acorns.fyi

Tag: ecology

  • Parks & Protected Areas – Band-aids on a Failing System

    I’m certainly not an cultural anthropologist, but I imagine the concept of ‘park’ or ‘protected area’ – an area deliberately set aside to be free of human ‘interference’ for its own safety – would have been completely foreign and nonsensical to the majority of human societies that have existed to date.

    It seems the need for protected areas is the result of at least two things:

    1. A worldview that has a concept of ‘nature’ and sees humans as somehow distinct from it, and
    2. An economic system that can’t sustainably co-exist with ‘nature’

    Regarding #1, I’m sure there has been much ink spilled to examine and explain how this worldview came about – I recall reading something by Alfred North Whitehead many years ago that placed the blame, and not without merit, at the feet of a certain understanding of Christian theology.… Read the rest

  • Belonging

    Assorted Thoughts on Citizenship and Migration, and the Language Thereof

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    Ecologists often talk about species that are ‘native’ vs those that are ‘non-native’, ‘exotic’, ‘introduced’, or ‘alien’. The distinction ecologists are trying to make is between those species that occur in a place ‘naturally’ vs those that only occur in a place due to human action (accidental or intentional). Ecologists often talk about non-native species in a negative way – as if they don’t belong, need to be eradicated, etc – especially when paired with terms like ‘invasive’ and ‘weedy’.… Read the rest

  • Let’s Talk About Poop!

    Let’s do a deep dive into dung!

    Dung Beetles

    My favorite beetles. Different species have different strategies:

    Rollers – perhaps the most familiar strategy. They form some dung into a ball, roll it away from the the dung pile, then bury it for later (or to lay eggs into).

    Tunnelers – these don’t bother rolling dung, they just bury it right there at the scene of the crime.… Read the rest