On Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:24:48 +1000, FarmI wrote:
wrote in message news:53695f93-a3ac-4d29- On Jul 10,
12:39?am, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:
"Karl Kleinpaste" wrote in message
Billy writes:
When are YOU going to get alarmed, when, except for the zoos, the
only animals left are pets and food animals? Our biosphere is dying,
and we can only save it, one raccoon at a time.
Geez...you haven't looked out my back door lately.
I live on 15 acres of nowhereness, northwest of Pittsburgh near the
Ohio line.
On any given day, 20 or 30 deer wander by, mostly at the treeline that
abuts the open field of the next parcel, ~150ft behind the house.
Local turkey flocks are positively routine, and I don't mean 5, I mean
30 or 40 at a time. ?Raccoons aren't too common, but I see them now
and again. ?This year, there is a family of foxes living in the woods
somewhere just southwest of the house who step now and again into the
yard, generally at dawn or dusk.
The deer congregate most days in what we've long called "town hall",
which is a low hollow inside the treeline on the far side of the power
tower right-of-way, ~200yds due east of the house...except during
hunting season, when they disappear for parts unknown. ?They figured
out long ago when they need to make themselves scarce.
Then there's the possums that often befriend our cats for playful
romps after dark. ?Add in the moles and voles that the cats hunt
during the day. ?I can't say I'm sorry to see our feline Mighty
Hunters having success in that department, as long as they don't bring
gifts (or [worse] half-gifts) into the house. ?Coyotes avoid the
house, but they are known to live in the woods down near the creek,
still on my property but well toward the northeast corner of it.
No bears these days, at least none that we know of. ?But small stuff
like toads and whatnot are everywhere.
I could feed my household using nothing but a crossbow, without ever
having to step outside the yard immediately surrounding the house.
?All I have to do is wait for the game to show up.
Where you live is your choice. ?You made the decision whether you bought
it
yourself or whether you inherited it and decided to stay there rather
than sell.
The wildlife do not have the luxury of 'deciding' where to live. ?They
were
born there.
It's a funny view of "the dying biosphere" that some folks have.
Indeed. ?A biosphere can apply just to a tiddling place such as where
you live or it can apply to the whole planet.
You seem to think that just because you see a lot of biodiversity that
it will always be there. ?It won't and you would know that if you took
an interest in either history or environmental issues.- Hide quoted text
-
- Show quoted text -
Actually, "biosphere" refers to the earth and all living and organic
matter. But it isn't dying. It is shifting, perhaps, as it always has.
______________________________________- Of course it is dying! But then
it is also shifting.
What you probably mean is that it is not dying in our lifetime.
This is not an excuse, of course, to crap in our own nest, but panicky
rhetoric (like declining polar bear population, which applied to a single
population of polar bears, while worldwide numbers showed a slight
increase) serves only to increase cynicism.
___________________________________________ Indeed. But I get similarly
cynical when I see a referral to 'worldwide' number of polar bears when
they don't live worldwide. They only live in the Arctic.
And, the claim that only one population is decreasing is apparently based
on old information. According to 15th PBSG meeting (this month):
"Reviewing the latest information available the PBSG concluded that 1 of
19 subpopulations is currently increasing, 3 are stable and 8 are
declining. For the remaining 7 subpopulations available data were
insufficient to provide an assessment of current trend."
http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/meetings/pr...openhagen.html