05-29-2013, 06:06 AM
quote:
Originally posted by unknownjulie
My gripe lies with the govt introducing something that is going to directly affect my land, and my wallet. This is the part I dont like. Yes, that's great if they want to clean up the volcano nat'l forest etc. but these insects dont discriminate.
The other issue that I have is the difficulties that our islands will have feeding ourselves in the event of a catastrophe. I personally know of entire families that rely upon the wild pigs for a regular source of free food. And I dont want any "hatemail" regarding my "perceived racism" but I even had a kid ask me "do you eat dog"? And then tell me the story about how his uncle was hungry and ate the family dog. Yes, there are food stamps, and yes, there is the food bank, but I still see people relying on other food sources. It is possible that without so many wild pigs and with more open grassy areas available for grazing -that the goats or whatever, will just reproduce more and then be eaten. I dont know.
It's all just such a wildcard to mess with an established ecosystem. I also do understand that the straw guava is really aggresive and problematic a lot of the time.
I'm not sure how to address your comments. Do you believe anything that the EA says? The scale insect DOES discriminate. That is the single most definitive characteristic of a bio-control. If you don't believe the EA then why do you assume that the scale insect will do anything at all? Because the EA says it will? But wait, you don't believe the EA.
If the barges stop coming, a very small percentage of the population will continue to feed themselves by hunting, for a while. This resource will not be available to the majority of Hawaii residents. To assume that a resource that is barely utilized by a handful of residents will successfully be utilized to its fullest and distributed widely, by the same people who said "F*** You" to the rest of us when they sneaked the deer in, seems hopelessly idealistic and compares unfavorably to the process by which this scale insect has been studied intensively by responsible researchers for so many years. It is hugely ironic that this intensively studied bio-control that will have a small but positive impact is demonized while hugely damaging invasive species like pigs and guava are championed. They are essentially the same thing, organisms introduced by man for their own purposes, as were the canoe plants brought by the first inhabitants of Hawaii. The difference is that recent bio-controls have been intensively studied to ensure that their impact is limited and acceptable to all, whereas the deer for example were sneaked in because it was assumed even by the people doing the sneaking that the impact would be unlimited and acceptable only to a few. Everything about the "Guava is food" argument is a straw man argument. Someone who would eat the family dog has problems that go beyond mere economics.