8 ms·

I wish that articles like these could end with at least some point of action that I could take to improve the situation. If the public should act, give them som

by vages 7y ago

I wish that articles like these could end with at least some point of action that I could take to improve the situation. If the public should act, give them something actionable: Calling their local council, joining an organization, not cutting your lawn, whatever. As anyone's who's been trained in crowd control during emergencies knows, you don't just sound alarm without at the same time telling people what to do. Journalists should take at least some kind of the same responsibility. Otherwise, people will either panic or stop listening.

sametmax 7y ago
Just because you can report a problem doesn't mean you have a solution. That doesn't mean the problem is not worth reporting. I haven't seen panic. People can't stop listening since they haven't even started. Most people don't know about this, don't care, or can't see the big picture. But repeating works. We know it works, because that's how TV ads work. So I'm all OK with repeating that again, and again. People getting tired of it ? Meh, they still watch TV after the 1876th coca cola ad. And then they go buy soda. I'll take the chance of repeating a wholesome message.
- lugg 7y ago
  It's more complicated than this. I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? What we need is a mass awakening. We need everyone to care at the same time to see anything change. We won't act unless we have role models acting before our very eyes. We won't act untile there is a problem directly in front of us. Until that time you may count on the status quo continuuing.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    >It's more complicated than this. I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? Through the magic of principles? Life should not be about getting ahead, but about doing what's right.
    - brighton36 7y ago
      What is right? How can a person know? I don't think that principles are much more than oral tradition. And many of us don't have that in the modern world.
      - coldtea 7y ago
        >What is right? How can a person know? We watch, we experience, we learn, we read, we ask around, we interact. Same as with any other thing. If I stole your wallet you'd immediately knew it wasn't right, wouldn't you? >I don't think that principles are much more than oral tradition. Well, I don't think oral tradition is not a good basis to base principles on. It implies historical experience, communal values, the test of time, and so on. It might not be perfect, but then again, it need not be.
        brighton36 7y ago
        I would know it was theft. I would assume it was right relative to the goals of the thief, albeit not myself, or the statutory codes. Right is a measure of social validation, or ideological compliance. (Both of which are transmitted via oral tradition) I agree that oral tradition is not a good basis to base principles on, lol. Welcome to my world.
      - losteric 7y ago
        Well, I have principles based on logically reasoning backward from a subjective utopian ideal. No oral tradition or religious dogma here. "What is right" and "what is wrong" are good questions - ask yourself that repeatedly, over years, and you can find your principles too. "Why is X right/wrong?" are also helpful :)
        brighton36 7y ago
        what is the utopian ideal? Did you read it somewhere? (Was it communicated orally?) With the utopian ideal being subjective... it does seem fairly arbitrary. I don't generally see right as being useful in any way. It's unnuanced. And seems to revert to a tradition of some kind or another.
  - MandieD 7y ago
    My own personal change to a lower level of consumption is driven by a modified form of greed: spend less, invest more, retire earlier. Even if my investments aren’t as profitable as I’d hoped, my lower level of consumption is still going to be easier to sustain on whatever income I have than a stereotypical German one, let alone the middle-class American level I grew up with. Practical example: the lawn of our townhouse looks awful. Instead of doing the very spendy thing of hiring a gardening service to fix it, or the still spendy thing of replanting with lawn grass, I’m doing a bit of research to find something that won’t require much ongoing maintenance, will improve the soil (nitrogen-fixing), and will make pollinating insects happy.
    - rangibaby 7y ago
      Clover
      - MandieD 7y ago
        That’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve reached; now just narrowing down which species (or mix thereof) will make things better in a year or two but won’t be a complete PITA to deal with if I later want to take the next step and grow food.
        rangibaby 7y ago
        I have had success growing veges in small pots then moving them to my clover garden after pulling patches of clover out where I want to plant. In my experience that slows it down for long enough for the plant to get established. Clover provides enough benefits to your soil and ecosystem of your garden that I think it’s a net win in any case. Another ground cover I am experimenting with is strawberries. I let them get established (planted January) then added some clover and wildflower seeds in March. The strawberry plants are still growing and haven’t been outcompeted at all. That’s my experience anyway. I’m just a hobby “natural” gardener so I might be messing up without realizing it.
      - foxhop 7y ago
        Clover is a good idea but it also needs to be cut or ate eventually. Worth a try though. When I mow my lawn I avoid mowing my small but growing natural clover patches. When I do mow, all the clippings become mulch for my veggies, or mixed with leaves to compost.
  - acomjean 7y ago
    I think you just described the “tragedy of the commons”. It’s where people’s self interest is contrary to the groups intrest. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
    - VvR-Ox 7y ago
      Exactly. That's why I don't think the "social score" idea from China is so stupid after all. I hate this egoistic, pseudo-individualistic lifestyle that is sold here in the west just because it helps people to feel like they'd really be free. It's a big lie that "the capital" uses for marketing purposes and a common sense seems to be on the loss here. Consequently we'll all suffer from this egoism if we don't find a solution in this century (perhaps even in the 1st half of it). But this criticism is always dismissed quickly with the "communism club" that indoctrinated people who don't think for themselves love to use.
      - Der_Einzige 7y ago
        Egoism is not bad - it's inevitable. Abrahamic values teach this literal self-hatred and "humans as innately evil" line but it has no basis in reality. See the work of Max Stirner on a rehabilitation of egoism and why a union of egoists (differing from a society only in the voluntary nature of the association) isn't synonymous with "egoistic psudo-individualism"
        eternalban 7y ago
        > Abrahamic values teach this literal self-hatred Have you actually ever read the "Abrahamic" scriptures? How about the Hindu scripture, say the Gita? Any Sutras? Ego Sublimation is not "self-hatred". It is the next "inevitable" step.
        VvR-Ox 7y ago
        I think so, too. There's just not enough room and resources for a world full of egoists who all want to be snow flakes.
  - perfunctory 7y ago
    > I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. Please don't take my comment as a personal attack. I am really wondering if you could elaborate on what you mean by "cared" and "stopped"? From my own experience, once you make some profound (permanent) changes to your lifestyle it's not even that easy to just stop and go back any more.
    - foobar1962 7y ago
      > How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? Nice guys finish last. The tragedy of the commons. Etc.
  - EGreg 7y ago
    Guys, people won’t give up eating meat unless you give them alternatives that are as good or better. The Impossible Burger might do more to save the world than all journalists put together. Now we need alternatives to non-biodegradable plastic, and fossil fuels. We have them! We could have had them much earlier if goverment got involved. Other kinds of plastic. Electric cars. We need alternatives to the lazy pesticides we use. We are all for the short win. Our culture is likened to instant gratification children, and we are borrowing on a credit card that our children and grandchildren will be stuck with. The bill always comes due!
- vages 7y ago
  Exactly: The Coke ad is actionable and makes you feel good. I at least want the first part to be true for alarmist journalism.
- ekianjo 7y ago
  Repetition alone does not work. For most people it is just noise that their brain filters out a few seconds or minutes later. There are key differences between very few ads that really stick vs regular ads.
- darepublic 7y ago
  If actionable items aren't important how do you know people aren't listening
pletnes 7y ago
Stop using pesticides. Gardening uses more chemicals per area than farming by at least an order of magnitude, as people don’t care about cost. It’s not something that will solve everything, but it’s a thing you can do, now.
- k_ 7y ago
  > Stop using pesticides. That. Though I'm very skeptical about the rest of your message. Do you happen to have any source by chance? And also try not to buy (or at least avoid it as often as possible) products that come from those that use pesticides to reduce the impact of farming.
  - jabl 7y ago
    OTOH going all the way to organic farming means more area needed for the same output, exacerbating the biodiversity threat due to land use change. Similarly, no-till farming has environmental benefits, but probably needs more herbicides.
  - driverdan 7y ago
    > And also try not to buy (or at least avoid it as often as possible) products that come from those that use pesticides That's not possible unless you grow all of your own food. And if you do you'll realize how much of your crops are lost to insects due to not using pesticides.
- bryan11 7y ago
  While I don't use any pesticides, farms and cities use high amounts of pesticides. Farms apply pesticides by crop-dusting and with tractors. Cities drive trucks up and down every street fogging the entire city with mosquito pesticides. If enough people complained to the cities about the harmful effects of spraying, they may stop. Convincing agriculture to use less pesticides would be much harder and likely involve powerful lobbies at the state and federal level.
ptah 7y ago
put plants in your garden that feeds insects and stop tilling the land https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/no-dig-gardening-an-easier-way-to-grow/ https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/no-dig-gardening-an-easier-...
- sgt101 7y ago
  Also, dig a small pond. An old bucket sunk in the ground will do, just an area of standing water. This will rapidly become a breeding ground for insects.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    That sounds like a bad idea if you don’t like mosquitoes.
    - geggam 7y ago
      Also illegal to do in some communities
      - sgt101 7y ago
        Interesting - I've never heard of that, can you point me to some specific instances where that's banned?
        geggam 7y ago
        I want to say most counties down in the Phoenix area have rules against it. I easily found Maricopa county rules and with time could find more Chapter III, Regulation 2, of the Maricopa County Health Code states: "No person shall cause, maintain, or within his control, permit any accumulation of water in which mosquitoes breed or are likely to breed. The owner, occupant, or person in control of any place where mosquitoes are breeding, or which constitutes a breeding place for mosquitoes shall take all necessary and proper steps to eliminate the mosquito breeding and to prevent its recurrence . . ."
    - 7y ago
agumonkey 7y ago
Fair point. After a small web digging, here are few ideas: - making tiny green spots on your balcony / garden (enough to let insects live) - guerrillagardening
empath75 7y ago
I’m not sure that there is a meaningful action to solve these problems that the public would actually take. It would require reducing our agricultural output, which would mean producing less, more expensive food.
- foobar1962 7y ago
  I think there are too many people. Problems of loss of habitat and the use of pesticides and fertilisers to increase food production are all solved with <less people>. The problem will solve itself, unfortunately. Even if we had cold fusion and unlimited free energy, we'd still have the problem of too many people.
  - mercurysmessage 7y ago
    Unfortunately the people who will and are suffering from this, are the ones who did not cause these problems in the first place.
  - mikro2nd 7y ago
    I think both problems will be solved with <less oil>. Population (of any species) is a function of available energy. Every since we humans learned to supplement our food supply using fossilised energy stores our numbers have skyrocketed. Take that energy away (hello Peak Oil) and our numbers will, inevitable fall. If we had unlimited free energy, we'd certainly still have too many people, not to mention cooking the biosphere with the waste heat from fusion processes.
    - foobar1962 7y ago
      > ... cooking the biosphere with the waste heat from fusion processes Yes! Waste heat from thermodynamic process is something that I've never seen mentioned or discussed, only greenhouse gasses. Almost all the energy we use ends up as heat.
  - agentultra 7y ago
    I'm not sure it's the population that's the problem -- there are a number of factors. If we globally stopped eating meat then a large portion of the land used for agriculture to produce livestock feed would not be needed and could return to forest. And we'd all live and be healthier for it (yay less heart disease and cancer). The amount of land used to grow food to feed cows is a large portion of the total agriculture output. Organic farming seems like it could be sustainable even if portions of our stocks are taken by insects. It'd be manageable without pesticides. And if we invest more in genetically modified vegetables we could grow them to be resistant to pests without filling the environment with pesticides. We humans used to be pretty good at permaculture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
amelius 7y ago
> I wish that articles like these could end with at least some point of action that I could take to improve the situation. See this comment for an idea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20335198#20336220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20335198#20336220
_ph_ 7y ago
The actions taken should be quite obvious and around here I can see a bit of those: keep more areas natural. Just today I noted, how public grass stripes are not mowed this year - while usually they were mowed weekly. A wide selection of flowers are growing there now, this should benefit all kind of insects a lot. There was also a public referendom recently here in Bavaria. It successfully required more areas set aside for insect population, where no agriculture is allowed and no pesticides.
mirimir 7y ago
There is no solution to species being extinct. They're just gone. No coming back. And even reducing the rate of loss is likely impossible. Our food supply basically depends on killing insects. Although it's possible to change practices, to kill less insects, that would be logistically impractical.
- minitoar 7y ago
  Through this lens it seems obvious we should switch to cultivating and consuming insects.
- dwaltrip 7y ago
  > And even reducing the rate of loss is likely impossible. This is far too pessimistic. We put a person on the moon, but we can't improve our agriculture practices to stop ravaging the insect ecosystems?
  - mirimir 7y ago
    That was far less complicated. There were just two competing countries, both throwing money at it, and both wanting military spinoffs. There have been efforts, off and on in recent decades, to transform US agricultural practices. And also in many other countries. But agricultural lobbies are strong, and resist measures that reduce profitability. And governments resist measures that reduce production, and increase risks of shortages and famine. There are maybe a few sectors where need for insects is recognized. Bees, certainly, and some soil dwellers. But mostly they're just pests to be killed, or at best irrelevant. This is much like climate change. And it's all part of the Great Anthropocene Extinction that we're in the midst of. Tragically, efforts to reduce impacts will begin at scale only once it's too late for them to do much. It's like me and that liter of ice cream in the freezer. All the knowing in the world won't keep me from eating it, if I'm tired and hungry enough.
rexpop 7y ago
We have online one course of action: make companies accountable to their impacted communities. And there is only one reliable method of accomplishing that: industrial unions.
specialist 7y ago
Call to action should be SOP. I stopped attending book tour events for this very reason. What better time to rally and organized concerned (self-selecting) citizens? How hard would it be to give a shout out to relevant local orgs? Or to invite local experts up to the mic during the Q&A. But the times I've tried to organize local tie-ins with national authors, the authors have been oblivious (eg hadn't occurred to them, seemed disinterested) and the host facilities actively thwart it (eg don't distribute literature on our property). It's maddening. As a counter point, Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! makes the effort to connect their audiences to the local orgs.
splittingTimes 7y ago
* Look into permaculture and its many low tech DIY solutions to support your local habitats. * Do guerillia gardening a throw seed bombs ever you can. * Reduce your waste output. Try worm composing when you live in a flat. * Use a bike or public transport instead of a car.
DanBC 7y ago
Find out who's responsible for destruction of hay meadows and similar in your country, and start a campaign to get this habitat restored. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0128fk5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0128fk5 > When we hear about the threat to some of our precious and important habitats, our minds often turn to the polar ice cap or the rainforests of the Amazon. But one of our most threatened natural environments is right here in the UK and that is the traditional upland hay meadow - fields packed with grasses and wild flowers, alive with bird song and the buzz of bees. Sadly these meadows have almost disappeared from our landscape. There are less than 4 square miles of this habitat left in the UK and around 40% of that is in the North Pennines. A lot of hard work is currently being undertaken to protect and preserve what we have left. [...] https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-needed-to-save-our-vanishing-meadows https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-ne... > over 97% of our meadows have been eradicated since the 1930s

by vages 7y ago

sametmax 7y ago

Just because you can report a problem doesn't mean you have a solution. That doesn't mean the problem is not worth reporting. I haven't seen panic. People can't stop listening since they haven't even started. Most people don't know about this, don't care, or can't see the big picture. But repeating works. We know it works, because that's how TV ads work. So I'm all OK with repeating that again, and again. People getting tired of it ? Meh, they still watch TV after the 1876th coca cola ad. And then they go buy soda. I'll take the chance of repeating a wholesome message.

lugg 7y ago
It's more complicated than this. I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? What we need is a mass awakening. We need everyone to care at the same time to see anything change. We won't act unless we have role models acting before our very eyes. We won't act untile there is a problem directly in front of us. Until that time you may count on the status quo continuuing.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >It's more complicated than this. I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? Through the magic of principles? Life should not be about getting ahead, but about doing what's right.
  - brighton36 7y ago
    What is right? How can a person know? I don't think that principles are much more than oral tradition. And many of us don't have that in the modern world.
    - coldtea 7y ago
      >What is right? How can a person know? We watch, we experience, we learn, we read, we ask around, we interact. Same as with any other thing. If I stole your wallet you'd immediately knew it wasn't right, wouldn't you? >I don't think that principles are much more than oral tradition. Well, I don't think oral tradition is not a good basis to base principles on. It implies historical experience, communal values, the test of time, and so on. It might not be perfect, but then again, it need not be.
      - brighton36 7y ago
        I would know it was theft. I would assume it was right relative to the goals of the thief, albeit not myself, or the statutory codes. Right is a measure of social validation, or ideological compliance. (Both of which are transmitted via oral tradition) I agree that oral tradition is not a good basis to base principles on, lol. Welcome to my world.
    - losteric 7y ago
      Well, I have principles based on logically reasoning backward from a subjective utopian ideal. No oral tradition or religious dogma here. "What is right" and "what is wrong" are good questions - ask yourself that repeatedly, over years, and you can find your principles too. "Why is X right/wrong?" are also helpful :)
      - brighton36 7y ago
        what is the utopian ideal? Did you read it somewhere? (Was it communicated orally?) With the utopian ideal being subjective... it does seem fairly arbitrary. I don't generally see right as being useful in any way. It's unnuanced. And seems to revert to a tradition of some kind or another.
- MandieD 7y ago
  My own personal change to a lower level of consumption is driven by a modified form of greed: spend less, invest more, retire earlier. Even if my investments aren’t as profitable as I’d hoped, my lower level of consumption is still going to be easier to sustain on whatever income I have than a stereotypical German one, let alone the middle-class American level I grew up with. Practical example: the lawn of our townhouse looks awful. Instead of doing the very spendy thing of hiring a gardening service to fix it, or the still spendy thing of replanting with lawn grass, I’m doing a bit of research to find something that won’t require much ongoing maintenance, will improve the soil (nitrogen-fixing), and will make pollinating insects happy.
  - rangibaby 7y ago
    Clover
    - MandieD 7y ago
      That’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve reached; now just narrowing down which species (or mix thereof) will make things better in a year or two but won’t be a complete PITA to deal with if I later want to take the next step and grow food.
      - rangibaby 7y ago
        I have had success growing veges in small pots then moving them to my clover garden after pulling patches of clover out where I want to plant. In my experience that slows it down for long enough for the plant to get established. Clover provides enough benefits to your soil and ecosystem of your garden that I think it’s a net win in any case. Another ground cover I am experimenting with is strawberries. I let them get established (planted January) then added some clover and wildflower seeds in March. The strawberry plants are still growing and haven’t been outcompeted at all. That’s my experience anyway. I’m just a hobby “natural” gardener so I might be messing up without realizing it.
    - foxhop 7y ago
      Clover is a good idea but it also needs to be cut or ate eventually. Worth a try though. When I mow my lawn I avoid mowing my small but growing natural clover patches. When I do mow, all the clippings become mulch for my veggies, or mixed with leaves to compost.
- acomjean 7y ago
  I think you just described the “tragedy of the commons”. It’s where people’s self interest is contrary to the groups intrest. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
  - VvR-Ox 7y ago
    Exactly. That's why I don't think the "social score" idea from China is so stupid after all. I hate this egoistic, pseudo-individualistic lifestyle that is sold here in the west just because it helps people to feel like they'd really be free. It's a big lie that "the capital" uses for marketing purposes and a common sense seems to be on the loss here. Consequently we'll all suffer from this egoism if we don't find a solution in this century (perhaps even in the 1st half of it). But this criticism is always dismissed quickly with the "communism club" that indoctrinated people who don't think for themselves love to use.
    - Der_Einzige 7y ago
      Egoism is not bad - it's inevitable. Abrahamic values teach this literal self-hatred and "humans as innately evil" line but it has no basis in reality. See the work of Max Stirner on a rehabilitation of egoism and why a union of egoists (differing from a society only in the voluntary nature of the association) isn't synonymous with "egoistic psudo-individualism"
      - eternalban 7y ago
        > Abrahamic values teach this literal self-hatred Have you actually ever read the "Abrahamic" scriptures? How about the Hindu scripture, say the Gita? Any Sutras? Ego Sublimation is not "self-hatred". It is the next "inevitable" step.
        VvR-Ox 7y ago
        I think so, too. There's just not enough room and resources for a world full of egoists who all want to be snow flakes.
- perfunctory 7y ago
  > I listened, I cared, for years. Then I stopped. Please don't take my comment as a personal attack. I am really wondering if you could elaborate on what you mean by "cared" and "stopped"? From my own experience, once you make some profound (permanent) changes to your lifestyle it's not even that easy to just stop and go back any more.
  - foobar1962 7y ago
    > How can I continue caring when everyone around me exploits the way things are and gets ahead because of it? Nice guys finish last. The tragedy of the commons. Etc.
- EGreg 7y ago
  Guys, people won’t give up eating meat unless you give them alternatives that are as good or better. The Impossible Burger might do more to save the world than all journalists put together. Now we need alternatives to non-biodegradable plastic, and fossil fuels. We have them! We could have had them much earlier if goverment got involved. Other kinds of plastic. Electric cars. We need alternatives to the lazy pesticides we use. We are all for the short win. Our culture is likened to instant gratification children, and we are borrowing on a credit card that our children and grandchildren will be stuck with. The bill always comes due!
vages 7y ago
Exactly: The Coke ad is actionable and makes you feel good. I at least want the first part to be true for alarmist journalism.
ekianjo 7y ago
Repetition alone does not work. For most people it is just noise that their brain filters out a few seconds or minutes later. There are key differences between very few ads that really stick vs regular ads.
darepublic 7y ago
If actionable items aren't important how do you know people aren't listening

pletnes 7y ago

Stop using pesticides. Gardening uses more chemicals per area than farming by at least an order of magnitude, as people don’t care about cost. It’s not something that will solve everything, but it’s a thing you can do, now.

k_ 7y ago
> Stop using pesticides. That. Though I'm very skeptical about the rest of your message. Do you happen to have any source by chance? And also try not to buy (or at least avoid it as often as possible) products that come from those that use pesticides to reduce the impact of farming.
- jabl 7y ago
  OTOH going all the way to organic farming means more area needed for the same output, exacerbating the biodiversity threat due to land use change. Similarly, no-till farming has environmental benefits, but probably needs more herbicides.
- driverdan 7y ago
  > And also try not to buy (or at least avoid it as often as possible) products that come from those that use pesticides That's not possible unless you grow all of your own food. And if you do you'll realize how much of your crops are lost to insects due to not using pesticides.
bryan11 7y ago
While I don't use any pesticides, farms and cities use high amounts of pesticides. Farms apply pesticides by crop-dusting and with tractors. Cities drive trucks up and down every street fogging the entire city with mosquito pesticides. If enough people complained to the cities about the harmful effects of spraying, they may stop. Convincing agriculture to use less pesticides would be much harder and likely involve powerful lobbies at the state and federal level.

ptah 7y ago

put plants in your garden that feeds insects and stop tilling the land https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/no-dig-gardening-an-easier-way-to-grow/ https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/no-dig-gardening-an-easier-...

sgt101 7y ago
Also, dig a small pond. An old bucket sunk in the ground will do, just an area of standing water. This will rapidly become a breeding ground for insects.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  That sounds like a bad idea if you don’t like mosquitoes.
  - geggam 7y ago
    Also illegal to do in some communities
    - sgt101 7y ago
      Interesting - I've never heard of that, can you point me to some specific instances where that's banned?
      - geggam 7y ago
        I want to say most counties down in the Phoenix area have rules against it. I easily found Maricopa county rules and with time could find more Chapter III, Regulation 2, of the Maricopa County Health Code states: "No person shall cause, maintain, or within his control, permit any accumulation of water in which mosquitoes breed or are likely to breed. The owner, occupant, or person in control of any place where mosquitoes are breeding, or which constitutes a breeding place for mosquitoes shall take all necessary and proper steps to eliminate the mosquito breeding and to prevent its recurrence . . ."
  - 7y ago

agumonkey 7y ago

Fair point. After a small web digging, here are few ideas: - making tiny green spots on your balcony / garden (enough to let insects live) - guerrillagardening

empath75 7y ago

I’m not sure that there is a meaningful action to solve these problems that the public would actually take. It would require reducing our agricultural output, which would mean producing less, more expensive food.

foobar1962 7y ago
I think there are too many people. Problems of loss of habitat and the use of pesticides and fertilisers to increase food production are all solved with <less people>. The problem will solve itself, unfortunately. Even if we had cold fusion and unlimited free energy, we'd still have the problem of too many people.
- mercurysmessage 7y ago
  Unfortunately the people who will and are suffering from this, are the ones who did not cause these problems in the first place.
- mikro2nd 7y ago
  I think both problems will be solved with <less oil>. Population (of any species) is a function of available energy. Every since we humans learned to supplement our food supply using fossilised energy stores our numbers have skyrocketed. Take that energy away (hello Peak Oil) and our numbers will, inevitable fall. If we had unlimited free energy, we'd certainly still have too many people, not to mention cooking the biosphere with the waste heat from fusion processes.
  - foobar1962 7y ago
    > ... cooking the biosphere with the waste heat from fusion processes Yes! Waste heat from thermodynamic process is something that I've never seen mentioned or discussed, only greenhouse gasses. Almost all the energy we use ends up as heat.
- agentultra 7y ago
  I'm not sure it's the population that's the problem -- there are a number of factors. If we globally stopped eating meat then a large portion of the land used for agriculture to produce livestock feed would not be needed and could return to forest. And we'd all live and be healthier for it (yay less heart disease and cancer). The amount of land used to grow food to feed cows is a large portion of the total agriculture output. Organic farming seems like it could be sustainable even if portions of our stocks are taken by insects. It'd be manageable without pesticides. And if we invest more in genetically modified vegetables we could grow them to be resistant to pests without filling the environment with pesticides. We humans used to be pretty good at permaculture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

amelius 7y ago

> I wish that articles like these could end with at least some point of action that I could take to improve the situation. See this comment for an idea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20335198#20336220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20335198#20336220

_ph_ 7y ago

The actions taken should be quite obvious and around here I can see a bit of those: keep more areas natural. Just today I noted, how public grass stripes are not mowed this year - while usually they were mowed weekly. A wide selection of flowers are growing there now, this should benefit all kind of insects a lot. There was also a public referendom recently here in Bavaria. It successfully required more areas set aside for insect population, where no agriculture is allowed and no pesticides.

mirimir 7y ago

There is no solution to species being extinct. They're just gone. No coming back. And even reducing the rate of loss is likely impossible. Our food supply basically depends on killing insects. Although it's possible to change practices, to kill less insects, that would be logistically impractical.

minitoar 7y ago
Through this lens it seems obvious we should switch to cultivating and consuming insects.
dwaltrip 7y ago
> And even reducing the rate of loss is likely impossible. This is far too pessimistic. We put a person on the moon, but we can't improve our agriculture practices to stop ravaging the insect ecosystems?
- mirimir 7y ago
  That was far less complicated. There were just two competing countries, both throwing money at it, and both wanting military spinoffs. There have been efforts, off and on in recent decades, to transform US agricultural practices. And also in many other countries. But agricultural lobbies are strong, and resist measures that reduce profitability. And governments resist measures that reduce production, and increase risks of shortages and famine. There are maybe a few sectors where need for insects is recognized. Bees, certainly, and some soil dwellers. But mostly they're just pests to be killed, or at best irrelevant. This is much like climate change. And it's all part of the Great Anthropocene Extinction that we're in the midst of. Tragically, efforts to reduce impacts will begin at scale only once it's too late for them to do much. It's like me and that liter of ice cream in the freezer. All the knowing in the world won't keep me from eating it, if I'm tired and hungry enough.

rexpop 7y ago

We have online one course of action: make companies accountable to their impacted communities. And there is only one reliable method of accomplishing that: industrial unions.

specialist 7y ago

Call to action should be SOP. I stopped attending book tour events for this very reason. What better time to rally and organized concerned (self-selecting) citizens? How hard would it be to give a shout out to relevant local orgs? Or to invite local experts up to the mic during the Q&A. But the times I've tried to organize local tie-ins with national authors, the authors have been oblivious (eg hadn't occurred to them, seemed disinterested) and the host facilities actively thwart it (eg don't distribute literature on our property). It's maddening. As a counter point, Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! makes the effort to connect their audiences to the local orgs.

splittingTimes 7y ago

* Look into permaculture and its many low tech DIY solutions to support your local habitats. * Do guerillia gardening a throw seed bombs ever you can. * Reduce your waste output. Try worm composing when you live in a flat. * Use a bike or public transport instead of a car.

DanBC 7y ago

Find out who's responsible for destruction of hay meadows and similar in your country, and start a campaign to get this habitat restored. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0128fk5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0128fk5 > When we hear about the threat to some of our precious and important habitats, our minds often turn to the polar ice cap or the rainforests of the Amazon. But one of our most threatened natural environments is right here in the UK and that is the traditional upland hay meadow - fields packed with grasses and wild flowers, alive with bird song and the buzz of bees. Sadly these meadows have almost disappeared from our landscape. There are less than 4 square miles of this habitat left in the UK and around 40% of that is in the North Pennines. A lot of hard work is currently being undertaken to protect and preserve what we have left. [...] https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-needed-to-save-our-vanishing-meadows https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-ne... > over 97% of our meadows have been eradicated since the 1930s