Non-native eucalyptus and biodiversity

From Wikipedia:

Eucalyptus plantations in California have been criticised, because they compete with native plants and typically do not support native animals. Eucalyptus has historically been planted to replace California’s coast live oak population, and the new Eucalyptus is not as hospitable to native flora and fauna as the oaks. In appropriately foggy conditions on the California Coast, Eucalyptus can spread at a rapid rate. The absence of natural inhibitors such as the Koala or pathogens native to Australia have aided in the spread of California Eucalyptus trees. This is not as big of an issue further inland, but on the coast invasive eucalypti can disrupt native ecosystems. Eucalyptus may have adverse effects on local streams due to their chemical composition, and their dominance threatens species that rely on native trees. Nevertheless, some native species have been known to adapt to the Eucalyptus trees. Notable examples are herons, great horned owl, and the monarch butterfly using Eucalyptus groves as habitat. Despite these successes, the Eucalyptus generally has a net negative impact on the overall balance of the native ecosystem…

Due to similar favourable climatic conditions, Eucalyptus plantations have often replaced oak woodlands, for example in California, Spain and Portugal. The resulting monocultures have raised concerns about loss of biological diversity, through loss of acorns that mammals and birds feed on, absence of hollows that in oak trees provide shelter and nesting sites for birds and small mammals and for bee colonies, as well as lack of downed trees in managed plantations. A study of the relationship between birds and eucalyptus in the San Francisco Bay Area found that bird diversity was similar in native forest versus eucalyptus forest, but the species were different.[109] One way in which the avifauna (local assortment of bird species) changes is that cavity-nesting birds including woodpeckers, owls, chickadees, wood ducks, etc. are depauperate in eucalyptus groves because the decay-resistant wood of these trees prevents cavity formation by decay or excavation. Also, those bird species that glean insects from foliage, such as warblers and vireos, experience population declines when eucalyptus groves replace oak forest.

Birds that thrive in eucalyptus groves in California tend to prefer tall vertical habitat. These avian species include herons and egrets, which also nest in redwoods.[110][111] The Point Reyes Bird Observatory observes that sometimes short-billed birds like the ruby-crowned kinglet are found dead beneath eucalyptus trees with their nostrils clogged with pitch.[41]

Monarch butterflies use eucalyptus in California for over-wintering, but in some locations have a preference for Monterey pines.

A friend notes:

There are a couple of other problems about Eucalyptus other than that they generally “sterilize” the area where they dominate of native plants and animals

The first is that they are not trees that can survive frost. When Oakland California had its devastating fires that wiped out half the homes in the hills, the previous year or (maybe a couple of years earlier) a frost had killed the trees. Even when alive and green Eucalyptus trees are full of oil and resin and burn easily. When they are dead they are even more dangerous tinder.

The second is that they are known as “widow makers” in Australia because often large branches fall from even seemingly healthy trees. If a person is unfortunate enough to be under the tree when this happens, they will be seriously injured or killed. Even if no one is there, the fallen branches will damage whatever they land on.

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Natural Rights

I emailed a philosopher:

What do you make of the idea that people are born with natural rights? Some people believe that we are born with rights bestowed on us by God but “rights” receive virtually no attention in classical Judaism or Christianity or the Bible… so I am skeptical of transcendent rights.

I’ve been reading a lot of books on historicism and it has become a reflex for me when approaching an event or writing asking who wrote/did this, what was the context… So do you believe there are universal truths about the human condition that transcend a particular context? Are there writings that you approach without asking about the context they arose in ala who wrote this, when was it written, for whom was it written?

My reaction to situational ethics comes from Dennis Prager — the situation determines the absolute… Absolute ethics I ascribe to God and His revelation through Torah based upon a leap of faith on my end.

The philosopher responds:

Dear Luke,
Those are such hard questions. I guess my answer is… I don’t really know! I’m inclined to believe that there are some fundamental truths about the human condition, and moral truths in particular, but I’m also skeptical about “natural rights”. And I’m very skeptical about most of the “natural rights” that lots of people nowadays postulate. Maybe there is a natural “right to life” in some sense, or some kind of natural right to autonomy, but I can’t believe that there is a natural right to gay marriage. (And the question of whether there are objective or “absolute” moral truths might not be the same as the question of whether there are natural rights.) To take an example, I have the strong moral intuition that it’s wrong for adults to have sex with children. I can’t believe that this would be morally good or acceptable if our social or historical situation were different (though I can believe that we’d think​ it was okay if we’d been acculturated differently).

Here are some quick thoughts about your questions…

It always makes sense to ask who wrote something–and to ask about the point and context of writing. This helps us to understand the author’s meaning and reasoning, for one thing. No, there are no texts I’d read without asking these kinds of questions. On the other hand, someone might write in a specific context (and with some personal or political purpose, with a specific audience in mind) while also stating absolute truths about morality. So if historicism is the belief that everything people say or write is non-absolute (or “relative” or “subjective”) then I’m not a historicist. If historicists claim that Plato’s philosophy must be understood simply​ as a product of his historical situation, or that it can’t be both a product of his situation and also a statement of timeless ultimate truths, then I disagree.

But even if we allow that historical context (etc) doesn’t rule out the possibility of stating or knowing absolute moral truths, it could still be very hard or impossible to figure out which moral claims really are absolute or objective. I agree that a leap of faith is the only basis for believing that some particular set of moral rules or claims is objectively right. And I’d also allow that maybe there are none.

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Adam Green of Know More News (1-25-21)

00:00 Conflict solved through hierarchy
08:00 Adam Green joins
48:00 Daniel, Dooovid, Babs join
Adam Green’s website: https://www.knowmorenews.org/

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Are All Men Created Equal? (1-24-21)

00:00 Are all men created equal? https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2020/07/01/meaning-declaratnce-changed-time/
05:30 Kenneth Brown appears on Godward Podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4zJFBO8FRE
20:30 Adam Green, Angelo John Gage on Nick Fuentes, https://youtu.be/ItNwzGr_mLA?t=3084
25:00 Richard Spencer on Nick Fuentes ban from CPAC
37:00 Ramzpaul on Vox Day sticking with QANON, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjzSuKquza4
39:45 Dinesh D’Souza: Is White Supremacist Richard Spencer Really Aligned With the Right?
53:00 Competitive reading
1:00:00 Episteme, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episteme
1:08:30 Glenn Greenwald to RT | Biden administration predictions
1:23:40 ADHD as an adult, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhWY50bzdqI
1:29:00 Whenever I am disturbed, there is something wrong with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a0aogomVqc
1:32:50 QANON as a psyop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLqYCDu_ZcY
1:37:10 American Ideals: Founding a “Republic of Virtue” by Professor Daniel N. Robinson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_N._Robinson
1:41:40 Vaush: Cringing HARD at Styxhexenhammer’s Bizarre Inauguration Day Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRaDkpgwF3o
1:49:45 Cigar Stream #68: The Importance of James Burnham, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWX2lA_iU4Y
1:59:00 David Foster Wallace on being alone, silence, reading, and our culture of instant gratification
2:03:00 Adam Curtis: ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World’
2:07:50 NWG: ON WHY POLICE ARE ABLE TO BRUTALIZE PATRIOTS; THOUGHTS ON BAKED ALASKA
2:13:50 Jared Taylor: Enjoy the Gulag, Trump!

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‘White Supremacy and Anti-Semitism: Lessons from the Capitol Attack’ (1-23-21)

00:00 Nationalism
02:00 Jonathan D. Sarna, “White Supremacy and Anti-Semitism: Lessons from the Capitol Attack,” 1/13/2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_ZHXCqpb4
03:00 Dooovid joins
06:00 The Turner Diaries, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turner_Diaries
25:00 Why Sharpshooters Are Training Orthodox Jews In USA Countryside, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfWQ7e-iRs
42:00 Stalin’s Jews, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html
45:00 ‘Homegrown insurgency’: General McChrystal compares MAGA rioters to Al-Qaeda – saying they also followed a ‘powerful leader’ – and claims that ‘Stop the Steal’ is a rallying cry like the Lost Cause was after the Civil War, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9154623/General-McChrystal-compares-MAGA-riot-evolution-Al-Qaeda.html
59:00 Avodah Zarah 17a: A farting prostitute and recovery from an addiction, http://talmudictreasures.blogspot.com/2014/03/avodah-zarah-17a-farting-prostitute-and.html
1:27:00 Health Professionals Hope Hank Aaron’s Death Won’t Deter People From Getting Vaccinated, https://www.newsweek.com/health-experts-hope-hank-aarons-death-doesnt-deter-people-covid-vaccine-1563914
1:43:00 Some Pretty Good Vaccine News Out of Israel, https://www.unz.com/isteve/some-pretty-good-news-out-of-israel-about-vaccines/
2:10:00 Richard Spencer, Hunter Wallace talk about the Biden restoration, https://www.spreaker.com/user/altright/biden-restoration
2:12:00 Vox Day went down the QANON rabbit hole
3:06:00 Babylonian Hebrew joins
3:19:00 Katboy Kami on the importance of good looks for spreading a message
3:22:00 Lionel on self-hating whites
3:25:00 Nick Fuentes
3:37:00 Vaush: Cringing HARD at Styxhexenhammer’s Bizarre Inauguration Day Video

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