Comments on: Falsehood: Nature maintains balance.

By: Li D

Li D — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 07:11:23 +0000

“But in some cases, a certain kind of grass has taken over, and this grass species seems to be dominant and terminal. This is the species that will exist here until some major disturbance or climate change wipes it out. No forest, just Imperata grass, or so it seems.”

Oh yes does bloody seem so. At least that’s my experience with gamba grass.
Seems to form a monoculture that I reckon will be around till the sun blows up.

Do you wanna know something really fucked up. The original gamba imported wasn’t good enough, so the ag mob sought a cultivar that was and I quote “easily established”, “highly productive”, “drought resistant”, “adapted to seasonally wet tropics”, and “adapted to a wide range of soils”.
The absolute fuckwits were essentially enabling biological warfare on the bush.
Let’s get a really bad weed and make it worse.

By: MPL

MPL — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:23:13 +0000

If you bulldoze several hundred acres of old forest, eventually there will be old forest there again, for instance.

Similarly, if you shoot your neighbor, eventually someone else will move into his old house.

By: george.w

george.w — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:03:53 +0000

Having lived in Washington state for part of my life, I am familiar with Weyerhaeuser propaganda with things like; “There are more trees in North America than there were when Columbus arrived.”

Probably not true, and if true, irrelevant. Replanted forests, especially if cut every thirty years, are not the same thing as the staggeringly complex ecology of old-growth. Not the same thing at all.

By: Jim Thomerson

Jim Thomerson — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:09:47 +0000

There are species, called j-adapted, which are pioneer species which modify their habitat such that they can no longer survive there as succession goes on. There are K-adapted species which tend to maintain their population in a particular area for long periods of time. These are the climax species. I haven’t kept up with community ecology, so I don’t know how the idea of climax associations is viewed today.

I do think it important to consider if humans are j or K adapted, or what. I think we are biologically K-adapted but are behaving in a j-adapted manner.

By: Katkinkate

Katkinkate — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:41:49 +0000

” “Jared, no one in all of history has ever said “Weka Wersa”. But I get your point!”
I say it all the time… It’s a wonderful way to introduce a little linguistics into a conversation and to explain that language, like culture, changes through the generations…”

That’s a good way to get a nerdy reputation, mate. I really like, “Cogito, ergo doleo”. Can I keep it?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:58:57 +0000

Travc: Good point, and yes, that was very much on my mind but I did not toucn on it at all. There is some aspect like that to many of the falsehoods. They serve a purpose!

By: travc

travc — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:52:21 +0000

An angle you don’t quite make clear that I think is important. The notion that “nature maintains balance” is wishful/comforting thinking. Doesn’t make it any more true, but does help explain why so many people hold onto the falsehood.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:56:07 +0000

Ok, I’ll say “Wekawersa” for a few days and report back….

By: gruebait

gruebait — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:51:42 +0000

Many, many years ago, in Latin class with a teacher who was quite pointed about the fact that she was teaching “classical Latin, not Church Latin,” it most certainly would have been pronounced “Weka Wersa”.

By: jj

jj — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:37:08 +0000

Awesome, thanks for the explanation. Makes sense!