Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park • Hacker News Board

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#141

Post by jelliclesfarm » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

aklemm wrote: post #36

0xB31B1B wrote: post #10

I hope this inspires our generation. I hope we remember that the way things were recently aren’t they way have to be, or the way things naturally are. We need more pollution controls, clean power, and less driving. I also think we need to reduce how many people visit certain places as the harsh reality is that impact is clearly related to visits. It will mean a shared sacrifice but a healthier planet. Hopefully limit…

Ultimately we need fewer people in order to preserve the natural world. We can start by disincentivizing and de-emphasizing growth.

Starting with growth of population. Ultimately consumption is a function of population.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#142

Post by outworlder » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #94

0xB31B1B wrote: post #10

I hope this inspires our generation. I hope we remember that the way things were recently aren’t they way have to be, or the way things naturally are. We need more pollution controls, clean power, and less driving. I also think we need to reduce how many people visit certain places as the harsh reality is that impact is clearly related to visits. It will mean a shared sacrifice but a healthier planet. Hopefully limit…

> We need more pollution controls, clean power, and less driving. I don't know about the less driving part. Less driving implies higher density living and massive reliance on public transport. I think the higher density and massive reliance on public transport have been one of the big reasons why New York City has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the US and a much higher mortality rate than the rest of the cou…

> I think the higher density and massive reliance on public transport have been one of the big reasons why New York City has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the US and a much higher mortality rate than the rest of the country.

There is a trade-off. NYC is not a plague city, we are suffering a global pandemic. How many times have we had these? Once every few decades? So what about all the other times where things are normal?

Urban sprawl is inefficient and not sustainable in a world with 8 billion people (and growing fast).

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#143

Post by vlunkr » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

option wrote: post #124

viklove wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never been to Yosemite, you? I would like to go one day, but I'd be happy to wait in a gov't queue to help limit human intrusion in wildlife preserves.

been there many times. Now only visit in winters. The solution is really simple - for a fixed supply (e.g park) the prices should just go up enough to lessen the demand

Except we can't really call parks "public land" if we do that. The prices are not meant to be there to make a profit.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#144

Post by option » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

vlunkr wrote: post #143

option wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

been there many times. Now only visit in winters. The solution is really simple - for a fixed supply (e.g park) the prices should just go up enough to lessen the demand

Except we can't really call parks "public land" if we do that. The prices are not meant to be there to make a profit.

invest the surplus into purchasing more land and conservation efforts.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#145

Post by izzydata » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:44 PM UTC

throwaway894345 wrote: post #97

izzydata wrote: post #24

It's nice to know that the earth starts to heal so quickly after humans are gone. Although by the time we are actually gone we might make it uninhabitable for other life too.

This article doesn't demonstrate the earth "healing" (certainly not in a 1-month timeframe), and there isn't a quadrupling in bear population; the headline is a lie as the article later clarifies. The headline is referring to bears spreading out from their habitat to temporarily-vacated human habitats.

But pollution seems to be able to dissipate quickly when abruptly stop polluting.

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#146

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #136

nogabebop23 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think we'd accept population estimates for our cities as "anecdotal observation from random hotel employee" either though.

Right, so the accuracy of that observation is a separate problem.

[deleted]

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#147

Post by salimmadjd » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:49 PM UTC

OT - One of my most personal profound moments was chasing this winter photo [0] and sharing it with a coyote.

I wanted to take a night shot of the Cathedral Rock (that I had seen a few years earlier but didn't take a good photo of it) under the full moon and fresh snow. It took me several years of driving up to Yosemite when there was snow storm and one night I got lucky.

It was around 11 PM when the storm stopped and sky started to clear up. I drove to the spot set my camera and I was able to take two images before the mist disappeared.

While I was taking the long exposure photo all alone in middle of night. There was such profound sense of being so small in a universe so much vaster than what I'm able to comprehend.

Out of nowhere, this coyote quietly walked up to me and stood right next to me looking the same view. I wasn't sure if it was going to bite me or do anything, but it seemed so harmless that I just looked at it and then we both looked at the view. Shortly after the coyote walked away and the mist vaporized, but left something indelible in me.

[0] https://sf.smugmug.com/BW-Landscape/i-tPZrsLz/A

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#148

Post by yoavm » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 6:55 PM UTC

option wrote: post #144

vlunkr wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except we can't really call parks "public land" if we do that. The prices are not meant to be there to make a profit.

invest the surplus into purchasing more land and conservation efforts.

It's also not very public if rich people can go everyday and poor people have to wait a year, isn't it?..

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#149

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 7:00 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #74

hentrep wrote: post #5

As noted in the article, the headline is misleading. The population obviously hasn't quadrupled since Yosemite closed to visitors on March 20th. It is remarkable though to see how quickly wildlife is willing to re-enter areas that have historically been overrun with humans!

If you say that the population of a city has doubled, it mostly means that people moved there, not that they were born there. The headline is fine. All: Obviously the bears weren't born in the last month. Please assume basic intelligence in your fellow readers. Edit: Ok you guys, I surrender. There is no fighting the dreaded title fever. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... .

[deleted]

Re: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

#150

Post by sgustard » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

pathseeker wrote: post #31

0xB31B1B wrote: post #10

I hope this inspires our generation. I hope we remember that the way things were recently aren’t they way have to be, or the way things naturally are. We need more pollution controls, clean power, and less driving. I also think we need to reduce how many people visit certain places as the harsh reality is that impact is clearly related to visits. It will mean a shared sacrifice but a healthier planet. Hopefully limit…

You do know that the bear population hasn't quadrupled in the park since the covid-19 shutdown, right? Bears don't have a gestation period of a month.

The population of my neighborhood has doubled since the shutdown as everyone's kids came back from college. No gestation involved.