upvote
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

reply
The comment is flippant but IMO it's also a pithy summary of an important argument in this debate. To which some of the responses are thoughtful and substantive.

Tangential: I quite often slap down comments for much the same reasons you're using. No objections there, in fact I wish more people would do it.

reply
I think you're right. Thanks.
reply
Thanks :)
reply
Very few people travel to visit the Amazon especially in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. In the absence of tourist money these amazing ecosystems are being turned into agriculture and logged. In the protected areas supported by eco tourism the sound of the insects is deafening. But a few miles away in the banana plantations the area is completely silent. Even on “organic” banana plantations every insect is killed.
reply
deleted
reply
I walk an old logging trail near my house. 5 years or so ago I was walking and came across a lady slipper. Then another and another. I stopped counting at around 100. I've never seen so many in one place. It was incredible. I stopped taking people there when they've bloomed to help preserve them. It's a free and public place, but on a lightly travelled road so it doesn't actually get much traffic. Anyone that takes that walk at the right time of year will see them, but I've no interest in helping the inevitable happen if word gets out.
reply
Not having heard of this plant before, I was rather confused why people would leave so much footwear on this trail.
reply
Apologies, I assumed common knowledge when I shouldn't have. It's a lovely orchid that resembles a slipper.

Here's a link from the USDA Forest Service:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/cyprip...

reply
haha yes, 100% thought this was about someone dumping used shoes in a pristine area before your comment.
reply
I listen to too many crime podcasts. My mind was going, one slipper, the second slipper, then the body.
reply
Yeah, only publish stories about coral bleaching, animals going extinct, and forest fires. Censor any good news at all costs!
reply
You don't even need to actively censor it; it's human nature to not only solely pay attention to bad news, but also to amplify it. It's generally true for all mammals, but they scale of things we're conscious of is orders of magnitude larger than any other mammal species.
reply
Forest fires are natural.

Coral bleaching seems too actually be a sign of prosperity, not suffering.

reply
Glyphosate has made forest fires worse.

Bleaching happens when the symbiosis breaks down due to elevated temps. That is due to suffering and causes suffering.

reply
>Glyphosate has made forest fires worse.

How? How does this work?

>Bleaching happens when the symbiosis breaks down due to elevated temps.

The first part is correct, the second is unknown. In 2016, 84% of corals bleached, the highest number. 2016 did global warming peak in 2016?

I admit, saying "prosperity" was provocative. It's probably not a sign of prosperity. But what exactly it is a sign of, we have little idea.

reply
I'm not a big fan of synthetic chemicals in the food supply but I can't help wondering how Glyphosate has made forest fires worse?
reply
[flagged]
reply
I think it depends. In developing countries, ecotourism even when poorly managed is better for conservation than uncontrolled fishing/farming.
reply
Not in developing countries. Especially not when in the commons (e.g. territorial waters). Awareness + western tourism is often the only way these things get protected.
reply
Hey there Mr. Jambo
reply
What's the point in it existing then? Just for a couple of the chosen few?

I'm aware that lots of people can be destructive, but there's a balance.

reply
For its own sake, not ours.
reply
Shut up about the exact location, but do tell us about it. Just make it hard enough so the ignorant tourism industry cannot find it.
reply