> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct
The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry.
> To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance
> the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deepened the rivers and constructed a system of dams, destroying the habitats of mussels that had evolved to live in shallower waters.
Regarding the dams, I recommend the book "Cadillac Desert" to anyone even remotely curious about the background and scale of water projects in the US. It's not boring despite the what the subject matter might suggest.
Yes, it's an outstanding book, well worth reading:
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner, Penguin Books, 1986, 1993.
A recent perspective on this excellent book by Ryan Cooper is also very good. He says that journalists in the 1970s and 80s were infected with Reaganite ideology and made some mistakes. Worth reading:
>Reisner [...] often relies on neoliberal economics
So, correct economics?
>[the] idea that public works projects should each pay for themselves individually is straight out of neoliberal dogma
I mean, not really; it's not an idea unique to neoliberalism. And if it were, that it is characteristic of neoliberalism does not constitute an argument against it.
Regarding buttons, or rather 'buttony' (which used to mean the craft of making buttons), the UK has many regions that have historical claims to being the former button capital of the world. First it was Dorset, thanks to the sheep, then Yorkshire stole that business, then the Black Country (Birmingham) brought the full weight of the Industrial Revolution to the product.
This American/German story is just one Johnny-come-lately part of the epic story that is button making, albeit without a 'Cadillac Desert' grade book to put the story together for you.
That's about the US West. It might as well be a different country, with respect to water. East of, say, Omaha, the concern is more getting rid of water than collecting it.
The river I live next to had the same thing happen. The mussel populations aren't what they once were (said to be hundreds per square meter back in the 1800's). There was also button factories along the river, and they briefly tried pearl farming. The big problem was pollution, dams, etc. as you say. The river is better now than it's been since I was born - and more dams are being removed year by year.
I lived right outside of Muscatine as a kid. When I was young the rivers were still muddy as hell all of the time. They passed some laws and the DNR started enforcing laws about runoff and water quality massively improved.
Over the 10 years I've frequented HN* regularly (usually multiple times daily), I too have been occasionally confounded by new-to-me abbreviations/acronyms, such that I've Googled them to find their meaning. I can't imagine asking the meaning of an such an unknown in a comment, for two reasons:
1. An answer depends on someone else's effort/time to furnish it. Why expect/hope someone's feeling generous enough to spend theirs since you're not willing to spend yours?
2. You have to revisit your query to see if someone has answered it; if not, you either abandon your quest or repeatedly revisit the unknown.
The comment was edited, originally it said "The problem with the DR part is that you miss a lot of detail" and I thought it was perhaps some term of art regarding endangered species or conservation.
Anyhow, I believe it always adds value to bring clarifications "in-line" to the original thread so everyone reading it can gain the benefit of knowledge, instead of requiring every reader look up something on their own.
I agree with you. Still, you're required to hope someone has enough good will and energy and time to do a solid for the HN readership if you take this approach. I'm not wired to be passive; for me, hope is not a strategy.
The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry.
> To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance
> the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deepened the rivers and constructed a system of dams, destroying the habitats of mussels that had evolved to live in shallower waters.
> Increasingly polluted waters also took a toll.