Because this is apparently stick up for wolves day.
Wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone has changed the ecosystem *significantly*.
One remarkable thing that was not predicted that demonstrates how interlinked these things are:
Wolf eat elk.
Elk eat fewer willows.
Willows become healthier.
Number of beavers increase.
Number of songbirds increase.
Overall health of streams increases.
Number of fish increases.
Water table stabilizes.
This is called a “trophic cascade” and we normally see them as bad things. But a positive trophic cascade is an amazing thing, and apparently nobody predicted this one.
What they didn’t predict was that wolf predation would keep elk on the move so they wouldn’t overgraze a specific area.
When the elk overgrazed the willows, they removed the best source of food for beavers during the winter.
Once that stopped happening, the beaver population rebounded and it turns out beavers are pretty good for the entire ecosystem.
This is actually so helpful because as an American living in late stage capitalism where most people have zero health coverage except for the emergency room, the tire purpose of the ER has lost all meaning on most people.
You guys are dangerously close to realizing specifically what kinds of people they keep from voting and why.
I want to drill this into everybody’s head:
The United States of America has the highest prison population in the world
Black Americans and Latin people make up the majority of this population (many of whom are non-violent offenders)
Federal Prisons in America require that their state keeps their prisons at a maximum occupancy at all times.
The 13th amendment did not entirely abolish slavery…just one form of it. It remains legal through industrial prison system
Oh and we have privatized prisons which allow companies to actually make money off of keeping people incarcerated
Here’s what’s really perverse: prisoners, who cannot vote, still get counted in the U.S. Census. The more prisoners a county has, the more representation it gets, even though the prisoners cannot vote. See how that works? The more black and brown people they lock up, the more government resources and political representation they get. Even though those prisoners have no say and cannot vote.
If county-A has a population of 50 voters but no prisons, and county-B has a population of 50 voters and 50 prisoners, the county with the prisoners gets more government funding and more political represention. This is sometimes called “prison gerrymandering” and it is used in redistrictring.
Not so fun Fact: Southern states that reliably vote for Republicans also have the highest prison population in the United States. (source). So mass incarceration is a double whammy. It’s both a form of voter suppression and a tool to strengthen white people’s political power.
They both tackle the historical evolution of modern-day mass incarceration (e.g. slavery giving way to convict leasing giving way to the modern prison-industrial complex & for-profit prisons) and how it relates to voter disenfranchisement.
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
