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More evidence that animal life forms are better stewards of the earth than humans

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by John321, Nov 11, 2024 at 10:10 AM.

  1. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    Scientists Dropped Gophers Onto Mount St Helens For 1 Day. 40 Years Later, The Effect Is Astonishing

    Despite only spending one day in the area, the impact they had was remarkable. Six years after their trip, there were over 40,000 plants thriving where the gophers had gotten to work, while the surrounding land remained, for the most part, barren. Studying the area over 40 years later, the team found they had left one hell of a legacy.

    "Plots with historic gopher activity harbored more diverse bacterial and fungal communities than the surrounding old-growth forests," the team explained. "We also found more diverse fungal communities in these long-term lupine gopher plots than in forests that were historically clearcut, prior to the 1980 eruption, nearby at Bear Meadow."

    While the gophers should be praised for their unusual part in the story, the real star of the recovery effort are the fungi. After the eruption, scientists worried that nearby pine and spruce forests would take a long time to recover, as the ash covered their needles and led to them falling off. However, this didn't happen, again thanks to fungi.


    Maybe those focused on the Green Revolution should turn their attention to controlling human populations and their interference in nature. Nature will do just fine without humans.
     
    #1 John321, Nov 11, 2024 at 10:10 AM
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2024 at 10:16 AM
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  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Those gophers couldn't have done that without humans deciding to drop them on the mountain and using their uniquely human abilities to actually put the gophers there, so I'm going to award the stewardship point to the humans in this case.

    Cool dirt science though.
     
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  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    We're not animal life forms?

    Of course when you talk about controlling human population, all nature of conspiracists come out of the woodwork.
     
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  4. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    Boy oh boy Mendel, that opens up a whole can of worms that we may not be able to get back into the can.
     
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  5. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    Non human animals adapt in real time. It’s something to learn from. It’s amazing. Somehow human animals got a little extra something and took a bite out of the forbidden fruit. Apparently they were talked into it by a great deceiver. Then they were told the great deceiver will always nip at your heels. So we had buffalo slaughtered only to sell their hides, bounty put on native American scalps, and so on.
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    the nonhuman animal world isn't always pretty
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    We've watched our aging Shiba Inu adapt to an arthritic hind leg. He was struggling, then changed his gait a bit, smoothed it out. We do supplement his fud with glucosamine/chondroitin and a little MSM.
     
  8. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    This reminds me of the orange peel experiment experiment in Costa Rica. Rival companies wanted to do the same dumping, but without first treating the waste product. Any waste product, no matter how benign, in large enough concentrations may become toxic. When they saw how much it would cost to process their waste, before being able to do the same - They decided to go with their backup plan. Get politicians involved to undo their rivals competitive advantage.

    How 12,000 Tonnes of Dumped Orange Peel Grew Into a Landscape Nobody Expected to Find : ScienceAlert

    Costa Rica Let a Juice Company Dump Their Orange Peels in the Forest—and It Helped | Smithsonian
     
    #8 BiomedO1, Nov 11, 2024 at 4:45 PM
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2024 at 4:52 PM
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  9. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Makes one wonder how the animals human farm feel. Wonder how humans would feel if they suddenly started getting treated like the animals we raise for food, oil, and other by products.

    out of sight out of mind ! Have we know shame at the top of the food chain ?
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    we treat each other the same as we do other animals
     
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  11. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    animal instincts to survive have taken on more subtle forms where races have taken the place of survival and make is so easy to hide the real base behaviors, until they surface again in one form or another.

    Gotta love civilizations dance with systematic entropy.
     
  12. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Hey, I just want my Chorizo - I don't need to know how it was made!!!:(o_O:cry::ROFLMAO::sick:
     
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  13. Mr.Vanvandenburg

    Mr.Vanvandenburg Senior Member

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    No canned ham in the wild.
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    ^Just editorial; took me about 20 seconds to decipher that, lol.
     
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  15. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Until !
    This one is so old, I'm even surprised I remembered it at all. anyways
    Does anyone remember the phrase from a movie in the early 70s


    " IT's P E O P L E! ! ! ! ! "

    :eek:
     
  16. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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  17. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    Anyone into composting will have surely by now stumbled onto the term worm castings. It's the digested remains worms leave behind after they have done their soul purpose, (worm poop).
    Mother Nature has an unusually complex dance on this planet. @John321 :D

    Taking care of all her unruly children

    Surprised she's not any crazier than she already is, because of US !
     
  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    ^ Then there's bees.

    The human race has a Victorian, upstairs/downstairs perception of the other fauna, and flora, that they are here for our benefit. We tend to selectively "steward" stuff that's of special importance to us, ignore the rest. Of late, the wellbeing of "the rest" is suffering, and we're slowing waking up to "everything's important". Some more than others.
     
    #18 Mendel Leisk, Nov 12, 2024 at 11:43 AM
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2024 at 11:51 AM
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  19. BiomedO1

    BiomedO1 Senior Member

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    Whole new meaning of repaying your debit to society - Two birds one stone. Prisons turned into stock yards.:eek::whistle:
    that would make society more complaint, so that the only real criminals would be the rich..... We're pretty close to that now. We get the government we deserve, not the government we want. Less than 40% of eligible voters, voted last election cycle
     
    #19 BiomedO1, Nov 12, 2024 at 11:48 AM
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2024 at 11:56 AM
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  20. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    and Brazilian Killer bees and
    Portuguese Man o War - jellyfish.