Comments Cyberactivist has made
About mosquitoes - and I do NOT support using DDT!
I saw some comments wondering where mosquitoes fit in and what good they are. Well, let me educate you a bit, using as a reference a book entitled, "Animals Nobody Loves," by Donald Rood. This was a fascinating book, btw.
Mosquitoes are vital to the normal life of a pond or stream. They are a link in the food chain from algae to minnows to gaunt fish. Many serve as bacteria traps in stagnant water. Some are even downright beneficial, killing other mosquitoes. There are about 1500 different species in the family Culicidae, btw.
The larvae are a vital source of food for minnows and other fish and are regular little aquatic vacuum cleaners. Fringes of bristles, known as oral brushes, surround the mouth of a wiggler. When it is hungry, which is most of the time, for they may eat double their weight in a single day, it sets the little brushes in motion. These create a tiny whirlpool, sucking bacteria, algae, yeasts, and tiny aquatic animals into the vortex. A single hungry wiggler may "filter" as much as a quart of water per day. They can stand pollution even better than we can, which is one point for them right there.
Some species have little oral attachments that include stiff projections, like ice tongs, with which they seize their unsuspecting cousins If several of these predatory larvae get in a puddle they do away with every available larva, then start in on each other until there is only one left.
One inquisitive scientist took a census of a shrinking puddle. His result: more than a thousand wigglers to a pint of water. So, naturally there has to be a leveler, or the mosquitoes would inherit the earth. Water tigers and other predatory insects take their toll. So do salamanders, ducks, geese, bats (which can eat up to their own weight in insects each night), and even the sun if it dries up that puddle.
As most mosquito larvae spend much of their week or ten days near the surface of the water, poking those rear-mounted breathing tubes up for air, one time-honored way to discourage such activity is to spread a film of oil on the water, which apparently clogs their snorkels. Although this fails to work with a vicious biter known as Mansonia because it attaches its air hose to underwater plants and breathes oxygen from the pithy stems.
As for the type of mosquito that causes malaria, a femme fatale known as Anopheles, she suffers as much from the malarial parasite as her victims do, though this probably doesn't provide much consolation to the human victims. But when she takes in a blood meal containing the malarial parasite, the microscopic invader penetrates her stomach, multiplying and forming cysts on the stomach wall, sometimes even killing its host. If the host survives, the cysts break and release hundreds of new parasites, some of them making their way to the salivary glands. There they wait, waiting to be injected into a new victim when the mosquito gets her next meal. (So we should perhaps vaccinate more people against this disease, keeping them from spreading it to more mosquitoes and thus other people?)
I happen to agree that we should not use poisons, especially ones as bad as DDT, to control "pests," which we must remember are a natural part of the ecosystem. And I also agree that many of these poisons also destroy the very beneficial predators that prey on these "pests" as well as the intended victims the poisons are used on (among a wide number of other species, with long-lasting consequences). There is also the fact that the more a particular food source (yes even those thought of as "pests" by many people) are reduced, then so are the numbers of the predators who will reproduce stay in the infested area in numbers high enough to control them naturally.
Many of the problems addressed here have been on target, such as the problem of over-population creating more people experiencing more miserable and shorter lives. This also increases the problem of larger numbers of people invading more and more spaces once left alone by humans, thus bringing more and more diseases out to the human population as we move into what was once a balanced ecosystem that was home to a whole host of wild beings living in balance with one another. The more we try to manipulate and control Mother Nature, and even downright destroy her for our own selfish needs as opposed to trying to live in harmony with her, the more consequences we bring upon ourselves. There was a great article appearing here on this site I read just this morning
- Down With the Sickness that brings this problem to the forefront.
We do need to get a handle on the exploding population of less-developed countries. I also believe that we must have respect for every life form on this planet, not taking any life unless absolutely necessary for our survival. I further believe that not only does a true environmentalist not support the use of poisons in the ecosystem, they also do not consume meat, especially that from factory farms. This is not only out of respect for the right of each of these animals to live their lives free of pain, suffering, and exploitation by us, but also because much of the pollution is caused by the practice of raising food animals for meat; there is more fossil fuel usage, more water usage, more rainforest destruction - both for grazing cattle and raising soybeans to feed those cattle, and the inescapable fact that it takes many pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat - a quite inefficient use of our dwindling natural resources, wouldn't you agree?
According to the WWF, two thirds of the world's agricultural land is used for feeding animals. Wheat grown in the UK is used to feed animals to supply cheap meat, while most of the country's breadmaking wheat is imported. The EU imports 70 percent of the high quality protein it uses in animal feed, some from countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Senegal where there is widespread poverty. Even in the UK more than 75 percent of agricultural land is devoted to livestock.
Here is the U.S., in McDonald County, Miss., home to 13 million broiler chickens and a few hundred thousand turkeys, every stream is on a government "impaired water body" list. The 22,600 cows housed by northwest Ohio's 22 new dairies produce about 2.8 million pounds of manure a day. At least 33 mega-dairies operate statewide, 27 of which were built in the past three or four years, mostly in northwest Ohio. The vast majority of Ohio's dairies let their cows graze on pasture, which requires about 1½ acres per cow. Most of the state's mega-dairies have been built on 40- to 80-acre properties. Ohio mega-farm regulation is the exclusive province of the agriculture department, by order of House Bill 152, passed last July. Previously, the Ohio EPA regulated mega-farms on a case-by- case basis without rules. Dairy farms under 700 cows, however, do not fall under the department's oversight.
Northwest Ohio is particularly inappropriate for mega-dairies, said Julie Weatherington-Rice, a certified soil scientist and geologist, because the soil type, "fractured glacial till," is unsuitable for lagoon storage systems and field applications of manure.
The Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development Corp. is driving northwest Ohio's dairy boom. The company, based in Wauseon, just west of Bowling Green builds basic dairy farms including barns, manure ponds and feed storage areas that sell for $3.5 million to $5 million each. The company also helps buyers with financing, cow purchases, worker recruitment and investor visas, which allow them to enter the country.
Since 1998, the company has built 41 dairies: 23 in Ohio, 10 in Indiana and eight in southern Michigan. Six more are under development in Ohio, including a 4,500-cow farm in Hardin County, and two more in Indiana, said Vreba-Hoff partner Cecilia Conway.
In southern Michigan, a citizens group has documented illegal manure discharges at all 10 dairies built by Vreba-Hoff. In the last four years, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality confirmed more than 100 violations and discharges, including fish kills, and filed lawsuits against two of the dairies. Both have been asked to install sewage treatment plants, a plan that Vrega-Hoff rejects. The agriculture department monitors manure applications only if the dairy does the job itself or if the dairy gives manure to another livestock manager who applies more than 4,500 dry tons of manure a year,
That's more than a billion pounds on an average 127 pounds of manure per cow per day.
All of northern Ohio's waterways feed into Lake Erie. Ohio State University zoologist David Culver poses the very real possibility that manure from northwest Ohio farms is contributing to Lake Erie's 6,300-square-mile "dead zone," an oxygen-depleted area where fish cannot live. Manure fertilizes algae, which sink to the lake's bottom when they die.
In addition, all animal waste contains viruses, parasites and bacteria, including E. coli, which can live in the soil for six to 10 months. Manure runoff can also affect the taste of drinking water tainted by decomposing algae. Bowling Green, for example, spent $3 million about four years ago to install a filtration system to improve the flavor of the city's water, which comes from the Maumee River. New filters cost about $70,000 a year.
We don't need meat to survive, so to me, it is unethical for us that can make the choice to do so when the consequences for many, including our own selves, are so high. I honestly do not see how anyone can call themselves a true environmentalist while eating meat and thus supporting this kind of ecosystem destruction, reduction if biodiversity, and exploitation of and downright cruelty to animals.
And before someone decides to call me some ignorant urban elitist, read my profile. I am a vegan in rural AR whose household of two survived on around $6000 last year. We live in the woods, bordering the Ouachita National Forest right on the banks of the Ouachita River. Oh yeah, and I worked for over a decade in the hellhole that is the poultry industry. I know whereof I speak. And I have personally witnessed the destructive effects of the factory farming industry. I have watched the river I swim in get polluted by the cattle upriver, who are allowed unfettered access into it, eroding the riverbank and polluting the water. Before spouting off at me if anything I said offends you, again, check me out and see exactly how much I have written and spoken out publicly about this. And what I am actively doing about it, besides just complaining.
"Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." - Albert Einstein
On The North knows best? posted 4 years, 9 months ago 19 Responses