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Why North Korea is a safe haven for birds
- MattSteelblade 10y agoIt's one of those things that makes perfect sense, but you probably didn't think about.
- aab0 10y agoIt's probably up there with the Korean DMZ, Chernobyl, and Bikini Atoll as unintentional nature preserves.
- prions 10y agoI'm a engineer inspecting an unrelated project next to a superfund site in NJ (Toms River). The superfund site is now 22,000 acres of untouched wilderness. The municipal workers say it's now filled with all sorts of wildlife including coyote and turkeys.
- 0xfeba 10y agoI recently read an article describing how NK was way more willing to get on board climate change proposals than, say, curbing their Nuclear ambitions. This is because they're peninsula is particularly sensitive to ocean and climate change.
- aab0 10y agoClimate change also serves to hobble their rich industrialized enemies and provide an excuse for building nuclear plants.
- cjensen 10y agoIn the US, shorebirds declined tremendously not because of habitat loss, but because of market hunting. [1] For example, in the South San Francisco Bay, market hunters killed everything in sight and shipped the birds to San Francisco for food. Around 1900, SF consumed around 250,000 ducks annually. Considering the food situation in North Korea, I'm really surprised those flocks exist. Perhaps it is due to a lack of shotguns outside of the military? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_hunters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_hunters [2] PDF http://downloads.ice.ucdavis.edu/sfestuary/skinner/archive1007.PDF http://downloads.ice.ucdavis.edu/sfestuary/skinner/archive10...
- cdr 10y agoNow shorebirds are declining because of overfed geese which we don't shoot enough of. http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1028942/farmland-buffet-helps-snow-goose-population-boom http://netnebraska.org/article/news/1028942/farmland-buffet-...
- dsfyu404ed 10y agoIt's a shame since they'd be practically impossible to miss on their landing approach and are very hesitant to take flight once on the ground. Wouldn't be hard to fill a freezer in one go.
- reactor4 10y agoThe thing is that if you shoot them when they're on the ground, say with a .22 caliber, then they will move because they'll know they're not safe. You will fill a freezer in one go and that will be it for this year, they'll move on their migratory path. And plenty of hunters miss them on their landing approach, it's not so easy for people who shoot one or twice a year when they go on their hunting trip.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThat makes a pretty good case for farming the geese as well. Every year, near thanks giving, I listen to the food banks implore people to donate turkeys for the meals they prepare for the homeless and poor. And every year I hear this while walking around piles of Canadian Goose crap from birds that have stopped being migratory having found enough food and comfort in the Bay Area. And every year I think, "There is a very simple solution to this problem, at least for the short term."
- gozur88 10y agoI've never eaten one, but I've read they taste terrible.
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- apecat 10y ago"Stalinism - Lovely weather for ducks"
- tedks 10y ago*Juche
- mark_edward 10y agoJoseph Stalin is well known for the lack of industrial development under his leadership?
- sverige 10y agoPapa Joe was no environmentalist. There are still places that were completely wrecked by his policies 80 years ago.
- apecat 10y agoYep. To overclarify: my post was a joke about the (surface level) environmental benefits of an unde(r)veloped economy within North-Korea's current form of bizarro pseudo-stalinism.
- jmnicolas 10y agoThis is probably the first time in my life that I read something not negative about North Korea. Western propaganda is not what it used to be ;-)
- lisivka 10y agoIMHO, you should use term "Planet Earth Propaganda", because more than half of our planet is against NK. ;-)
- mikeash 10y agoEh, even this ends up being pretty negative. It's basically, "Birds thrive because North Korea is a total shithole, which leaves lots of undeveloped shoreline."
- gardano 10y agoThat was my first thought too. Would it be even possible in today's world to have a country that is purposefully underdeveloped/feudal, but without an oppressive regime?
- samatman 10y agoBhutan would appear to fit the bill.
- sverige 10y agoNope. Bhutan created a mess of a refugee crisis when they evicted all Nepalese-speaking citizens in 1990. [0], [1] There are still some refugees living in camps in Nepal, and it took over 10 years before some Western countries agreed to take them in. They are still slowly being resettled. I know some of these refugees who spent the first 17 or 18 years of their lives in squalid camp conditions. They are lovely people. [0] http://www.oocities.org/bhutaneserefugees/forcedeviction.html http://www.oocities.org/bhutaneserefugees/forcedeviction.htm... [1] http://www.hurights.or.jp/wcar/E/doc/other/Refugee/AHURA.htm http://www.hurights.or.jp/wcar/E/doc/other/Refugee/AHURA.htm
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- gesman 10y agoAll non-korean bird photographers are bearded. Is that's where SD cards with real pictures are hidden?
- myth_drannon 10y agoOn a related note, during the Chinese cultural revolution Mao declared war on sparrows(Great Sparrow Campaign) and billions of birds were killed (not only sparrows...). It's considered as one of that catalysts of The Great Famine that killed 15 million Chinese. They had to import birds from Canada and USSR. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
- jonsterling 10y agoChief, this was not the cultural revolution, this was the Great Leap Forward. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution started in 1966.
- ascotan 10y agoSorry, I simply can't trust anything that comes out of the DPRK. Everything over there is a propaganda photo op. >>> But we were able to show local people shorebirds through our telescopes. North Korea regular issues propaganda about staying away from foreigners. The fact that these guys were 'mingling' with the locals tells me that the whole thing was staged. For all we know these guys visited the one place in the country where there are birds, and they were then instructed to write how the 'great leader' is protecting the environment for animals elsewhere the country. Notice how the kids in the photo seem well dressed and well feed....
- benbristow 10y agoI don't know what someone who is 'well feed' looks like.
- emodendroket 10y agoAnd I suppose the birds are actually robots?
- aufheben 10y agoIt seems to me that the situation is very fragile and worrisome, mainly for 2 reasons. China once (1958-1962) had a Four Pests Campaign (除四害运动), which defined four pests to be eliminated: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. In less than 1 year, nearly 2 billion sparrows were systematically exterminated. I'm not saying that North Korea will do the same thing, but a starving country with a totalitarianism government is one of the worst threats to nature, as China has clearly shown. On the other hand, should the political situation change in North Korea (in any direction), nature will as well be the first to suffer, as China has clearly shown.
- emodendroket 10y agoWell I think the situation in the US, Europe, and others shows that it's not like other political arrangements do better here.
- aufheben 10y agoIt seems to me that the situation is very fragile and worrisome, mainly for 2 reasons. China once (1958-1962) had a Four Pests Campaign (除四害运动), which defined four pests to be eliminated: rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. In less than 1 year, nearly 2 billion sparrows were systematically exterminated. I'm not saying that North Korea will do the same thing, but a starving country with a totalitarianism government is one of the worst threats to nature, as China has clearly shown. On the other hand, should the political situation change in North Korea (in any direction), nature will as well be the first to suffer, as China has clearly shown.
- pvaldes 10y agoMeanwhile, in Lebanon... http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/lebanon-bird-hunt.html#cr http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/lebanon-bird-hunt.html#...