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posted by martyb on Monday September 23 2019, @12:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the better-go-find-me-some-more-worms dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Disappearance of meadows and prairies, expansion of farmlands, use of pesticide blamed for 29 percent drop since 1970.

The number of birds in the United States and Canada has dropped by an astonishing 29 percent, or almost three billion, since 1970, scientists said on Thursday, saying their findings signalled a widespread ecological crisis.

Grassland birds were the most affected, because of the disappearance of meadows and prairies and the extension of farmlands, as well as the growing use of pesticides that kill insects that affects the entire food chain.

"Birds are in crisis," Peter Marra, director of the Georgetown Environment Initiative at Georgetown University and a co-author of the study published in the journal Science, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Forest birds and species that occur in a wider variety of habitats - known as habitat generalists - are also disappearing.

"We see the same thing happening the world over, the intensification of agriculture and land use changes are placing pressure on these bird populations," Ken Rosenberg, an ornithologist at Cornell University and principal co-author of the paper in Science told AFP news agency.

"Now, we see fields of corn and other crops right up to the horizon, everything is sanitised and mechanised, there's no room left for birds, fauna and nature."

More than 90 percent of the losses are from just 12 species including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, and finches.

The figures mirror declines seen elsewhere, notably France, where the National Observatory of Biodiversity estimates there was a 30 percent decline in grassland birds between 1989 and 2017.


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  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday September 23 2019, @04:37AM (2 children)

    by Hartree (195) on Monday September 23 2019, @04:37AM (#897411)

    There is some merit in what you're saying on the reproduction of elites. But, in the past, it's been the normal course of a society. As such it's to some extent invisible to those who are having it happen.

    This according to EJ is a conscious policy that would have to be put into law. Elites excel at working the system to their own advantage.

    I don't think I'm as down on elites as you are, though. To my way of thinking, given that we're both computer using citizens of industrialized wealthy countries, a lot of people in the world would consider both of us to be those dreaded "elites". (I don't think either of us are terribly wealthy, though I really don't know about your situation. It's just that the societies we are in have so much wealth concentrated in them that even the lower middle class are elites compared to much of the world.)

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday September 23 2019, @04:59AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 23 2019, @04:59AM (#897420) Journal

    a lot of people in the world would consider both of us to be those dreaded "elites"

    Being an immigrant from a East European country in Australia, I know that most of the people of this world doesn't look to the middle-class in developed countries as "dreaded elites".
    At the very most, the ones that may look at us** this way are some whose countries were invaded by the "civilized world" in the name of "western civilization values" (or just interest) - a good way to bring up the "terrorist/freedom fighter" spirit in the same person (usually, a psychologically labile one - born or shaped in this way by their life experiences).

    ** the "computer using citizens of industrialized wealthy countries"

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:09AM

      by Hartree (195) on Wednesday September 25 2019, @12:09AM (#898331)

      I didn't think of them as "dreaded". Just comparative economic elites. And most of Eastern Europe has a higher living standard than much of the world.

      Go to parts Sub-Saharan Africa or India. Even portions of western China (One of China's problems is the difference in standard of living between the industrialized east and the west. They started the "Go West" initiative not just for reasons of fairness, but because the CPC worries about the social problems that have come up from the disparity and the travel of people from the west to the east in search of good jobs.)