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Where have all the insects gone?

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Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#281

Post by saberdancer »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #272
0x0nyandesu wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is he going to really profit on? Guy is 65. Has said he's not leaving much to his kids. So I guess it's all going to a trust????

He is the single largest owner of farmland in the US. There are many ways to profit from this, with some options being to rent it or sell it. I don't really know why billionaires do what they do, but he is investing in all that land for some reason.

If I was one of the richest man on the planet, I would also invest in various fields, which would probably mean I end up one of the single largest owners in that field (through sheer fact I am one of the richest people on the planet).

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#282

Post by salynchnew »

abakker wrote: post #30
tw04 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We can't live like native Americans with iPhones. We probably could in the next 100 years through automation, massive reduction in population, and making things to last instead of making things to be replaced. Building a society whose values aren't based around never-ending growth. We won't, but we could.

massive reduction in population is a very ugly thing. There's basically no good way to do that.

Raise the standard of living, and people have less babies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility

From the article: "In a 1974 United Nations population conference in Bucharest, Karan Singh, a former minister of population in India, illustrated this trend by stating 'Development is the best contraceptive.'"

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#284

Post by ornornor »

King-Aaron wrote: post #262
termau wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

crows are super clever, when I drive brisbane to sydney they'll be in the middle of the road eating kangaroos and other dead animals, they dont fly away they just hop to the right of the line so I dont squish them at 100 miles an hour, watch me go by then go back to what they are doing - they actually know which side of the road I'll go past and that they will be safe.

If you're doing 160kph in QLD you must have no fear of the highway patrol, haha!

The crows are on his side. The highway patrol knows better than to mess with someone who’s with the crows.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#285

Post by throwaway0a5e »

nicoffeine wrote: post #74
nickff wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, the capitalist countries have been much less-polluted ('cleaner') and more environmentally friendly in general than the communist countries. With respect to 'socialist' countries, the correlations depend on exactly how you define socialism, and which countries you include/exclude.

Totally and completely false. The UK in 1930 was much more polluted than the USSR and China at that time. Making that argument today is possible if you ignore moving practically all manufacturing to a country that happens to be communist. There would be far less pollution in China if they weren't making all of our stuff. It's actually a good example of how unchecked capitalism is always looking for new ways to extern…

>The UK in 1930 was much more polluted than the USSR and China at that time.

And how industrialized were the USSR and China in 1930?

When a larger part of your economy is agrarian you're going to be incapable of polluting the shit out of everything to the same extent as more industrialized nations.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#286

Post by agumonkey »

makeitdouble wrote: post #259
agumonkey wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of birds are getting way closer to our windows than they used to be (lived in the same place for 40 years). These aren't angry bird (npi), usually they keep their distance with humans, but now they come very close very often.. I cannot not interpret it as a sign of risk taking facing higher needs.

We've seen the same phenomenon in multiple directions. Crows were usually near habitations, and we've seen a lot more deeper in the forest, and smaller birds that were hiding in the forest have been more adventurous and come to our balcony. I don't know how good/bad of a thing it is, but surely there seems to be something going on. For what it's worth, people also seem to have rediscovered the forest, and I hope will…

It might be something else, like temperature or wind making them move. Or maybe it's there food sources drying up. I can't say. I should ask knowledgeable people.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#287

Post by [deleted] »

rsj_hn wrote: post #267
trutannus wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This won't be popular, but remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans? It was trendy for a bit to spitball about how much better off the environment would be with an x% decrease in human population as a result of a global death event. In fact, "we need a new plague" was a running joke on online environmentalist forms for a while. Funny how an act…

> remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans No. I recommend finding better friends, or choosing different online reading material. We live in an age of information abundance as well as opinion abundance. Your attention is valuable, and there are better communities and reading options out there.

[deleted]

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#288

Post by trutannus »

rsj_hn wrote: post #267
trutannus wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This won't be popular, but remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans? It was trendy for a bit to spitball about how much better off the environment would be with an x% decrease in human population as a result of a global death event. In fact, "we need a new plague" was a running joke on online environmentalist forms for a while. Funny how an act…

> remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans No. I recommend finding better friends, or choosing different online reading material. We live in an age of information abundance as well as opinion abundance. Your attention is valuable, and there are better communities and reading options out there.

This reply is oddly presumptuous for no good reason.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#289

Post by papito »

Jensson wrote: post #124
papito wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's too bad. "Corporations are people", my friend, but they can also pump unlimited amounts of money into politics, creating their own laws. Let's not just call out "the government". They are the government. And, no, it's not tinfoil stuff, we know what's going on.

Politicians taking bribes from companies for creating laws is an example of politicians using their power to enrich themselves. Such politicians will use their power to enrich themselves regardless of what system you use, making such people run the entire economy would guarantee a disaster. What you need is a stronger separation of capital and state.

There is no separation of capital and state in the United States anymore. It's just more "gentle". What we have is "broken capitalism".

We have a system where government figures trade as if they were teenagers on Robinhood, then disappearing through revolving doors to work for the companies they were supposed to "regulate", we have CEOs running companies into the ground while walking away with riches. This ain't capitalism. It's something.

Re: Where have all the insects gone?

#290

Post by rsj_hn »

trutannus wrote: post #288
rsj_hn wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> remember just 10 years ago when people were talking about the environmental advantages of a mass die-off of humans No. I recommend finding better friends, or choosing different online reading material. We live in an age of information abundance as well as opinion abundance. Your attention is valuable, and there are better communities and reading options out there.

This reply is oddly presumptuous for no good reason.

I would think praising democide would be the presumptuous part of that exchange.
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