Drunk Elephants kill six people

A

Arris

Posts: 4,719   +451
Drunken elephants have trampled at least six people to death in the northeast Indian state of Assam, local officials say.
The herd of wild elephants stumbled across the supplies of homemade rice beer after they destroyed granaries in search of food.
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I wonder if they had to put "Killed by drunken elephants" on the death certificates. Can't be a nice way to go I'd imagine. Unfortunately four children are among the victims of this terrible incident.

"It has been noticed that elephants have developed a taste for rice beer and local liquor and they always look for it when they invade villages," an elephant expert in Guwahati told Reuters news agency.
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Veh> BBC aren't known for joking on their news, with the exception of on April fools day...

But it is kinda hard to believe for us here in the west...
 
Originally posted by Mictlantecuhtli
The devastation of the animal's natural habitat are party to blame for the problem.
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:blackeye:
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Very true. Huge jungle and forest ranges have been reduced to islands in a sea of people. Overpopulation of humans will continue to put enormous presure on wild ecosystems.


What will the world be like in fifty years?
 
"overpopulation is a threat to mankind
they always depended on the same food
some may call it controlled resources
just another phrase for extinction" - Funker Vogt - The Last
 
And yet more then 50% of the earths useable wilderness is still unpopulated and unaltered.


People completely overinflate "overpopulation". The fact of the matter is it that the earth could easily easily support 40 billion people having an acre of space EACH, and yet having more then half of the earths surface (not including the oceans and antarctica) free.

We aren't overpopulated, we are overpopulated in a few small areas because we have horrible land management skills as a species.
 
I disagree, last time I checked there were limited resources on the earth.
And yet more then 50% of the earths useable wilderness is still unpopulated and unaltered.
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What would you have us do? Cut down the rest of the 'useable' rainforest. Then, farm cows on the 'fertile' soil, no wait rainforest soil has few nutrients, so the farm only last's five years, let's just cut down more rainforest. Then, when the rain season hits, we'll wonder why there's so many deaths from mudslides.

How else do you think you can buy a pound of beef for practically nothing? We may have wilderness now, but what about tomorrow? It's not that we cannot use the land we have now, it is the way it is used that will ruin the land.

In Australia, mismanagement of the farm lands has caused deserts to grow; in South America, rainforest is cleared at the rate of 30 million ACRES a year; and in the US, rich topsoil the size of Connecticut is lost to erosion every year and in over the last two hundred years, the us topsoil has gone from 21 inches average to less than 6 inches average.

The alternative is simple, stop most cattle grazing and instead grow food crops. A pound of beef will require around 390 gallons of water and 16 pounds of wheat. A pound of wheat will require only 25 gallons of water and will produce a pound of wheat. Spinach grown on an acre of land will produce up to 26 times as much protein as beef will.

In Hawaii we have limited resources, there are vast fields of pineapples and sugar cane, but very few cow pastures. heck, we even have untouched jungles and lush vegitation. We aren't going around saying, "we have so much jungle, let's clearcut it and grow grass instead." It's about using what land we have already damaged and preserving what is still untouched.

In reality, it will actually be our children that will wonder how could we let ourselves ruin the world.

I did a report on world nutrition last year, by the way
 
Well I disagree with you, we are no were near over populated, and as far as limited resources, about the trees, there are more trees now, than a 100 years ago, there's been plenty of studies on it, when I find a page to one I'll post the link. And I like Beef, no way I'd give it up for more green stuff. Cows Rock:grinthumb .... In my opinion the earth is fine, we have plenty of resources, for the most part, lots of space left, there is no global warming(because there isnt), and the ozone layer is fine....
 
I believe that global warming is still a natural cycle that will continue for as long as the earth is around.


I agree that the earth is 'fine' ... however my point is what will be in store for the future.


We will never be wiped out, but it is our responsibility, our moral duty as sentient beings to preserve what God has given us.
 
Originally posted by conradguerrero
I disagree, last time I checked there were limited resources on the earth.
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And the last time I checked, that's impossible, because nothing can be truly created or destroyed. Once we stockpile all the food in lcoked underground chambers because we're selfish and paranoid of a nuclear war, that's when there will be limited resources ;) And, the same thing will happen when we mummify our dead, as we pack them with preservatives, and we won't allow the nutrients stored in their body to return to the earth for some bizarre reason. We will never truly "run out" of resources on earth, but rather we will convert it all to unusable products. Then our strain of infestation will move to another planet because of humanity's incredible, selfish, all-powerful need to live. :dead:

I'm not a vegetarian because I don't appreciate the killing of animals, and it's cruel or anything, and eating cows will someday do anything to our environment, but rather it's because you're eating dead meat, most of the animals are caged in spaces barely larger than them, and it's terribly bad for you. Next time, when you're eating a McDonalds cheeseburger, think of the dead cow who was stuck in a cage for it's whole life, the cow who's *** you're eating. You are what you eat ;)

And cows do discharge a lot of methane, which is terrible for the ozone layer, but I'll only be on this planet another 90 some years so it won't affect me, and I don't care!

Amazing how a conversation about drunk elephants can turn into something like this...
 
I heard once that a vet went out to a farm where he had to have a look at a poorly cow. Anyway he forgot his torch (it was night time) and all he had was a lighter... He popped on his gloves, lit the lighter so he could see what he was doing, inserted his hand in the cows backside, and the cow farted:p ... He and the farmer ended up in hospital with major burns, and the barn was barely standing after..... KABOOOM...:blackeye:

A true story story apparently...

(Sorry - going off the subject a bit:D )
 
Originally posted by Vehementi
Originally posted by conradguerrero
I disagree, last time I checked there were limited resources on the earth.
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And the last time I checked, that's impossible, because nothing can be truly created or destroyed.
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Yes, I'm aware of the law of conservation of mass and energy.

You can't grow plants without fertile soil. Forests are cut down to grow grass which feeds the cows, when the plants are eaten, some of the topsoil is removed via wind or water, after a few years of this the topsoil is gone, which means that no grass grows there, so they throw down fertilizer, which also washes away, until they pave it over and turn it into a parking lot. This can be seen in the Gulf of Mexico, where fungal blooms decimate fisheries along the Mississippi river delta. When's the last time anyone drank from a river?

This loss of topsoil and pollution via animal droppings and fertillizer will continue to harm people and the general environment. erosion is an ongoing process, but it is the unnatural acceleration of this process that causes so much disruption. The resources are there ... we are simply messing them up, and that's what makes them limited.
 
Originally posted by SNGX1275
Methane is bad for the Ozone? How?
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Methane (CH4) is a "greenhouse gas". Other examples include water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), nitrous oxide (N2O), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's). These gasses all absorb some of the infrared radiation from the sun. Which is the same energy that warms the surface of the earth everyday.
 
So its a greenhouse gas... That has nothing to do with the Ozone layer. Chloroflurocarbons are bad for the ozone.
 
This Earth is Precious

Be warned - this is long - But well worth a read if you have the time. I've read it many a time - It's on a poster on the back of my toilet door ;).

In 1854, the "Great White Chief" in Washington made an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a 'reservation' for the Indian people of the North West of the USA. Chief Seattle of the Suquamish was said to have made this reply.

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap that courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

The white man's dead forgot the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters: the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juiced in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man - all belong to the same family.

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word that he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves. He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land.

But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us.
This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lake tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers, they quench our thirst. The river carries our canoes, and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father's graves behind, and he does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children, and he does not care. His father's grave, and his children's birthright, are forgotten. He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.

I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.
There is no quiet place in the white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect's wings.
But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand. The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life, if a man can not hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the pinon pine.

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. For a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench. But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make one condition: The white man must treat the beasts of this earth as his brothers.I am a savage and do not understand any other way.I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother.Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.


This we know: The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know.


All things are connected like the blood which unites family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, can not be exempt from the common destiny.
We may be brothers after all.
We shall see.


One thing we know, which the white man may one day discover - our God is the same God. You may think now that you own Him as you wish to own our land; but you can not. He is the God of man, and His compassion is equal for the red man and the white.
This earth is precious to Him, and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator.


The whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. But in your perishing you will shine brightly, fired by the strength of the God who brought you to this land and for some special purpose gave you dominion over this land and over the red man.

That destiny is a mystery to us, for we do not understand when buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses are tamed, the secret corners of the forests heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by the talking wires.
Where is the thicket? Gone.
Where is the eagle? Gone.
The end of living and the beginning of survival.
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Originally posted by Soul Harvester
The fact of the matter is it that the earth could easily easily support 40 billion
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That should take about 50 more years by projected estimates.

I agree that land space is not a problem, but food and natural resources (especailly) will be.

Selfishly speaking for our little race though, I can say we shouldn't have too much of a problem. The "S" curve of life will kick in.. As we run out of resources and food to sustain ourselves, our population will begin decreasing in size until we CAN sustain ourselves. Humanity will not become extinct because of lack of food or resouces (aside from global disaster).

You can bet our great grandchildren, and possibly our grandchildren will grow up in a world that will feel the crunch of overpopulation though.

Currently fossil fuels are estimated to last for another 75 years, while nuclear power will suffice for around 300 with current resources. I dont' have any estimates on food though - Homework for someone perhaps? :)

As far as species go, we are very versatile. We are masters of our environment, and for this reason I believe humans can devise more efficient and intelligent ways of gathering and using resources. Depending on what the future of science has to offer, over-population may be greatly post poned. But the threat is there and it gets closer every decade.

You should check some global population statistics and see exactly how exponential human growth is.
 
Originally posted by Vehementi
You are what you eat ;)
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Interstingly enough, the reason we became "intelligent" is because we do eat meat. That one brave little monkey got so hungy that it decided to chomp down on a juicy carcass - And because of this - We were able to sustain ourselves for weeks on a single meal. For the first time, we had excess energy.. Energy that evolution put to good usage - The brain.

The brain requires roughly 25% of the total energy used by your body. Our Neandrethal brethern were no so fortunate to be avid eat meaters and their brains did not have the luxury of developing. Ours did... So we killed them all. ;) Yay Magnum! :rolleyes:

I agree that humankind will never be a peaceable species for as long as we are barbaric enough to feast on sentient beings, but it has been a necessity for our race to achieve evolution's idea of perfection.

It's hard to change roughly 60,000 years of genetic programming and people just now are getting the message that vegetarianism may be a wise choice. For as long as high-calorie, fatty foods taste good to the majority of us - animals will continu to be slaughtered and eaten by many.

Given the abundance of edible plants out there, I think it will be very good to switch over from omnivore to herbivore one day. Much energy is lost in the heiarchy of the food chain.. We should be going directly to the source which is plants. This is most economical, enviromental and conscious route to take. But you must realize Veh, that conversion on a global scale will take many thousands of years.

For now though, I like the taste of a number of meats and I will continue to eat them. It's bad for me and bad for them, but I'm programmed to like meat and gladly fall into my cravings at the expense of others.

Life feeds life - That's just the way it is. Sure, there are better ways of doing it, but hey.. I'm only human. ;)
 
Interstingly enough, the reason we became "intelligent" is because we do eat meat. That one brave little monkey got so hungy that it decided to chomp down on a juicy carcass - And because of this - We were able to sustain ourselves for weeks on a single meal. For the first time, we had excess energy.. Energy that evolution put to good usage - The brain
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Evolution.....What a bunch of giberish:dead:
 
going really off topic....

For those of you who do eat meat, and for some of you who don't. 'My Year of Meat' by Ruth L. Ozeki is a great book and is a bit of an eye opener to the American meat industry.
 
Similarly, I would recommend "The Jungle".. It's quite an eye opened and a stomach churner from what I remember. ;)
 
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