They mention as a contributing factor loss of conservation land to agribusinesses raising corn for ethanol. I've always been a bit uneasy about that whole concept*, and this is just one more apparent side effect.
Regarding cats: it seems to me since 1. cats stay fairly close to human habitation (while many birds do not), 2. quite a few cats are not allowed outside, and 3. only a certain proportion of well-fed human-owned cats like to hunt, that domestic cats might be somewhat of a contributing factor but are unlikely to be a main one. Feral cats in areas with larger predators are as likely to be prey as predator. For example, there are coyotes in all 48 contiguous states, and by report they are very happy to eat cats, not to mention also happy to eat birds. Again, I'm not saying cats might not be a contributing factor, but I don't see them being the main factor.
*OT on corn-for-fuel production: I wonder what starving people in Africa would feel like if they saw us raising food and f*rting it out the tailpipes of our cars? And how we're going to feel in the future when one-crop agriculture has turned our breadbasket into the New Sahara? I guess that comes under the heading 'payback is a ____'.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
2007-06-15 15:19 (UTC)Regarding cats: it seems to me since 1. cats stay fairly close to human habitation (while many birds do not), 2. quite a few cats are not allowed outside, and 3. only a certain proportion of well-fed human-owned cats like to hunt, that domestic cats might be somewhat of a contributing factor but are unlikely to be a main one. Feral cats in areas with larger predators are as likely to be prey as predator. For example, there are coyotes in all 48 contiguous states, and by report they are very happy to eat cats, not to mention also happy to eat birds. Again, I'm not saying cats might not be a contributing factor, but I don't see them being the main factor.
*OT on corn-for-fuel production: I wonder what starving people in Africa would feel like if they saw us raising food and f*rting it out the tailpipes of our cars? And how we're going to feel in the future when one-crop agriculture has turned our breadbasket into the New Sahara? I guess that comes under the heading 'payback is a ____'.