U.K. conservation not working

[whitelackington]

U.K. Nature reserves under threat

damage by too many people
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6656447.stm

 

[Peter Burgess]

damage by too many people

You may be right, but there is no mention of this being the cause in the news item.

 

[whitelackington]

Well if wild natural habitats are "invaded"
surely they will tend to become degraded.

 

[Peter Burgess]

There are many reasons why a reserve might be under threat. For example, the release of mink into the environment might decimate native species that were supposed to be protected, but the release of the mink is not directly related to human pressures, or 'too many people' as you put it.

 

[Peter Burgess]

Well if wild natural habitats are "invaded"
surely they will tend to become degraded.

Like caves, for example?  :-\

 

[cap n chris]

Easy answer: stop caving. 

 

[whitelackington]

There are many reasons why a reserve might be under threat. For example, the release of mink into the environment might decimate native species that were supposed to be protected, but the release of the mink is not directly related to human pressures, or 'too many people' as you put it.

I disagree Peter, your minks were introduced to our country by people

 

[Cave_Troll]

by , If I remember correctly, a bunch of animal liberationists who thought the minks right to run around and kill everything in the natural landscape was being eroded by their captivity and farming for fur.

Simillar thing happend when some wild board got released because the poor fluffy creatures were destined to be sausages.

 

[Peter Burgess]

There are many reasons why a reserve might be under threat. For example, the release of mink into the environment might decimate native species that were supposed to be protected, but the release of the mink is not directly related to human pressures, or 'too many people' as you put it.

I disagree Peter, your minks were introduced to our country by people

You said "too many people". It only takes one person to release a bunch of minks. So one person is one too many?

Your original point was that "too many people" (presumably visiting or otherwise abusing the reserves) were the cause of the decline. I am just suggesting that your comment was too general.

 

[whitelackington]

Yes, you are right, it was too general, there are of course, lots of reasons why our wild areas are suffering but I would have thought the main culprit was man, either individually or just because the population is ever expanding, where will it end, a U.k. population of 100,000,000
would that be enough to decimate all our nature reserves?

 

[cap n chris]

Decimate (i.e. reduce by 10%) is easy - just draw an arbitrary line around an area which is flagged as a nature reserve and then redraw the line a while later, reducing the overall area under observation by said percentage. Hey presto. Decimation.

 

[Jopo]

Decimate:

decimate
This comes from the Latin decimare, meaning 'take the tenth man', and means 'kill or remove one in ten of'. It is now often used to mean 'damage severely', 'destroy or kill most of': Tuberculosis decimated the population; Cheap imports decimated the coal industry. Many people deplore this, both because of the meaning and because of the use of decimate with a single entity: you cannot destroy one in ten of the coal industry, although you may close one pit in ten. However, this usage is now very common, and seems likely to become accepted.

Perhaps the root meaning would satisfy the 'Hang the bastards' brigade.

Jopo

 

[darkplaces]

Oh dear I can see lots of do-gooders closing everything.

The real answer is to reduce the population, anything else is pointless fiddling at the edge. I don't mean shooting a few in the head, while plenty warrant that attention but simply not breeding the next generation simply to pay for our pensions.

 

[Dep]

Thanks Jopo for 'decimate' - I didn't know that.

Part of the problem with reserves is that they are sometimes isolated plots of something that should not automatically have boundaries. A piece of pristine forest will never be perfect if beyond the immediate limits of the reserve (literally over the fence) are areas that are not reserves and subject to little or no control. Pants and animlas will come and go as they please with no respect for arbitrary boundaries, and consequently the balance within the reserve changes.

So although reserves are a great idea in principle, they either need to expand or conservation needs to be broadened.
Little islands of conservation soon get swallowed up.

 

[Elaine]

Oh dear I can see lots of do-gooders closing everything.

The real answer is to reduce the population, anything else is pointless fiddling at the edge. I don't mean shooting a few in the head, while plenty warrant that attention but simply not breeding the next generation simply to pay for our pensions.

I bred mine to pay for my pension and to wait on me hand and foot.

 

[graham]

... some wild board ... poor fluffy creatures ...

they don't look very fluffy to me?

 

[darkplaces]

... some wild board ... poor fluffy creatures ...

they don't look very fluffy to me?

Let the culling start here, I am sure the fluffy bunnies, caves and forests wont miss them.

 

[cap n chris]

Yeh, people like them are about as useful to the world in general as, say, IT workers.

 

[Peter Burgess]

What has the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of Australia got to do with this topic in any way whatsoever?

 

[graham]

What has the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of Australia got to do with this topic in any way whatsoever?

Read very carefully.