• Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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      11 days ago

      I was thinking about how the buffalo were massacred today. I saw a post showing how big a skinned buffalo was when hanging. Thought about 3000 lbs of meat.

      Now imagine 60 million of them; 5-10x more than there are Canada geese.

      What a tremendous waste of food, a horrific crime against nature and an insane reduction in biomass. Wildlife biomass today is a fraction of what the herds alone accounted for

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Unfortunately, back then, two and only two facts mattered:

        1. The Indians the government was trying to coral relied on the buffalo.
        2. Any land that buffalo graze on can also be used to graze cattle.

        There was land to be taken and profit to be made. The buffalo were just in the way.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Love the way you think. We should be friends.

        Yeah, I get the politics and genocide and all that. I get it. But the waste, the utter destruction of the ecosystem!

        I could go on and on, too depressing. Since I was born 74% of the animals on the planet are gone. Just disappeared. Young people cannot grasp what they’ve been robbed of, the depth of the tragedy.

        When I talk to other middle-aged guys, they’re shocked. “Remember when…?” Hell, even younger people are blown out when I ask, “Remember 5-years ago when…?”

        I’ve seen the ecosystem crash on my fucking front porch in 5-years. Am I’m fighting like hell to being it back!

        Anyway, saw a green tree frog for the first time in 4 years! 🎉