Peak Oil News and Message Boards

Ibon wrote:

vtsnowedin wrote: I ask because in my experience as a hunter I've had a hard time even thinning a herd much less wipe it out. Uncontrolled poaching is the far greater danger.

Here habitat loss is primary factor, poaching is secondary. Depends though on species. Baird's Tapir has one off spring every 2-3 years and is impacted by hunting/poaching because of low reproductive rates. Fragmented remaining population endangered. Completely extirpated from lowlands of Panama and no longer found in several Central American countries. This species is one that just needs to hold on in a few refuge populations to recolonize former habitat one day.

Collared Peccaries are more abundant and a female will produce up to a 5 young a year. With sufficient habitat remaining this species can withstand hunting pressure.

We still have the top predators here keeping prey species in balance; Jaguar, Mountain Lion, Ocelot, Tayra, Grisson.

You may be the only predator remaining in your area if you don't have wolves, mountain lions, bears, etc. and that would explain why you are challenged to thin the herd. White tailed deer are a prime example.

Sustainable hunting is a critical wildlife management strategy in many areas of North America.

Here at Mount Totumas we don't permit even sustainable hunting because the wildlife here quickly learns the area is a refuge and we can notice profound difference in 8 years in wildlife tolerating human presence. We want guests to have opportunity to see wildlife and these animals are smart and if we allowed gunshot and hunting many species would become super wary and would be even harder to see than they already are. .

I am tempted though to allow anyone who shows up with a cross bow to bag a Collared Peccary. We put salt on the ground near the game cameras and sometimes we have herds of up to 20 of these animals. They are abundant here.

dohboi wrote:Your state DNR likely works hard most years to keep the supply high for all you hunters.

dohboi wrote:Peace may be good for humans, but sometimes it is devastating for ecosystems:

Deforestation soars in Colombia after Farc rebels' demobilization

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... ation-farc

Cid_Yama wrote:The DNR doesn't work to keep populations up, actually the opposite. The herds get too big on their own and the DNR then release Doe licenses to cull the herds.

Virtually everything humanity constructs provides an example of habitat destruction

dohboi wrote:You don’t need a scientist to know what’s causing the sixth mass extinction (us)

Paul Ehrlich

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... population

Virtually everything humanity constructs provides an example of habitat destruction

So I will mention a couple things to give you some real hope, not false hope.
More than half of the land mass of our planet is now human landscapes. That includes the agricultural lands and pastures that supplies our foods. This huge conversion of natural ecosystems destroyed and turned into human landscapes is the reason for this increase in species extinctions. and population reductions
of still existing biodiversity. The remaining biodiversity on the planet are like seedbanks or refuge populations. The good news Karin is once the human footprint recedes these refuge populations of native flora and fauna will quickly recolonize former human habitat. Just look on that hillside at Mount Totumas
when we closed down the cow pastures and what happened in just 5 years. Nature is incredibly resilient. No species can survive extinction though so yes we are causing a mass extinction event but focus on the glass still 4/5 full and not on what has been lost. There is tremendous biodiversity still here and
tremendous resilience to recolonize habitat once human over population gets corrected.

Even though the truth is disheartening it is good you stare this directly in the face. Internalize this so that it awakens in you a deep humility toward mother nature. This is the key to maintain mental equilibrium .

dohboi wrote:
How old is your daughter, by the way. Nice that she still turns to dear old dad with these kinds of concerns.

She is now an adult, her love of nature comes from the childhood experiences of camping and canoe trips and all the other outdoor stuff we did with our kids. That is worth more than any bla bla bla discussion. For those who have kids get them outdoors and relating to the natural world. Talk less about politics and be more in nature. That is the best way to instill concern for your environment when it is a visceral experience already as a child.

A lot can happen in a day. Things can turn on a dime. Has this just happened? David Wallace-Wells wrote a great article in nymag.com recently on "The Uninhabitable Earth". Media around the world carried parts of it, and a number of scientists chimed in. Many people said the article is too apocalyptic. I say that the article is spot on. Civilization, more correctly humanity is going down big time, on our current path. Abrupt climate change all but guarantees that. Unless we collectively change course by:

1) Declare a global climate emergency.

2) Deploy technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere &/or oceans.

3) Deploy technologies to cool the Arctic.

Farmers in the Great Plains of Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and the panhandle of Texas produce about one-sixth of the world’s grain, and water for these crops comes from the High Plains Aquifer—often known as the Ogallala Aquifer—the single greatest source of groundwater in North America. A team of researchers, including Colorado State University Professor Kurt Fausch and Jeff Falke, a CSU alumnus and an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have discovered that more than half a century of groundwater pumping from the aquifer has led to long segments of rivers drying up and the collapse of large-stream fishes.

If pumping practices are not modified, scientists warn that these habitats will continue to shrink, and the fish populations along with them.

onlooker wrote:Well this seems like best thread to deposit this quite pessimistic
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... umans.html