Men With Guns Are Also Active Elsewhere.

Started by mongers, April 12, 2014, 09:19:03 PM

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grumbler

Quote from: Jacob on April 15, 2014, 10:36:41 AM
I read a post elsewhere from someone local to Nevada, and that person claimed that cattle ranching in that area is growing increasingly less economically viable in large part due to decreasing rainfall.

It wasn't a for or against argument, but merely a note that cattle ranching is under increasing economic pressure in that part of Nevada (or perhaps the whole state?)

There has been a drought (which further limits the number of head of cattle any given acreage can support, whether the land is under BLM control or not), but I don't think that this is seen as a trend so permanent as to call it "increasingly less viable."  The problem is that ranchers would obviously rather over-graze land they rent than land they own, so federal lands are more subject to abuse than private land.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Norgy

The fact that cattle ranching is one of the most damaging activities to the climate doesn't strike home, I suppose. Once again, napalm. Lots of it.

grumbler

Quote from: Norgy on April 15, 2014, 12:21:28 PM
The fact that cattle ranching is one of the most damaging activities to the climate doesn't strike home, I suppose. 

I suppose not.  After all, mankind has only been raising domesticated cattle for ten thousand years or so, and already cattle ranching has wiped out the human race four or five times.

QuoteOnce again, napalm. Lots of it.

Because napalm is not "one of the most damaging activities to the climate"...
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Barrister

Quote from: Norgy on April 15, 2014, 12:21:28 PM
The fact that cattle ranching is one of the most damaging activities to the climate doesn't strike home, I suppose. Once again, napalm. Lots of it.

To be fair, cattle ranching is the viable only economic activity on marginal land like in Nevada, or Alberta.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Jacob

Quote from: grumbler on April 15, 2014, 10:41:13 AMThere has been a drought (which further limits the number of head of cattle any given acreage can support, whether the land is under BLM control or not), but I don't think that this is seen as a trend so permanent as to call it "increasingly less viable."  The problem is that ranchers would obviously rather over-graze land they rent than land they own, so federal lands are more subject to abuse than private land.

The person in question was claiming that it was seen as a trend. That, of course, could be simple rancher grousing; or it could simply be wrong.

Norgy

Make no mistake, I don't want cattle ranching, nor any other livestock farming to end.
But the CO2 emissions from especially cattle play some part in greenhouse gas composition. Drilling for oil and oil extraction obviously is the number one culprit along with CO2 emissions from cars. My own country is in a bit of a pickle. For most households, hydroelectric power and renewables are enough. However, our continental shelf is full of oil and natural gas, and our economy is basically built on oil money. We're a Kuwait in Scandiweenia.

So while we may formally be against climate change per se, we have very little incentive to be part of the solution. Statoil is deeply involved in shale and oil sand in Canada. And it's owned by the state.

Napalm burns out faster than cows do, by the way.  ;)

Zanza



Eh, why does the DoD own part of the Missouri River...?  :huh:

Norgy

Quote from: Barrister on April 15, 2014, 12:30:54 PM
Quote from: Norgy on April 15, 2014, 12:21:28 PM
The fact that cattle ranching is one of the most damaging activities to the climate doesn't strike home, I suppose. Once again, napalm. Lots of it.

To be fair, cattle ranching is the viable only economic activity on marginal land like in Nevada, or Alberta.

Plains, right? Poor soil and not great weather conditions either.
Compare that to say Brazil where they chop down ages old rainforest to clear land for grazing. That's the kind of activity I really had in mind.

Barrister

Quote from: Norgy on April 15, 2014, 12:42:49 PM
Quote from: Barrister on April 15, 2014, 12:30:54 PM
Quote from: Norgy on April 15, 2014, 12:21:28 PM
The fact that cattle ranching is one of the most damaging activities to the climate doesn't strike home, I suppose. Once again, napalm. Lots of it.

To be fair, cattle ranching is the viable only economic activity on marginal land like in Nevada, or Alberta.

Plains, right? Poor soil and not great weather conditions either.
Compare that to say Brazil where they chop down ages old rainforest to clear land for grazing. That's the kind of activity I really had in mind.

Soil is okay, it's lack of rainfall that makes in unsuitable to grain.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Norgy

I actually didn't know southern Canada was that dry. Learn something new every day, I suppose. :)

Maximus

Quote from: grumbler on April 15, 2014, 12:27:04 PM
I suppose not.  After all, mankind has only been raising domesticated cattle for ten thousand years or so, and already cattle ranching has wiped out the human race four or five times.
Seven thousand years ago the region that is now the Sahara was covered with herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Northern and Western Europe was a great forest.

I don't know whether there is a cause and effect relationship there, but having seen first-hand what effect cattle have on bush land after just 10-15 years I can make some good guesses.

Razgovory

Quote from: grumbler on April 15, 2014, 10:19:38 AM
Quote from: Ed Anger on April 15, 2014, 09:59:01 AM
Quote from: derspiess on April 15, 2014, 09:57:35 AM
I feel sorry for you, Raz :(

Grumbler is gonna rip him a new one. Which should be entertaining.
Sorry to disappoint, but homie stopped playing that game long ago.  Raz does enough damage to himself by posting what he thinks are clever comments.  He doesn't need me when he wants a new asshole ripped, he just has to post.

So did you ever work in a theater, cause you got projecting down pat.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Razgovory

Quote from: derspiess on April 15, 2014, 09:57:35 AM
I feel sorry for you, Raz :(

I love my country, I don't see it as a necessary evil.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

derspiess

Quote from: Razgovory on April 15, 2014, 01:43:21 PM
I love my country, I don't see it as a necessary evil.

Wow.  So to you your country = a very large federal government?  Not so much the people?
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

Jacob

Quote from: derspiess on April 15, 2014, 01:51:05 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on April 15, 2014, 01:43:21 PM
I love my country, I don't see it as a necessary evil.

Wow.  So to you your country = a very large federal government?  Not so much the people?

He said he doesn't see the government as a necessary evil, I thought. That's different from "country = very large federal government".

Also, presumably in a representational democracy, the government represents the people and the country. It's supposed to be of the people, for the people, no?