Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 07 2020, @06:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-catch-a-break dept.

Puerto Rican Natural Wonder, Punta Ventana, Collapses Amid 5.8 Magnitude Earthquake:

One of Puerto Rico's iconic natural wonders — a soaring stone arch along the southern coast known as Punta Ventana or Window Point — collapsed early Monday as a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rattled the island.

Denniza Colon, a 22-year-old resident of Guayanilla, said she went by the area Monday morning and was shocked to find the arch, a place that she visited frequently as a child, had simply vanished.

"This is really sad," she said in a telephone interview. "It was one of the biggest tourism draws of Guayanilla."

Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.2 million, has been jolted by a series of earthquakes that began on Dec. 28 and have been concentrated along the southern part of the island.

[...] Monday's tremor was the largest yet, striking at 6:32 a.m. local time and knocking several homes off their foundations and causing rockslides along some roads. Puerto Rico's Energy Authority said two substations, in Guánica and Yauco, had been affected and power was out in some areas of the island. However, there were no immediate reports of injuries or casualties.

Also covered at The New York Times.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday January 07 2020, @09:39PM (9 children)

    by istartedi (123) on Tuesday January 07 2020, @09:39PM (#940763) Journal

    I think we should model it after what the "first nations" peoples did. In the past, they had major cities but by the time Europeans arrived most of them were living lightly on the land (a good deal of that was due to European disease that caused populations and settlements to collapse, but I digress). AFAIK, there wasn't a concept of "pristine wilderness" involved. They had simply settled in to a pattern that worked for them, the land, and the wildlife. It was a pattern that left vast areas undeveloped, but it didn't forbid trails or even hunting. I think the concept of "perfect wilderness" might even be uniquely European, and like most pure ideologies, kind of broken.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 07 2020, @09:56PM (6 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 07 2020, @09:56PM (#940770) Journal

    Can't sustain the present world population that way. Not even a quarter of it.

    Might be nice as a utopian ideal, but as a thing to imagine happening this century, not great.

    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 08 2020, @12:12AM (5 children)

      by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday January 08 2020, @12:12AM (#940835) Homepage Journal

      I sometimes wonder if billions of people could move into advanced tree houses as well as earth-sheltered dwellings in the side of hills. Pollution and transportation would obviously still have a negative impact on the ecosystem but it would be massively better than replacing it with urban concrete. There'd probably be an increased cost of construction initially and a cultural change needed for people to accept it, but it could go a long way to solving the climate crisis and reducing the number of extinctions happening.

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:04AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:04AM (#940921)

        Build them all out of stone and iron/steel. Use them to create new land/habitat whether for humans or animals. Use that new land to slowly spread while taking into consideration the ecosystems you are entwined with.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @07:31AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @07:31AM (#940947)

        if billions of people could move into advanced tree houses

        Pollution and transportation would obviously still have a negative impact on the ecosystem but it would be massively better than replacing it with urban concrete.

        Actually having most people live in high density cities is more environmentally friendly overall. Especially if you can eventually lower the environmental impact of those cities (through economies of scale and more centralized control over stuff like pollution, water recycling, waste disposal/recycling, etc)[1].

        Some simple math:
        Total forest area in the world = 4 billion hectares = 8 billion football fields (1 hectare is about the area of two football fields) =.
        Total population = 7.5 billion

        Spread the population out = a bit over 1 football field per person.

        Thus the more the human population is spread out, the less undisturbed forest area there is left for wildlife.

        Keeping most of us and our crap in smaller areas is much better for the environment in total even if it screws up those smaller areas.

        It leaves a lot more living area for those tigers, rhinos, elephants, and other wildlife that won't do well living in high density apartments.

        That said we should probably avoid this sort of thing for humans: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/jun/07/boxed-life-inside-hong-kong-coffin-cubicles-cage-homes-in-pictures [theguardian.com]

        [1] Handling shit from 50 mega-cities is a big problem but still a more manageable problem than handling shit from 2 billion tree houses (remember not every tree is the same).

        • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday January 08 2020, @01:16PM (2 children)

          by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday January 08 2020, @01:16PM (#941020) Homepage Journal

          Are you saying we're all screwed then? Because isn't that pretty much what's already happening?

          Why not replace the regular cities with eco-cities. Every building to have a reinforced flat roof with a wild woodland roof garden. Build them all within the same height range with bridges for wildlife to cross.

          --
          If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @03:58AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09 2020, @03:58AM (#941316)

            Here's an LA architect with an eco city dream -- link to part 1 of a 6-part story:
                https://www.smallatlarge.com/2013/01/biomorphic-biosphere-1-launching-pad/ [smallatlarge.com]

            I don't really know much about his work, but I get the impression that he was influenced by both Frank Lloyd Wright and also Hollywood. Kind of an odd mix?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10 2020, @06:26AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10 2020, @06:26AM (#941788)

            Are you saying we're all screwed then?

            How are we all screwed by living in cities? It's easier and cheaper to do mass public transportation in cities. A single hospital can more efficiently and effectively serve a lot more people in a city than if it was located in a rural area. A single park can be enjoyed by many more people.
            See also: https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/04/why-bigger-cities-are-greener/863/ [citylab.com]

            Why not replace the regular cities with eco-cities. Every building to have a reinforced flat roof with a wild woodland roof garden. Build them all within the same height range with bridges for wildlife to cross.

            Because replacing existing cities with your proposal would be both very expensive AND stupid. Your proposal does very little to solve problems for wildlife (better for most of them to stay out of the cities and have zero/fewer interactions with humans), nor does it really solve problems for humans (since it's a lot more expensive).

            Allowing buildings to have rooftop parks is fine (if they pass regulatory approval) but trying to have all buildings near the same height with gardens on top and bridges joining them is ridiculous.

            Making cities more environmentally friendly has been happening in many countries (especially developed ones). Air getting less smoggy, waterways getting less polluted, etc.

            In the future most buildings should probably collect rainwater (reduces flash floods and in some cases the water can be reused). As for sunlight - solar would be nice too but there's also stuff like this: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/cooling-paint-drops-temperature-any-surface [sciencemag.org]

            in Australia, applied physicists Angus Gentle and Geoff Smith of the University of Technology Sydney reported in 2015 that a cool roofing material made of a pair of polymers kept a commercial roof 3°C and 6°C cooler than ambient air in the midday sun and at night, respectively.

  • (Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Tuesday January 07 2020, @11:56PM (1 child)

    by DrkShadow (1404) on Tuesday January 07 2020, @11:56PM (#940824)

    by the time Europeans arrived most of them were living lightly on the land (a good deal of that was due to European disease that caused populations and settlements to collapse

    Read that again a time or three.

    I've never even heard of a culture that so hates itself as new Americans do now.

    • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:40PM

      by istartedi (123) on Wednesday January 08 2020, @05:40PM (#941127) Journal

      This is not self-hatred. It's simple fact. I know that a lot of Berkeley types like to run that point in to the ground, but I'm not that kind of person. There's a difference between bringing it up once in a while, and bringing it up all the time. It's not possible for you to portray me as the self-hating type based on *one* post that mentions it.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.