Which one do you chose, ERA?
"A small town's economy. Endangered caribou. Which do we protect?"
- Thread starter Lonely1
- Start date
Which one do you chose, ERA?
Protect the animals, pay people from the government pockets until you can establish something that would make them money without endangering caribou. That would be ideal, but that's not going to happen.
The caribou are more important. Pull your heads out of your asses, move and find new professions if need be. Government should help relocate and train these folks for new jobs and be done with it
No it's not. You're telling people to leave their homes there lives etc it never that easy.
It's really not black and white....they can both save the caribou and step in and aid the town's economy so it is built around something else.
Lemme frame this question in another way that already affects a few towns in America:
"A small town's economy. Endangered coal industry. Which do we protect?"
You ideally spend money retraining the town (ideally into renewables) and doing infrastructure to ween the town off the dying coal industry to protect them for the future.
Lemme frame this question in another way that already affects a few towns in America:
"A small town's economy. Endangered coal industry. Which do we protect?"
You ideally spend money retraining the town (ideally into renewables) and doing infrastructure to ween the town off the dying coal industry to protect them for the future.
The people can adapt or move. The caribou can’t. You protect the caribou and give the people resources to launch new industries in the area, or to relocate to more ecologically secure areas. The people won’t like it, and you can’t really blame them for that, but it’s the only right thing to do.
Wat. So you're saying we should kill off the endangered coal industry and the endangered caribou? Kinda ruthless.
Their industry is built around forestry and eco-tourism. The proposals would end both of those things. There's nothing else out there for them.
People can be retrained and move, the caribou can't. If the town has to die, then so be it. The government should help ease the process and provide resources for the people displaced by this decision. It sucks but it has to be done if there is no other viable solution for protecting the endangered species
I mean, you can still have eco-tourism with protections in place. Many African nations offer safaris through wildlife preserves, no reason it can't be the same here. Just stop the logging and plundering of the Earth.
Between the two, though, the caribou. But the government should still step in to help the people.
Between the two, though, the caribou. But the government should still step in to help the people.
This too. It's really more a question of saving the caribou or not, not saving the town or the caribou.
The lumbermill employs 300, the snowmobiler and other ecotourism aren't out there specifically to look at the caribou. And the die out is less the fault of the town than it is of the province as a whole, due to broader development.
And to quote one of the conservationists quoted in the article,
The town isn't dependent upon the caribou.
Not for caribou. The government position is that any human activity nearby is too disruptive -- contrary to what snowmobilers observe (that caribou don't give a fuck). Which is correct, I don't know. But eco-tourism is off the table for caribou.
That's not what I said at all. The government should prioritize protection of animals while simultaneously aid to the towns and building an infrastructure that will eventually create economic opportunities outside of spectrum that will endanger nature. Of course it's not easy and will cost a fortune, that's why I said that it's an ideal situation.
You're wrong. Human extinction would make a big difference (for the better).
Hm, interesting. I don't know, I know deer don't fucking mind cars, they just kinda stare at you from off the road. And caribou are just a kind of deer. But if there's science backing it up, fine.
Regardless, then, as I said, the caribou should come first and the government should take the hit to retrain and relocate people who have their livelihoods damaged.
We are living in capitalism times. Thats why they will save the economy. You cant destroy a whole town and all the lives in it just for sake of a animal.
Find a way to protect the caribou without destroying the economy.
Why?
They can move somewhere else that isn't in the arse end of nowhere.
To be honest, I'm not optimistic for the woodland caribou even with extreme measures in place. As usual, the situation is more complicated than the usual rounds of hot takes. In the region closest to me, the biggest impact to the caribou is from predation. Wolves use the old logging roads like highways, and it makes it a lot easier for them to get to prey. It's pretty much impossible to remediate thousands of kilometers of deactivated roads into fully-treed status. Then we have climate change impacting the overall habitat... it really feels like it's too late on this one.
Let's also not forget that hydro dams are listed as another factor impacting caribou population health in the reports. But hey, renewable energy, right guys?!! Oh wait...
Very fair point. Still, I don't think we should be speeding UP their extinction if we can help it. Every creature has a part in the ecosystem. If we as humans have caused any wild animals to lose habitat or otherwise caused major life loss, we need to prevent further losses.
If it was the people’s lives vs the caribou I might agree, but the people have options that while difficult, would allow them to live happy lives elsewhere even if the town ceased to exist
This is a bad take. One human does not just replace another, we’re all individuals who are unique. The goal should be to find a way to allow these people to continue to live a good life while also protecting the caribou, even if it means they have to relocate
Easy to vote for the Caribou when it does not impact me directly or anybody I know. Put me in their shoes and I would vote differently.
Caribou. Once they're extinct, that's final.
Humans, towns, jobs... those things can and will change over time. It's not like the tradeoff for caribou extinction is that everyone gets to live happily ever after, their jobs are secure forever and nothing else ever has to change.
Humans, towns, jobs... those things can and will change over time. It's not like the tradeoff for caribou extinction is that everyone gets to live happily ever after, their jobs are secure forever and nothing else ever has to change.
Yep. This unfortunately is a no win situation without government action to protect people.
More info
Incidentally, OP, a little more informative news article about the caribou troubles: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mountain-caribou-bc-1.4619964
It's a little weird to cite a UK paper on a Canadian issue.
It's a little weird to cite a UK paper on a Canadian issue.
Caribou.
This is why I'm not big on tourism as an industry. It pits wildlife against economics and wildlife usually loses this competition without strong government intervention.
Subsidize the towns so no one has to suffer while they work on restoring the caribou population.
This is why I'm not big on tourism as an industry. It pits wildlife against economics and wildlife usually loses this competition without strong government intervention.
Subsidize the towns so no one has to suffer while they work on restoring the caribou population.
this, but unironically.
climate change isn’t going to kill the planet, that’s absurd. it’s just going to kill us (and many other species, too)
And how what number species will this one be to potentially end because of our species? Gah, we are the black plague for the rest of the species.
The town's economy will have to adapt.
The town's economy will have to adapt.
