The War on Estonian Forests (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: The War on Estonian Forests (2022)

#111

Post by watwut » Wed, Jul 10, 2024, 12:30 PM UTC

kristjank wrote: post #41

watwut wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eastern countries added to the union benefit from Union. They are the ones who are given quite a lot of money. They are not squeezed, they are directly financially benefiting.

They do receive a lot money through the funds, cheaper loans and investments, but it has to be compared to the money their counterparts earn by exploiting the much cheaper workforce, resources and energy prices in the global east. The minimum wages discussed in the article are at a 1:3 ratio. It's trivial to funnel some money back if you've managed to gain 3 foreign workers for the price of 1 domestic. There is a wor…

That workforce was even cheaper prior joining the Union. Quite a lot unemployed.

You know why people travel for bigger salaries? Because they want bigger salaries.

Re: The War on Estonian Forests (2022)

#112

Post by treprinum » Thu, Jul 11, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

jFriedensreich wrote: post #110

treprinum wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should revisit your knowledge of how things are done in Germany and see the clear cuts popping up everywhere, even in Taunus mountains next to some of the richest parts of the country.

you should just fly (aka google maps sattelite view) over germany and fly over estonia to see what i mean. i am not saying this practice does not exist in germany but the difference in extend is just immediately visible. Its probably the most obvious difference from a brids eye.

That's how I found out - I used to fly in the latest MS flight sim over parts of Eastern Europe and after one satellite imagery update I noticed clear cuts everywhere, it was really disturbing. And then I learned that Germany has a similar issue albeit on a smaller scale.

Re: The War on Estonian Forests (2022)

#113

Post by indoordin0saur » Thu, Jul 11, 2024, 7:14 PM UTC

ahartmetz wrote: post #106

indoordin0saur wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When visiting Germany I went through the Black Forest area. I was expecting something like you'd see in British Colombia or Northwestern USA. Instead what I saw was forestry plantations of monocrop non-native trees and clearcut patches of forest covering entire mountainsides. I tried looking up where an example of old growth forest can be seen in the area and apparently they simply do not exist.

Keep in mind how different the population densities are. In the Middle Ages, all (accessible) German forests were harvested until not much was left. Most still existing forests have been re-planted and managed to produce wood since then. There are exceptions in the form of nature preserves like Naturpark Pfälzerwald. By the way, there are some fun docmentaries about the hard work in forestry a couple of decades or ev…

Oh yeah, I'm not blaming them at all, it's just you can't really compare Europe's wilderness at all to places like the US' or especially Canada's. I think a lot of Europeans aren't even aware that what they consider pristine nature would be considered low quality second-growth forest in other countries.