Peter Birkhäuser, The revealing light of nature

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Peter Birkhäuser, The revealing light of nature
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Postscript by Marie Howe
my thrall told me it wanted to be more independent so i imprisoned its soul in a necklace. how's that for in de pendant you little shit
official amulet post
Things this post says:
-Advocating for worldwide total extinction of any animal species is bad regardless of how much you personally dislike them
Things this post does not say:
-You can never kill a bug ever for any reason
-We should not enact population control in regards to invasive and disease-carrying organisms
-You must allow bugs to feed on you and infest your house and be happy about it the entire time
things this post could also say:
despite there being many bugs that pose a danger to us, we hold immense power over them due to our size + strength difference
we should reduce the amount of bugs we harm/kill as much as possible. wherever we can, we should look for alternatives to killing or exterminating non-dangerous bugs (for example: relocating nests rather than gassing them)
it is our responsibility as humans, as custodians of the Earth, & as members of the ecosystem to honour bugs' existence in the web of life & treat them as respectfully as possible, even though they are strange & alien to us. we can even admire & celebrate them!
it does not matter if bugs feel emotions or pain to the same degree that we do. it matters that they are part of nature, will fight for their lives when threatened, & have just as much right to life as any other living being (the bee movie was right about this unfortunately)
the way you treat creatures who are smaller & weaker than you does reflect on your character & you can expect to be disliked/lectured if you kill bugs needlessly, carelessly or joyfully
it is usually worth the small inconvenience of sparing a bug's life. of being careful not to step on that snail. of helping the fly that's drowning in your sink. of letting that spider occupy that corner in your house. kindness is not a limited resource nor a luxury reserved for creatures of a certain size/species
some bugs' worst crime is that they're annoying. you should let nature annoy you sometimes. it's good for your soul
the short version: mosquitoes are not important enough to the ecosystem to let malaria + the dozen other severe diseases they spread to go unchecked should we devise a way to stamp them out
bedbugs however cause no disease, so there is no reason, financially or morally, to spend science funding on entirely eradicating them.
Just go on and flush them out periodically
Unfortunately it’s become quite normal in New York- so much so that it’s usually included in realtor contracts.
the short version: mosquitoes are not important enough to the ecosystem to let malaria + the dozen other severe diseases they spread to go unchecked should we devise a way to stamp them out
There! Are! 3500+! Species! Of! Fucking! Mosquito!
If you can't even do enough research to not assume that there is one single species called "mosquito" that could be wiped out without destroying worldwide ecosystems, I don't think you have any business contributing to this post.
I don't think that decimating the already exploited and degraded ecosystems of countries suffering from colonialism by trying to eradicate several species(something we have never been able to do without insane amounts of bycatch! look at what happened with fucking DDT) is the answer, when preventative and curative methods are just as if not MORE effective. Funding things like mosquito nets, conservation focussed invasive species management, medical institutions, and treatment and vaccine research is a far better use of resources.
Most of these are issues of lack of access as a direct result of imperialism and disregard for the natural ecosystems of these countries.
Like. WE HAVE A MALARIA VACCINE. Do you know how many lives could be saved if even half the money spent on developing new pesticides was used to produce and distribute it? But that doesn't involve killing icky bugs, so who cares about all that.
Oh my God, reading the tags on this is giving me hives. Please talk to any amount of Lyme disease patients ever before so blithely handwaving ticks.
and if you think subjecting complex vertebrate animals like deer more to SEVERE DISEASE is a moral position, pleeeease log off the internet and think about your life
Meanwhile, for anyone who cares:
Supporters of a ballot initiative that seeks to ban the hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx are citing a recently-released report sa
1) We had a fucking lyme disease vaxx, and antivaxxers killed it. (1, 2, 3). Go direct some of this anger at them instead of the people trying to keep the fucking ecosystem from collapsing.
2) CWD will spread with or without ticks. The ticks do not cause CWD you understand this right? CWD is a prion disease that originates with the deer
3) Please redirect your attention to the "things this post does not say" section that spells out in elementary school level detail what this post does not say, as I don't think you understood it the first time
1) what’s the evidence that the disappearance of ticks would cause an ecosystem collapse? We have trillions of species of invertebrate, are you making a huge assertion that ticks particularly are somehow keystone species??
citation needed
Also this doesn’t address deer suffering.
Why are we prioritizing infinitesimally small organisms over those that are almost indistinguishable from us?
Are you proposing we vaccinate all deer? Where’s the ballot initiative for that, then? Is it politically feasible?
What about the probably dozens upon dozens of other complex animal species that undergo unimaginable and drawn out suffering from tick diseases?
But no, as long as humans are fine, it’s all good.
Diseases can mutate. Why not cut the problem off at its vector instead of end of the pipeline solutions?
2) The link was about disease prevention of wildlife in general. Sorry if you thought it was supposed to be directly related to Lyme or similar vectors. It is merely what I’m aware of that we can change about policy in various states, a position which shouldn’t be too controversial. It’s much easier to convince people “hey we shouldn’t kill big kitties and/or captivity breed them” than argue with a five-layer-deep-denial subculture such as anti-vaxxers, which requires pretty specialized knowledge. Doesn’t mean don’t do it, just be aware of the more in grasp solutions too.
So, to be clear, you agree with boosting cougar populations? You just wanted to whine about it not being specifically tick related?
(It’s about THE DEER.)
(something you seemed to have missed)
3) maybe I will. As long as we got straight you ignoring half of my very much shorter and easier to read post. lol
(sighs) alright here we go. i will address every single line
1) what’s the evidence that the disappearance of ticks would cause an ecosystem collapse?
When you remove 800+ species of arachnid's worth of biomass from the environment, that is going to leave a giant gaping hole in the foundation of the ecosystem. Parasites are a key part of the food web, as both an abundant food source for smaller insectivores and as resource redistributors.
The ecological significance of manipulative parasites
Parasites boosts biodiversity and changes animal community structure by trait-mediated indirect effects
Parasites, disease and the structure of ecological communities
We have trillions of species of invertebrate,
No we don't. Not much to debunk here, this statement is just false. You are off by several orders of magnitude. Also invertebrate is an insanely large category, you can't just subsitute one for the other. A snail and a tick and a crab and a wasp and a clam are all very different things that can't take eachothers places in the ecosystem. I would hope that this is self-evident
are you making a huge assertion tht ticks particularly are somehow keystone species??
First: tick cannot be a keystone species because tick is not a species. Tick is an order of arachnid(Ixodida) with over 800 species Next: Keystone species doesn't just mean "species that is important to the environment", something can be critical to the environment without being a keystone species. Deer aren't a keystone species either but killing them all would decimate the environment as well.
A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance.
Note my bolded emphasis. A keystone species is a term used for species with relatively small populations that seem insignificant but actually have a large impact on the ecosystem as a whole. These are usually predators. Ticks are very abundant, and thus wouldn't be a keystone species, but are still necessary to the environment(in part because of how abundant they are, they are a food source for many animals)
Is this the only ecological term you know and thus exclusively how you assign value to animals or something? I have no idea why you would bring up a term applied mainly to small population vertebrates, of which ticks are not and neither are deer for that matter.
citation needed
See links above
Also this doesn’t address deer suffering.
This may come as a shock to you, but there are more animals in the ecosystem than deer.
But this logic we should be culling all large predators as they contribute significantly to deer suffering by eating them
What about the suffering of small mammals and other insectivores who depend on parasites as a food source? What about the suffering of the plants who will suffer from overgrazing without parasites to discourage deer from lingering too long in single locations? What about the suffering of me, the poor guy who has to read this absolute fucking nonsense?
I want this sentence on a shirt
Why are we prioritizing infinitesimally small organisms over those that are almost indistinguishable from us?
Because the small organisms are key parts of the functioning environment and just because you don't find them large and cute enough to value doesn't mean that they should be open game for culling. You need to understand how biodiversity works, we cannot have an ecosystem on charismatic vertebrates alone.
Without those "infinitesimally small organisms" we'd all be dead. Deer can't exactly fill niches like "pollinator" or "detritivore" or "resource redistributing parasite"
over those that are almost indistinguishable from us?
This one is also false and smacks of white people who are like "why is it bad to care about people who are more like us instead of those insignificant useless (racial slur)"
Though you do seem to have the same level of literacy as a deer so maybe that's why you think that? Who's to say
Are you proposing we vaccinate all deer? Where’s the ballot initiative for that, then? Is it politically feasible?
So you can't vaccinate against prion diseases in the first place. Second place, what? Seriously I'm at a loss here. The ballot initiative? The ballot initiative to vaccinate deer against CWD? A disease that can't be vaccinated against on account of it being a prion? I don't think political feasibility is the roadblock here. Tackle basic biology before you get to political feasibility, I beg.
What about the probably dozens upon dozens of other complex animal species that undergo unimaginable and drawn out suffering from tick diseases?
Bats cause unimaginable and drawn out suffering in hundreds of "complex animal species"(by which I assume you mean mammals) by spreading rabies, so we need to kill them all.
All carnivores cause unimaginable and drawn out suffering in complex animal species by eating them, we need to kill them all.
Reading the words of dipshits on tumblr who don't understand how ecosystems work causes unimaginable and drawn out suffering in complex animal species(literate individuals), and well you get the idea
But no, as long as humans are fine, it’s all good.
I don't know how you got this from an entire post of me trying to ain to you that it would be bad to drive 800 species of bug to extinction. I in fact do care about things that are not humans, which appears to be the part of this post you have a problem with.
Diseases can mutate. Why not cut the problem off at its vector instead of end of the pipeline solutions?
Cutting it off at the "vector" (ticks) is a pipeline solution. Cutting it off at its source would be either wiping out the bacteria in the case of Lyme(which.. would involve vaccinating humans. Or driving several species of small mammal extinct. The ticks get the bacteria that causes Lyme from rodents and the like. You do understand that the ticks do not spontaneously generate Lyme right?), or in the case of CWD, the source would be the proteins. The only generator of deer proteins happens to be other deer. So we need to kill all the deer. I guess that's one way to end suffering?
Also ticks aren't even the main vector by which CWD spreads. So congrats, you've caused an insane amount of biodiversity loss and there's still CWD.
In other news, we can cure the common cold by killing all humans. This is HAL9000 tier problem solving.
2) The link was about disease prevention of wildlife in general. Sorry if you thought it was supposed to be directly related to Lyme or similar vectors. It is merely what I’m aware of that we can change about policy in various states, a position which shouldn’t be too controversial. It’s much easier to convince people “hey we shouldn’t kill big kitties and/or captivity breed them” than argue with a five-layer-deep-denial subculture such as anti-vaxxers, which requires pretty specialized knowledge. Doesn’t mean don’t do it, just be aware of the more in grasp solutions too.
Listen, if you cite a link in your post trying to debunk my statements, I'm going to assume that's part of your argument. Also I don't live in Colorado, so it isn't relevant to me regardless. It's already illegal to hunt mountain lions and bobcats where I live. Also, and I'm not sure how to explain this, this has nothing to do with ticks.
So, to be clear, you agree with boosting cougar populations? You just wanted to whine about it not being specifically tick related?
Yes, the guy who has spent his entire post arguing for conservation and in favor of preserving the populations of animals that many people find uncharismatic, is in fact in agreement with boosting cougar populations. It just literally isn't relevant.
Do you agree with boosting cougar populations? You know they kill and eat deer right. That's increasing deer suffering, which you seem very adamantly against.
(It’s about THE DEER.)
I also care about the many other organisms that live in this world in addition to the deer.
Also if its about THE DEER, lets focus on CWD.
The main ways research indicates prion diseases such as CWD are spread are: -Plants(contaminated with saliva from infected deer feeding and fecal matter from infected deer shitting) Prions can bind to the roots and leaves of plants and stay in the environment for extended amounts of time. -Soil and water, same as the above(contaminated via infected deer, prions linger) -Fluid exchange between infected deer, including sex -Being born to an infected mother -Decomposition of infected deer carcasses, especially when killed in ways that leads to large spreads of biological material, like say, killed and eaten by predators -Humans(see above) -About as recent as the tick study, crows and other scavengers may also be a prominent vector
So in order to address the deer suffering via the method you have so kindly suggested(kill all the vectors, like ticks), we need to kill plants, deer, humans, crows, and also the ground.
(something you seemed to have missed)
No, I did not miss it. I was just trying to be nice by not pointing out how much of a moronic non-sequitur it was. Deer are not the only animal in the ecosystem, I'm truly sorry you had to learn this way.
3) maybe I will. As long as we got straight you ignoring half of my very much shorter and easier to read post. lol
Your post was mainly incorrect and unresearched nonsense, but here. I have now addressed every single line.
It’s always the steven universe blogs that start shit
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Reminder to USians: the nonstop battering of our morale by one outrage and illegal act after another means the volume of calls to our members of Congress has plummeted.
But they DO actually grow a bit of a spine when we call them en masse.
Let's fill their answering machines' messages, shall we?
Sample script and tool to connect you automatically with senators and congressional rep phone lines here:
Updates January 3, 2025: The Trump administration ordered military strikes on Venezuela and captured President Maduro and his wife to charge
Anyway, I was going to come on here and complain about…I don’t even remember, some discrimination in my life.
Then I found out that the USA invaded Venezuela. And plans to strip it of its oil and sell it to the highest bidder. And Europe is talking about this being a “complex” situation that needs time to process.
It’s simple. One country made up BS so they could invade another and steal its resources. You either stop this now, or watch them do it again (they’re already thinking about Cuba), and again, and find yourself facing WWIII.
We don’t want WWIII.
Source:
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been captured by the United States. President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. government would run th
Puppet Zelda. See if you can handle that, Link.
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this should be illegal and i'm not fucking joking
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