
Bogus stories of wild animals flourishing in quarantined cities gives false hope - fortran77
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-fake-animal-viral-social-media-posts/
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etxm
I live in a Pasadena and we have a fair amount of coyotes. It seems like
they’re out in force based on everyone on Ring posting videos of coyotes
running through yards.

Normally it’s one or twice a week, but scrolling through my neighborhood
alerts now, it’s been everyday for the last week.

Can’t wait for the bears and mountain lions to get bored.

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dceddia
I wonder how much of it is due to more people being home/bored and seeing the
coyotes?

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Exmoor
Probably mostly this, but I also notice a major uptick in my own daylight
Coyote sightings in the early spring. My assumption has always been that this
is breeding season and animals with new pups are forced to spend more of their
time foraging.

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mirimir
I wouldn't be surprised about behavioral responses in wildlife to reduced
human activity outdoors. But anything substantial will take time. For example,
if some village were abandoned, I'd expect that native plants and animals
would move back in, over some years.

I also wouldn't be surprised if 2020 greenhouse emissions were less than in
2019. And indeed, it might take some years to recover the rate of increase.

And perhaps, if PV replaced old dead coal plants, there might be long term
emissions reductions. Similarly, if working from home becomes the new norm,
that will also cut emissions dramatically.

Even so, the population decrease will be too small, in and of itself, to have
much impact.

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xbmcuser
Every year 130~million are born 55~60million die. Corona virus is not going to
effect the population growth rate at all. Infact because of the lock downs
chances are 9-10 months from now the number of babies being born will be a lot
higher than normal.

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mirimir
Hey, another baby boom :)

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TenXProgrammer
Sometimes it doesn't matter if a story is true or not, if it brings attention
to the problem of global warming and how we're killing the world.

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im3w1l
The step from using fake stories for bringing attention to real issues to
using fake stories for bringing attention to fake issues is worryingly small.

If everyone had your mindset it might happen without anyone realizing. Imagine
everyone thinking "Sure my anecdote is false, but what does that matter when
his and hers are true?"

