where the changes affected our food supply. Humans may be responsible for the decimation or outright extinction of entire species, but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynam…
From a purely objective concern, if the a perfect storm of global warming, pollution, massively reduced fish stocks, elimination of pollinators and ocean oxygen depletion run to their end game, humanity will suffer decimation.
Due to nutrient pollution of the ocean, large dead zones are spreading, these are zones without enough oxygen to support life caused by nitrogen and phosphorous pollution. 70% of the earths oxygen is produced by marine plants. Forests produce most of the rest and we are cutting them down at an accelerating rate.
So from an objective point of view, not enough oxygen is a pragmatic cause for concern. Looking at it from the perspective of nature, species evolve to survive, it is their prime directive. We are actually doing a pretty good job of working against this directive to our species own detriment.
Re: One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
My current point of concern is that I can go out and sit all evening without a mosquito bite. That was unheard of even 30 years ago when I was a kid. You'd be lucky if you didn't have one for every minute you spent outside. I think the insects are dying, and it's frightening. Second item would be watching the bison migrate on the plains. Literally horizon to horizon, a hundred thousand individuals or more in a group.…
I never understood why such changes -- dramatic as they may be -- were seen as a cause of concern, except in cases where the changes affected our food supply. Humans may be responsible for the decimation or outright extinction of entire species, but isn't that how Nature works? Nature has encountered countless extinctions before us (where's the Megalodon now?) and at least 5 mass extinctions, so why should this dynam…
Others are making the good general case argument, but I will add one other thing: sometimes there's actually some very positive "side benefits" that you get from having a biodiverse ecosystem around, that you may not initially think about as far as the general conservation case is concerned.
Examples that come to mind immediately include the huge number of medicines that have been derived by isolating compounds derived from plants, an area which we are probably far from done exploring. Another more specific case I can think of, is how one of the most important compounds in molecular biology today (Taq polymerase) came from bacteria found in the Lower Geyser Basin at Yellowstone. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermus_aquaticus)