[HN Gopher] This is no world for an axolotl
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This is no world for an axolotl
Author : geox
Score : 64 points
Date : 2025-03-15 16:26 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (english.elpais.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (english.elpais.com)
| mitchbob wrote:
| https://archive.ph/FXjo6
| i_love_retros wrote:
| We're turning this planet into an absolute shithole!
| goatlover wrote:
| Drill, baby, drill!
| vixen99 wrote:
| Who can argue with that? Surely attempts are being made to find
| other freshwater locations where they can prosper?
| JonChesterfield wrote:
| Ones that aren't heavily polluted?
| mc32 wrote:
| Most advanced econs are not growing their native populations.
|
| It's other growing economies that are padding human pop
| numbers. China is about to start going backwards )pop decrease)
| like Japan and Italy.
|
| Advanced econs are doing their jobs stabilizing pops; others
| are contributing to growth.
| zdragnar wrote:
| What's happening in China is slightly different. For the non-
| excluded population, there's generations now who do not have
| brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts or uncles. Add on top of
| that selective abortion for the male preference, and no
| social safety net, and you've got the most interesting
| sociology experiment in history.
|
| Japan, Russia and Italy aren't being forced through it by an
| authoritarian government, but are rather experiencing ennui
| at a social level.
|
| America is the same, though immigration helps hide the
| problem. I have one sibling. My parents had six each. Their
| parents had between 6 and 12.
|
| The rapid expansion of the last two-four hundred years is
| definitely slowing down throughout most of the world.
| dmonitor wrote:
| At least Axolotls are practically guaranteed to survive in
| captivity as long as humans are prolific, thanks to their
| popularity as pets.
| krunck wrote:
| We can't keep making more people and expect the world to not
| change.
| tdb7893 wrote:
| Humans will inevitably change the world but there's also lots
| of things that humans do that really increase their impact
| (global warming, farming that emphasizes really high land use
| foods, industrial pollutants, poor stewardship of land in
| general). I think just emphasizing population growth is
| ignoring tons and tons of decisions that we make
| generativenoise wrote:
| Since the popular narrative completely ignores population for
| the most part in the: impact = population *
| pollution/intensity rate per person relationship. Since no
| one want to discuss active limits and we would rather have
| limits as second order effects of other policies. Calling out
| a comment for just mentioning growing population is a bit
| weird.
|
| Since world fertility seems to be dropping, it is unlikely to
| dominate in the future. Therefore, your summation of what we
| should be focusing on would be more correct. This hasn't
| always been true and it is still and important factor to keep
| in mind.
| bbor wrote:
| Thanks for posting, I'm so excited to finally have a good
| summary! El Pais killing it, as usual. A comment and a
| challenging question:
|
| 1. We all pronounce it wrong apparently, even the Mexicans who
| just substitute "ach" for "ecs" -- it's actually "sh", and the l
| is basically silent. An interesting example of cultural heritage
| where I, a quite progressive person trying my best to be
| accommodating to all cultures, just flat out refuse to change!
| It's just one of the best words out there, and I will not give it
| up for anything.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d79EBJYJbuA
|
| 2. Why don't we set up sanctuaries?! I read the entire article,
| but if there was a reason that the Axolotl could only survive in
| this one super specific, uber-populated place, I missed it.
| Appearently it can't get cold, ok fine -- but Mexico is _huge_ ,
| not to mention the rest of the world! Are we so dedicated to
| Leave No Trace that we'll let this incredible, unique, inspiring
| species die out in the wild rather than cull some lake of
| predatory fish?
|
| IMHO we need to be bolder about environmental design, because the
| changes are coming regardless; pretending like we can save
| everything is just lying to ourselves, especially as the _global
| climate itself_ changes.
|
| Just recently, the US Feds moved forward on a plan to institute
| _owl_ hunting permits just to protect the range of a particular
| owl from being encroached on, which... I mean, how can you shoot
| an owl and think of yourself as the good guy?
| dhosek wrote:
| The range used to be somewhat larger, but the environment has
| been reduced (most of what's now Mexico city used to be a
| lake). It needs the right combination of climate and
| environment which doesn't really exist outside of Mexico City
| (and that environment is constantly being encroached upon and
| degraded, although it _is_ relatively protected at least).
|
| It seems that many people know about the axolotl courtesy of
| Minecraft which on the one hand is cool because hey, now they
| know about this endangered species but on the other hand is not
| cool because a not insignificant number of them think, hey I
| want one as a pet which leads to poaching and death because
| neither poachers nor video gamers are adept at caring for
| fragile amphibians.
| SpicyUme wrote:
| The article mentions other similar Ambystoma salamanders, it
| sounds like the others are less studied. I've come across old
| mexican recipes for Axolotls, probably something I'll never
| eat. The floating gardens were an environment that is likely
| hard to replicate in other places, though certainly not
| impossible. Looking at an early spanish map and comparing it to
| google maps makes it clear how much changed as the Spanish
| drained the lakes. The article also mentions that axolotls are
| significant predators so they may not be great to introduce to
| other places.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Patzcuaro_salamander
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plateau_tiger_salamander
| nkrisc wrote:
| > 1. We all pronounce it wrong apparently, even the Mexicans
| who just substitute "ach" for "ecs" -- it's actually "sh", and
| the l is basically silent. An interesting example of cultural
| heritage where I, a quite progressive person trying my best to
| be accommodating to all cultures, just flat out refuse to
| change! It's just one of the best words out there, and I will
| not give it up for anything.
|
| It's OK for different languages and cultures to have different
| names for the same thing. You probably wouldn't bat an eye at
| saying "alligator" in English but it likely comes from the
| Anglicization of the Spanish "el lagarto" (the lizard).
|
| Words from one language get adopted into other languages and
| modified all the time. A very large percentage of Modern
| English words are borrowed from various Romance languages, and
| others.
| nurettin wrote:
| Unlocks full regeneration capabilities and still going extinct
| while your average lizard can only do it for half a tail and
| still thrives.
| dhosek wrote:
| Amphibians are sadly, more susceptible to environmental toxins
| than reptiles are. I think it's because their skin is more
| absorbent than reptile skin, but my biological knowledge is
| fairly limited.
| robocat wrote:
| Not just toxins. Amphibian chytrid fungus is a major threat
| to frogs worldwide.
| light_triad wrote:
| Reminds me of the delightfully strange short story by the
| Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar:
|
| 'Axolotl' is narrated by a lonely man who regularly visits the
| local zoo, where he becomes fascinated by the axolotls in the
| aquarium. In time, he states that he, too, is an axolotl, and
| feels he has become one of them.
|
| https://ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_materials/axolitbook/Axol...
| rumori wrote:
| +1 really enjoyed the whole collection of short stories from
| Cortazar when I read it at uni.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Bestiary-Selected-Stories-Julio-Cort%...
| zh3 wrote:
| Thanks to Minecraft and pester-power, we bought our son an
| axolotl some years ago on the condition he would look after it
| (figuring we'd end up looking after it anyway).
|
| And since they live a long time it's given us an out every time
| he asks for a new pet ;)
| xvedejas wrote:
| Interesting, I had thought they were generally illegal to keep
| as pets, but I see now that that's only in some locations.
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