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Questions tagged [ecology]

a branch of biology and the scientific study of the interactions of organisms with their environment.

12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is the honey bee apocalypse real?

In 2013 Time magazine wrote A World Without Bees: The Price We’ll Pay If We Don’t Figure Out What’s Killing the Honeybee. In 2021 New York Post writes Why the honey bee ‘apocalypse’ is based on a ...
pinegulf's user avatar
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27 votes
4 answers
5k views

Is moderated livestock grazing an effective countermeasure for desertification?

In this TED talk from 2013, Allan Savory claims that livestock/cattle grazing (not industrial farming, but rather some frugal grazing of herds) help prevent and reverse desertification processes, ...
einpoklum's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
511 views

Did cultivated amaranth "almost disappear" from the Americas from the 1500s to the 1970s?

Iowa State University claims: After the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in Mexico in the early 1500s, amaranth almost disappeared in the Americas as a crop until research began on it in the U.S. ...
Avery's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
305 views

Is electric pulse fishing less ecologically harmful than beam trawl fishing? [closed]

The Netherlands have championed a technique for fishing which uses electric shocks to lure fish into their nets. It is called electric pulse fishing. The Dutch state (and fishing lobby) maintains that ...
digitalheir's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
265 views

Is transportation highly pollution intensive, relative to production?

The text of this paper, Batra and Belladi (2012), claims: transportation is highly pollution intensive, specially relative to production They provide some more context: With international ...
got trolled too much this week's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
173 views

Does forest therapy (Shinrin-yoku) improve the immune system?

According to shinrin-yoku.org, forests help to improve the immune system, including the part that fights cancer: But in the past several decades there have been many scientific studies that are ...
gerrit's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
199 views

Does light pollution matter for Insect declines and agroecosystems?

Recently it was claimed that the increase in artificial light at night was a significant contributor to the 'ecological armageddon' of decreasing insect populations. It was further argued that the ...
LangLаngС's user avatar
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27 votes
1 answer
6k views

In California, is water from the north diverted into the Pacific Ocean?

Possibly addressing the Californian wildfires, president Donald Trump claims that in California "water coming from the north" is "being diverted into the Pacific Ocean". Governor Jerry Brown must ...
SQB's user avatar
  • 3,339
43 votes
1 answer
8k views

Is "Earth Overshoot Day" a useful or reliable metric of humanity's effect on the world?

Apparently, we are rapidly approaching Earth overshoot day and that day gets earlier every year. The Guardian explains: Humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive ...
matt_black's user avatar
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24 votes
2 answers
7k views

Do Americans use 500 million straws per day?

CNN claims that Americans use 500 million straws per day. Every day, Americans throw away 500 million plastic straws, enough to circle the Earth twice, or fill 125 school buses. Other sources ...
David says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
478 views

Is climate change causing jellyfish to wash up on the beach?

The following article Thousands of Venomous Portuguese Man O’ Wars Wash Ashore in Australia: ‘It Was the Stuff Of Nightmares’ details an event where a large number of a jellyfish creatures washed up ...
user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
600 views

Are species becoming extinct at a rate of 0.01%-0.1% per annum?

The World Wide Fund for Nature warns that there is, in fact, a very serious biodiversity crisis. And illustrates this with an unreferenced "scientific analysis" These experts calculate that ...
BlueMoon93's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is the Great Barrier Reef dead after 25,000,000 years of being alive?

The New York Post published an article in 2016 titled Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016). The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness. It was 25 ...
Anon's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
714 views

Do Kaziranga National Park workers shoot and kill poachers?

Bored Panda reports: Kaziranga National Park is a story of success when it comes to conservation of rhinos – but what they’ve done to achieve it is allowing its workers to shoot and even kill ...
WGroleau's user avatar
  • 409
9 votes
1 answer
662 views

Are there more tigers in private ownership in the US than there are in the wild?

According to the WWF there are more tigers in US backyards than live in the wild. http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/more-tigers-in-american-backyards-than-in-the-wild I have heard variants of ...
GeoffAtkins's user avatar

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