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U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

axios.com

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Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#21

Post by WalterBright »

hanniabu wrote: post #15
inter_netuser wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come they don’t investigate WHAT is actually causing this exactly? Yes climate is changing but did it change that much since 80s? What if it’s some pesticide? or some food packaging or something

> What if it’s some pesticide? or some food packaging or something What if it was? I don't expect things to change much with corporate's death grip on the government.

> I don't expect things to change much with corporate's death grip on the government.

Statements like this always imply that if the government ran the businesses (socialism) things like this wouldn't happen. But the evidence is it is worse. The USSR had major problems with their heavily polluting industries, which persist today.

Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#23

Post by Retric »

laurent92 wrote: post #12
_gmnw wrote: post #4

This is super depressing, it's crazy to see how much the flora/fauna have changed locally in my lifetime. It makes me wonder how much worse it actually is. Is looks like most of these were initially listed in the 80s, not too long after Endangered Species Act passed. Is there some sort of time limit before they officially declare something extinct?

I’m appalled by the housing codes (PLU in French). They do require to estimate and compensate the fauna and flora, by providing other shelters in another forrest for example, or manually moving individuals (butterflies, birds). But it will never be the same! Maybe that land was in the middle of a communication axis, maybe it had the right fungus. If you move all the species around, it’s like when you move all the hum…

It’s less about structures than it is other modifications to natural habitats like pollution, cutting forests, draining swamps, introducing invasive species, and growing crops.

Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#25

Post by WalterBright »

_gmnw wrote: post #19
BitwiseFool wrote: post #13

I like to think that the Hawaiian practice of using native bird feathers for large and elaborate cloaks might let us pursue de-extinction through DNA extraction and cloning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBAhu_%CA%BBula Just think about how many individual birds' feathers contributed towards making these. And we know plenty of the yellow feathers are from the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird which was declared extinct. The Kauaʻ…

I love that the answer is always more technology will save us. Whether it's carbon removal advances or cloning, we just look towards future advancements instead of cleaning up our act. I understand that expecting some sort of big shift in how we live is not feasible, it's just a shame.

> I love that the answer is always more technology will save us.

The solution to extincting the whales for whale oil was petroleum. The solution to denuding the landscape of trees was coal. The solution to coal is natural gas, solar, nuclear power.

The only alternative to technology is to shrink the human population by about 95%.

Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#27

Post by alistairSH »

_gmnw wrote: post #4

This is super depressing, it's crazy to see how much the flora/fauna have changed locally in my lifetime. It makes me wonder how much worse it actually is. Is looks like most of these were initially listed in the 80s, not too long after Endangered Species Act passed. Is there some sort of time limit before they officially declare something extinct?

From the article: Many of the species were likely extremely endangered or extinct before the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, meaning that possibly no amount of conservation would have been able to save them

Most of these wouldn't have been around in any sustainable number well before most of us were born. The real question is whether or not conservation efforts are working on species IDed in the 48 years since. I suspect not, given climate change is bigger than any single species.

Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#29

Post by nly »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #13

I like to think that the Hawaiian practice of using native bird feathers for large and elaborate cloaks might let us pursue de-extinction through DNA extraction and cloning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBAhu_%CA%BBula Just think about how many individual birds' feathers contributed towards making these. And we know plenty of the yellow feathers are from the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird which was declared extinct. The Kauaʻ…

Do feathers even contain DNA? Aren't they just keratin? Hair sans follicle can't be used for DNA extraction for example

Re: U.S. declares more than 20 species extinct after exhaustive searches

#30

Post by dmkolobov »

WalterBright wrote: post #21
hanniabu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What if it’s some pesticide? or some food packaging or something What if it was? I don't expect things to change much with corporate's death grip on the government.

> I don't expect things to change much with corporate's death grip on the government. Statements like this always imply that if the government ran the businesses (socialism) things like this wouldn't happen. But the evidence is it is worse . The USSR had major problems with their heavily polluting industries, which persist today.

Comments like that suggest no such thing.

There is plenty of middle ground, including restrictions on corporate election donations, and generally limiting corporate lobbyists access to our legislators.

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