Why is this a thing /pol/ why should we have to preserve useless flowers and snails at any cost just for the sake of doing it? Companies are not allowed to build dams because apparently some type of useless and irrelevant fish will go extinct. Why not just let evolution play itself out? Pic related book im currently reading.
The God Squad has unlimited power.
This sad ass bait or are you really this stupid?
>>55397196
Are you going to contribute or just shitpost?
>>55397196
Why did you even bother posting this?
>Fuck the environment
This is a very degenerate viewpoint.
>>55397381
Because motherfuckers don't know how to think. When you start offing species it fucks up the order of things. Why do you think they have to have deer cullings? Because we wiped out what kept the forest niggers in check.
Preservation of animal and plant species, much like the preservation of historical artifacts, is important. It is our duty to protect them for future generations to enjoy.
>>55396904
They add beauty to this world and are our distant cousins. They are worth saving.
Also go ask the Chinese how wiping out the eurasian tree sparrow went for them.
>>55396904
You shouldn't be in school if you can't come up with at least one reason why keeping native species alive is a good thing.
This is some edgy shitposting.
>>55396904
The issue is to do with ecological function. Take DDT and the raptor eggs, right? I mean raptors are pretty cool, but at the time in the 50's, no one knew they had any sort of ecological function. But then, as a consequence, thinks like nutrient cycling through scavenging, control of pests, control of predators on pollinators was disrupted, and everything got fucked up, ecological speaking. Same with biocides - just applied that shit without a care, and only now are we realising "oh shit, where's all the bees gone?!". Another example - coral reefs. We had no idea how important that is as both a spawning ground for several fish species commercially important to Pacific fisheries, but all that the corals were storing huge volumes of carbon dioxide.
Point is this - that fish or that snail may play some absolutely critical role to some ecological function that, ten or twenty years in the future, may cause devastating impacts to human societies if it was absent. We just have no idea, and therefore, it's best to play it safe.
>>55396904
It's a bunch of bullshit that allows the government to fuck with people. Remember the Bundy Ranch?
>>55397701
There are literally millions of species that were once alive and are now extinct. It is bound to happen weather we like it or not. The human race will too go extinct one day when mother nature is ruthless enough.
>>55396904
When are they going to add white people?
>>55396904
What is biodiversity.
I'll take Stupid Questions by OP for 500 Alex.
I think the idea is that there's a difference between rules of nature weeding out the gay african mammoth and human activity destroying ecosystems.
>>55397751
See this guy gets it. Like I posted up above. Read about the eurasian tree sparrow and get a good laugh.
>>55397751
Why don't other countries do it? Because it doesn't really matter. What's next, we will make laws that forbid wolves to go after deer because deer is endangered?
>>55397863
Kek
I'm not going to waste time here but species abundance=healthy ecosystem=high productivity and complex foodwebs=more timber and forest productivity which is sustainable and good for environment=maintained water quality=both ecologically and economically sound legislation
The world is complex
>>55397986
The point is that we simply cannot preserve EVERYTHING. Why preserve seagulls? All they do is shit on everyones heads and cause fish to be extinct because they eat it. If Noah took EVERYTHING on the Ark, it would sink and nobody would survive.
>>55396904
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/05/166574589/in-arid-west-cheatgrass-turns-fires-into-infernos
http://overfishing.org
http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/habitats/coralreefs/coral-reefs-coral-bleaching-what-you-need-to-know.xml
http://www.iucn.org/iyb/about/biodiversity/
These are only a few things that we know affect us directly. Nevermind the number of times we discovered we needed something only after they were gone.
>>55397539
ok I'm trying to understand what your are saying through your thick Australian shitposting accent, you are saying the biosphere is in delcate balance and we should disrupt it.
But why do I care? Seriously? I live indoors, in a city, I eat soylent, which is made from bio-reactor genetically modified algae, maltodextrin, ismaltulose extracted form fertilized plants.
In fact if the rest of nature would just completely fuck off, food production could become ever easier because we won't be constantly fight off pests and weeds.
I'm trying to get you to admit that you want to stunt the growth in power and scope of human civilization because you like the look of trees
>>55397905
If anything the EU is far tighter on this, but a lot of the laws governing this stuff are international treaties - stuff like Red Book, Ramsar convention etc.
No - naturally, wolves hunt deer, and the populations cycle. Very basic ecology that - you should read up about the lynx/snowshoe hare. It's human management of both species that's the question, thinks like habitat fragmentation, meta-populations and resource scarcity. It's quite complex and - this rather annoys ecologist - not the "hardest" science. Again, it kind of does matter, especially the invertebrate stuff - they're so essential to things like pollination, it's critical to non-cereal food systems that they're maintained.
Of course, developers and planners aren't stupid - if something needs to be built to achieve some human development, then of course it'll be considered. It's just that now that the ecological and biodiversity side gets a little more weighting than it previously did (i.e. none). This dam, for example - it would have been used for hydroelectricity, and very likely, a pumped storage unit. Justifiably, it can be asked - do we need this? Could we perhaps use a different source of energy? How about investing in measures to reduce energy usage?
If anything, it's being truly conservative - being mindful of the surroundings, and being cautious of unplanned development.
>>55398429
wat
>old dude i know was an environmental manager in the 80s
>entire job was taking bribes until plants and animals were no longer endangered
>>55397904
>eurasian tree sparrow
This. I couldn't care less about those little fuckers, but they were natural predators against various shitheads like termites and other bugs. Now that they numbers declines, our timber industry has to literally lay down traps that catch kilograms of bugs, otherwise huge areas of forest get decimated.
>>55398645
It is funnier than that when the Chinese wiped them out. They ate grasshoppers.
No sparrow no grasshopper control = locust swarms that ate everything and made the great famine way more worse.
>>55398127
>Why preserve seagulls?
You might be surprised, but herring gulls aren't pests. It's complex, as is everything in ecology. First, understand that herring gulls in a naturally unperturbed system would nest at the top of cliffs, a little inland. As such, they tend to be aggressive birds, not shy of engagement. They are also omnivores, capable of eating everything but preferring fish. Now, as fish stocks dwindled, competition with other gull species and auks forced a decline in population. As a result, herring gulls moved inland where food stocks were present. But, because of mating demands, they're stuck in a relatively thin strip of inland area. They're a threatened species in many areas.
This whole gull/auk cliff ecology think is pretty important for fisheries. Cliffs are ridiculously complicated habitats, with each seabird playing different role in managing worm, eel and flat fish populations, which in turns help manage commercial fish like cod and haddock. Massive fishery declines were caused in combination with overfishing the adults, but also because natural communities of sandeels were fished near coasts, leading to seabird losses and hence a control on stuff like worms that are parasites to commercial fish, leading to juveniles having an increased parasitic load. All the adults caught, all the juveniles ill - collapse.
See, we're only just realising this shit now.
>>55398429
Define "the rest of nature"
Even the pests that you complain about are useful, they provide nutrients for the soil when their bodies decompose and can be used as food for animals that'll be eaten by other animals who'll help manage the ecosystem in their own way. This isn't a simple equation where you can pull out just one variable and the whole thing is fixed. Nature is intricate and complex and fucking with it will only bite you in the ass worse down the line.
