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Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

bbc.com

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Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#31

Post by sukilot »

bpodgursky wrote: post #5
arilotter wrote: post #2

Maybe it has something to do with Botswana's lifting of their ban on elephant hunting, apparently because "The number and high levels of human-elephant conflict and the consequent impact on livelihoods was increasing." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48374880 They subsequently auctioned off permits to hunt elephants. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51413420

> Back in May, Botswana's government ruled out poaching as a reason - noting the tusks had not been removed, according to Phys.org. If the problem was permitted hunting... it wouldn't be a mystery.

It would if instead of being "hunted" in a "normal" way there deaths are due to an over aggressive and risky poisoning campaign that some people would find controversial.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#32

Post by sukilot »

melling wrote: post #14
smallnamespace wrote: post #6

The number of mass animal deaths seems to be greatly increasing in over the last two decades: - Half of all Saiga antelopes (120k) died over a month, 2015 [1] - Recent unexplained dog deaths in Norway, 2019 [2] - The ongoing white nose syndrome epidemic that's ravaging bat populations in North America [3] - Gray whales beaching themselves all along US West Coast, 2019 [4] - Ongoing, mass die-off of about 30% of frog…

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Wait till you find out how many animals are killed by lions and spiders each year.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#33

Post by melling »

j-pb wrote: post #20
melling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

"green energy" if you're insinuating that wind power kills birds, that's something you can totally stop worrying about. A single turbine kills as many birds as a cat per year.

I’m talking about the aggregate number. Buildings, cats, ... Our total footprint. I’m not sure of the exact wind turbine impact. It’s a rapidly growing form of energy.

But that really is my point, people brush aside all the small impacts and we damage the environment in many small ways that really add up

As for birds, the Audubon has some information.

“ Wind turbines kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America, making it the most threatening form of green energy. And yet, it’s also one of the most rapidly expanding energy industries: more than 49,000 individual wind turbines now exist across 39 states.”

https://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe...

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#34

Post by refurb »

melling wrote: post #14
smallnamespace wrote: post #6

The number of mass animal deaths seems to be greatly increasing in over the last two decades: - Half of all Saiga antelopes (120k) died over a month, 2015 [1] - Recent unexplained dog deaths in Norway, 2019 [2] - The ongoing white nose syndrome epidemic that's ravaging bat populations in North America [3] - Gray whales beaching themselves all along US West Coast, 2019 [4] - Ongoing, mass die-off of about 30% of frog…

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Wait, you’re blaming humans when animals get diseases? I mean sure, we could have an impact, but animals are no different than humans, they get ravaged by epidemics.

Think about human life before current medical care. A million different things trying to kill you. No different for an animal.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#35

Post by rdiddly »

[meta] The magic of HN: For a while this was right underneath an article about a bot framework, which made me think it was gonna be a "show HN" along the lines of "Botswana: a new bot framework." (Obviously quite sad what it actually turned out to be.)

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#36

Post by melling »

sukilot wrote: post #32
melling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Wait till you find out how many animals are killed by lions and spiders each year.

An elephant is killed by a human every 15 minutes.

https://www.worldanimalfoundation.com/advocate/wild-earth/pa...

We kill hundreds of millions of animals with our cats.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadkill

Lions kill to eat.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#37

Post by sitkack »

coolspot wrote: post #22
melling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Most logical and somehow most controversial way is to stop human population growth. All big problems - pollution, deforestation, climate change are caused by having too many people on this planet.

Impact per person is still high. We could have a million people on the planet, but if they consume the same as 5 thousand people each, there is no difference.

The farmer in Bangladesh isn't the problem.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#38

Post by coding123 »

refurb wrote: post #34
melling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Wait, you’re blaming humans when animals get diseases? I mean sure, we could have an impact, but animals are no different than humans, they get ravaged by epidemics. Think about human life before current medical care. A million different things trying to kill you. No different for an animal.

Ecologically if we're decimating a type of fish/animal/bird/insect/bacteria that helps keep down another or prop up another fish/animal/bird/insect/bacteria, the downstream effect is endless. Eventually the effect can circle back all the way to humans again.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#39

Post by melling »

refurb wrote: post #34
melling wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

Wait, you’re blaming humans when animals get diseases? I mean sure, we could have an impact, but animals are no different than humans, they get ravaged by epidemics. Think about human life before current medical care. A million different things trying to kill you. No different for an animal.

No, I didn’t blame humans for when animals get diseases.

Humans kill an elephant every 15 minutes. That’s about 100 a day.

At any rate, maybe you should look into our impact on the environment.

Most people have no idea, so we continue to do the damage.

Re: Botswana: Lab tests to solve mystery of hundreds of dead elephants

#40

Post by driverdan »

melling wrote: post #14
smallnamespace wrote: post #6

The number of mass animal deaths seems to be greatly increasing in over the last two decades: - Half of all Saiga antelopes (120k) died over a month, 2015 [1] - Recent unexplained dog deaths in Norway, 2019 [2] - The ongoing white nose syndrome epidemic that's ravaging bat populations in North America [3] - Gray whales beaching themselves all along US West Coast, 2019 [4] - Ongoing, mass die-off of about 30% of frog…

We look for villains but the real problem is simply humans in general. We do so much damage to the world. Plastic, greenhouse gases, overfishing, etc. to support our way of life. Lots of other examples...We kill millions of birds with our pets, buildings, and green energy We need to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.

I downvoted you because they don't know what is killing these elephants. The problems you mention may have nothing to do with it.
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