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Human activity currently puts about a million species at risk of extinction [1]. I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as wi

by blix 5y ago

Human activity currently puts about a million species at risk of extinction [1]. I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as winners really moves the needle in terms of the health of the global ecosystem. Aggressively spraying poisons into the environment has decimated insect populations across the globe and, consequently is also thought to threaten bird populations which eat these insects. It is a short-sighted solution. The harshness of the conditions for the humans choosing to do this task really has no bearing whatsoever on the task's impact on the global ecosystem. For someone so critical of feelings, that's quite an emotional appeal you have going there. [1] https://www-nature-com.mines.idm.oclc.org/articles/d41586-019-01448-4 https://www-nature-com.mines.idm.oclc.org/articles/d41586-01...

allmskio 5y ago
Some things can only be saved with insecticide in a remote island. That there are “millions” of other threatened species scattered across the globe with all sorts of micro/macro solutions (or lack thereof), is a nonsequiter. All you seem to be doing is nitpicking a specific small action despite its clearly defined goal and success, when you can’t even be bothered to propose a concrete alternative action that would do better with the same resources. Just vagaries and platitudes like “insecticide bad in general”.
- blix 5y ago
  > Some things can only be saved with insecticide So you can say, with absolute confidence, that no other conceivable solution could ever have been effective? I don't know if I'm that confident about anything. I don't agree with the defined goal or the method; it's more than just a nitpick. My concrete alternative would probably be to do nothing. Or try to mitigate climate change. And insecticides ~are~ bad in general.
  - macintux 5y ago
    I think of it like chemo: sometimes you have to use poison to achieve a goal. Apparently this summer they declared victory over the ants.
abraae 5y ago
> I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as winners really moves the needle in terms of the health of the global ecosystem. You have a point. I hate the feel good videos of people rescuing individual koalas from the Australian bush fires and putting ointment on their burns. We've fucked up their entire ecosystem and now we pick one of them and treat it to assuage the sad feelings of millions of humans? Give me a break.
- macintux 5y ago
  It matters to this one.
psd1 5y ago
> Human activity currently puts about a million species at risk of extinction [1]. I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as winners really moves the needle in terms of the health of the global ecosystem. False dichotomy. We need grass-roots intervention and macro political intervention. One does not detract from the other.

by blix 5y ago

allmskio 5y ago

Some things can only be saved with insecticide in a remote island. That there are “millions” of other threatened species scattered across the globe with all sorts of micro/macro solutions (or lack thereof), is a nonsequiter. All you seem to be doing is nitpicking a specific small action despite its clearly defined goal and success, when you can’t even be bothered to propose a concrete alternative action that would do better with the same resources. Just vagaries and platitudes like “insecticide bad in general”.

blix 5y ago
> Some things can only be saved with insecticide So you can say, with absolute confidence, that no other conceivable solution could ever have been effective? I don't know if I'm that confident about anything. I don't agree with the defined goal or the method; it's more than just a nitpick. My concrete alternative would probably be to do nothing. Or try to mitigate climate change. And insecticides ~are~ bad in general.
- macintux 5y ago
  I think of it like chemo: sometimes you have to use poison to achieve a goal. Apparently this summer they declared victory over the ants.

abraae 5y ago

> I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as winners really moves the needle in terms of the health of the global ecosystem. You have a point. I hate the feel good videos of people rescuing individual koalas from the Australian bush fires and putting ointment on their burns. We've fucked up their entire ecosystem and now we pick one of them and treat it to assuage the sad feelings of millions of humans? Give me a break.

macintux 5y ago
It matters to this one.

psd1 5y ago

> Human activity currently puts about a million species at risk of extinction [1]. I don't feel picking a few, coincidentally aesthetically pleasing species as winners really moves the needle in terms of the health of the global ecosystem. False dichotomy. We need grass-roots intervention and macro political intervention. One does not detract from the other.