Disaster Fear of invasive species is xenophobic, says British environmentalist

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...nts-xenophobic-says-environmental-expert.html

Wanting to keep grey squirrels, American beavers and Japanese knotweed out of the European wildlife is now xenophobic according to British environmentalist.

This raises some rather interesting questions: Is exterminating foreign weeds now another Holocaust?

 

[Munchingonfish]

For reference, I haven't ever seen a red squirrel. The only ones left in my general vicinity seem to be gray.

The war on red heads needs to be stopped.

 

[SeaPancake]

People coming into a different country is not the same as animals coming into a different country. To explain why this statement is asinine is just...it just begs that actual xenophobia not be taken seriously.

 

[Marvin]

There's a ridiculous amount of invasive species out there, many are edible. Egypt has had a problem with crayfish since the 70s and apparently they're not that popular to eat locally. Export, sure though.

They're not popular because crayfish are haram.

 

[Duke Nukem]

They're not popular because crayfish are haram.

I thought shellfish were makruh, or discouraged. There's a degree of separation between Halal and Haraam, but either way, Americans will happily take them. I've seen them in my local grocery store even.

 

[Marvin]

I thought shellfish were makruh, or discouraged. There's a degree of separation between Halal and Haraam, but either way, Americans will happily take them. I've seen them in my local grocery store even.

Apparently it varies.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Apparently it varies.

It's kind of like the rulings on dogs, confusing and contradictory. They're okay for guard dogs or hunting in some branches, in more radical ones, pretty much verboten. It is definitely baffling to say the least.

 

[r00]

This is just one prick with a shitty opinion. It's not even coming from a real environmentalist let alone an expert, and this is in the daily mail. If we had to waste time refuting every stupid statement made by every unqualified retard then the world would grind to a halt.

 

[Positron]

This is NOT new; here is a quote from a botanist called David Theodoropoulos:

".Invasion biology falls into a well-studied category of paranoid systems known as conspiracy-theory constructs... the conceptal structure of invasion biology is found to be identical in all key points to those of the xenophobic, nationalistic, racist, authoritarian and fascist ideologies..."

 

[Captain_Asshole]

''Environmental expert'', my cock. Most of the food production on the planet relies on killing pests. What moron doesn't know something so basic?

Also one of the biggest worldwide invasive species are cats but no one wants to talk about it because you get dogpiled by the internet hivemind.

Cats kill a multitude of pest species though and without breeding like rodents.

 

[Nuthatch]

''Environmental expert'', my cock. Most of the food production on the planet relies on killing pests. What moron doesn't know something so basic?



Cats kill a multitude of pest species though and without breeding like rodents.

Cats aren't able to distinguish between a "pest species" and a "native species". While they can be credited to decimating pest rabbits, they are also credited to the extinction of several native species. There's no way to control what species they kill--because they are very effective predators after-all.

Cats kill billions of birds and mammals each year and are the number one cause of death of both, according to the US Fish & Wildlife Service and Nature Communications. While one pet cat may kill one to 34 birds a year, a feral cat will kill as many as 46 birds a year. Over the years, it is known that cats have brought about the extinction of 33 bird species including New Zealand’s Stephens Island Wren.

And cats can in fact "breed like rabbits". A female cat can get pregnant as early as 5 months of age, and go on to reproduce 2-3 times a year with litters varying from 1-10 kittens. There's a reason why there are huge cat colonies in some places--it does become a problem over time. Hence the catch-and-release programs popping up, which only barely help the issue. There aren't any natural predators to keep the feral cat population at a steady level. And humans' absolute infatuation with cats ensures that any extreme measures to control populations will be met with an extreme backlash.

But i'm not going to get in an autistic slapfight over cats since i've had to deal with the public arguing with me about it a billion times already. There's plenty of information on the internet (including scientific studies) if it's a subject of interest to anyone.

 

[Captain_Asshole]

And humans' absolute infatuation with cats ensures that any extreme measures to control populations will be met with an extreme backlash.

Well, they are magnificent pets and youtube video comedians.

On a related note, aren't some birds like pigeons considered pests too? At least were I live they are notorious for spreading filth and covering everything in shit.

 

[HY 140]

Well, they are magnificent pets and youtube video comedians.

and are master manipulators

 

[Ponderous Pillock]

"Fearing invasive species which reduce our biodiversity is totally xenophobic" - Says man who's supposed to be concerned with maintaining the UK environment and biodiversity. Can guarantee this stupid fuck is permenantly in a university and doesn't go near the smelly, awful countryside.

I can tell you now Pillockshire has a pair of national parks within its borders (One I am sure @Ravenor is more than familiar with) and they people working for them would laugh at this stupid fuck's comments. Knottweed has been a serious problem in certain areas, with development of several revivals of former industrial or "Brown Field" sites has been stopped stone dead as a result of its presence. Considering Rural East Pillockshire's own massively industrial heritage (we dug most of our region up) this has been very very annoying to those of us who like to see the area revived.


Flip side, we also have a surprising amount of ultra-rare species, including a type of insect, an ultra-rare orchid and several newt species, many of which are protected by Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Several stately homes in the area are also being ultra-protective of the native crayfish in their estate waterways too, which is good.

All of which would be put under risk due to this chucklefuck's idea of "oh it's xenophobic to let invasive species fucking kill everything."

Dumb shit.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Thankfully there's still a good 10,000 - 15,000 red squirrels in Scotland and the lake district due to the locals understanding how endangered they are and damn near kos'ing all of the grey bitches they find.
They won't die out without a fight, if only worthless assholes like the cunt in the article didn't downplay their efforts.

They will once they take away your hunting loisances and tell you to bin that xenophobic ecological practices and let the squirrel diversity flourish.

 

[Coldgrip]

On a related note, aren't some birds like pigeons considered pests too?

Pigeons, a.k.a. Sky-Rats. I don't know about the UK, but in the U.S. falcons have been introduced to help control those nasty flying shit-machines.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I don't have anything against red imported fire ants. Some of my best friends are red imported fire ants. But you ever notice how Solenopsis invicta queens have fat asses, and that property values get way lower as soon as they move into the neighborhood?

 

[Dysnomia]

of course they don't care about the wildlife when they never have to live near them, same with the paki's.
How could anyone want these adorable animals to be wiped out:
View attachment 425895

I have read that the grey squirrel caries a disease they are immune to but is deadly to the red squirrel. I've never seen a red squirrel in America. I thought they were only

Once something is established that's usually it. Enjoy your new migrant animals because someone fucked up. People need to stop releasing foreign animals everywhere. People used to be even more retarded about this. But I'd hate to see it go back to colonial levels.

We've got all these brewer's blackbirds now from down south. They're pretty but the noise they make is so annoying. They are everywhere. It's already April and I haven't seen any robins yet. Luckily we have a lot of falcons here and they love to eat woodpeckers. I hate woodpeckers. They're cute but the sound they make drives me insane. Especially when you have a tree outside your bedroom window and wake up to organic drilling every morning in the spring and summer.

My neighborhood needs some falcons/hawks. We have so many gray squirrels that we have albino ones running around. As in multiple white ones. If that’s not a sign of overbred and inbred populations, I don’t know what is.

There was a falcon in my yard last year taking its sweet time eating a woodpecker. I couldn't let my dog out because I didn't want to scare it away from its food. Then it left the dead woodpecker for several hours before coming back to take it away. You aren't supposed to move the kill because they will usually return. It was gross and while my dog doesn't mess with dead things I was afraid that the falcon might not come back and I'd have to dispose of half eaten woodpecker.

 

[Sable]

Yeah, the town centre here and the one in the nearest city used to be horribly ovverun by pigeons, but there's been a bunch of methods to keep them down, which I believe did include a falcon.

Another thing which seems to have helped is destroying old derelict buildings which they have a habit of nesting in.

I mean, there's still pigeons, just not as many.

 

[Carnivorous Plant]

this guy is a complete fucking moron with 0 credentials. he's an "environmentalist" as much as cwc is a comic book artist.

and that comment about how "(eurasian) beavers and american beavers have no differences"... how has this gigantic idiot received any sort of scientific platform??

I've always wanted to eat lionfish, who are invasive bastards that can even kill people, but you seldom see it on menus at restaurants likely because public fear of them being poisonous, even though it's safe after filleting.

lionfish are venomous, so there's no risk when it comes to eating their flesh. iirc the FDA made a big fuss about some populations potentially containing ciguatoxins but i've yet to hear people freak out about any instances of poisonings.

the reason why they're sparsely seen in restaurants or markets is because most people don't really want to get nicked by venomous spines during the filleting process (and i think the meat yield might be shit)

 

[CWCissey]

Not the Attenbro?

Not valid.