If you make something a matter of identity, facts don't matter much any more - it's about "us" versus "them".
If I was someone with a vested interest in sabotaging the process (of transitioning off fossil fuels), I would try to make their consumption part of someone's identity. It seems to follow that to move ahead smoother, the matter has to be dis-associated from identity somehow. I'm not competent in psychology, so I cannot guess how.
Looks very nice and practical. :) Congratulations. :)
I see it differently.
I don't assign human reasoning to orcas. They have a culture but it's comparable to the culture in a pack of wolves. An exceptionally smart wolf may intuitively guess that cars are created by humans, but most wolves probably don't, and if you showed them welding a car together, they wouln't become any wiser from it.
The average orca is likely incapable of understanding that a boat is a human creation, that humans use boats to travel and tranport goods, or that humans are an incredibly invasive species (which I agree we are), or that humans are threatened by leaks in their boat.
From their viewpoint, a human on board is more likely part of the boat, and a human in water would be considered a freak type of seal. Only upon interaction with humans (e.g. "there is some creature on the pier that made a motion and I got a fish - I will study it more closely because it could have more tasty fish") would they learn to reason about humans as creatures.
What I see, are not orcas working together to stop an invasive species, but one species of whale, often found hunting other whales, trying to hunt a plastic sailboat in great confusion. It's not good to them, it's not good for sailors, if they try with a fishing trawler they'll get wounded by a propeller...
...it's like 5-ton dogs chasing a 15-ton car. One can hope it stops, or not hope and think how to make it stop.
It was basically questioning whether the rising ocean temps were linked to these attacks. People tend to exhibit more violent behavior than usual during heat waves.
More likely indirectly. If the population of fish drops and whales go hungry, they get more inquisitive and try to find other sources of food. Some of them have experience with hunting other whales, and know that biting off fins brings results.
A rudder looks like a fin, so they try to bite it off. They aren't entirely wrong either, a rudder is necessary for a boat. Probably tastes like plastic, but maybe they aren't wired in a way to tell the difference.
Sailors tell that stopping seems to work sometimes. If the prey stops, it must either be dead or not afraid of the hunter. If a boat stops and there is no chase, they tend to lose interest and go away.
And they don't care about big boats, only small ones, so it's clearly a hunting behaviour.
People downvote when they feel someone is wrong, but cannot put it into words. It's common on Reddit and since many people here come from Reddit, it's likely common here too.
As for me, I was not being facetious, I was stating what will obviously happen if the "fad" doesn't disappear. I don't care about votes and don't care about groupthink, honesty is preferable every time.
People who downvoted were obviously in "whales are sacred" mode and couldn't bring themselves to think that some whales are predators who kill to eat and compete when needed, and can be dangerous to humans if they program themselves a bit wrong.
P.S.
I knew of the Iberian orca situation for a year or something, it's not news to me.
A "war" would be if some sailors took along a gun and simply killed the whales (escalating from a risk of losing life to certain loss of life) - which is very easy technically, but both very unreasonable and prohibited. Or if someone lowered dynamite into water instead of a speaker or annoying chemical.
Since there clearly is a problem - three boats have been damaged to the point of sinking, and more have received lighter damage - I don't think people will consider whether to take action, but what kind of action is appropriate.
It would be nice if it would be effective and not leave permanent damage.
Whales deserve respect and are protected for a variety of reasons. But if they develop a habit of attacking vessels, they deserve quick education before loss of life occurs. Since people cannot talk to them, they can only inform whales in other ways that "attacking a vessel is not smart".
Animals usually learn that attacking a type of prey is not worthwhile when it defends itself, causing either discomfort, pain or outright injury. If a young orca sees a stingray and thinks "food", how do they learn that a stingray isn't food? They try eating it, but the stingray has a poison sting. It may not survive teaching a whale about food, but the whale will survive and learn.
If they consider boats prey or competitors, sailors must demonstrate to them that boats aren't worthwhile to mess with.
Also worth knowing about: bear spray. A bear is a predator like an orca, and a human may seem like prey like a boat. However, bears are few and humans many, so humans cannot afford to defend with full force. So, to resolve less dangerous ecounters to a mutually acceptable conclusion, people doing jobs with a bear risk, often carry bear spray.
The instincts of a predator may also tell "stop" when the "prey" stops. A dog who risks their life chasing cars, never attacks a stopped car. Sometimes this also works with orcas. So, in addition to using deterrents, boring them may also work.
Damn.
As if risk of tick-borne encephalitis (which can be vaccinated against) wasn't enough, now there apparently is a risk of mosquito-borne encephalitis. And this particular virus has killed one person whose work I valued very much (alongside thousands of others during decades, of course).
It spreads sporadically however, and doesn't transmit between humans in easy ways - so it has been poorly researched and there is no vaccine. I hope there will be one soon enough. Creating vaccines has become considerably easier thanks to the rush to create COVID vaccines. Validating them without emergency regulations and special permissions is a long process however.
Edit: a vaccine against this stuff is likely close enough. And if there is a vaccine, there is soon also an antibody product which can be used to save an unvaccinated person if it gets severe.
As of 2019, six vaccines had progressed to human trials but none had been licensed in the United States. Only the two live attenuated vaccines produced strong immunity after a single dose.[98]
I once motorized a cargo bike for my mother (unfortunately, she didn't start using it, but we sold it and the next person likely did).
I considered a motor on the pedal hub, but found it many times easier to install a direct-drive motor in the front fork (assuming the fork is steel - aluminum forks may be unsafe to use with powerful motors, or you need a steel "torque arm" to avoid ruining the fork).
In short: yes.
Even fairly far north where I live (Estonia), a summer heatwave that reached ~35 C (humid air) caused a bump on the mortality graph. Of course, it was small compared to mountain made by spring COVID, but it was visible - no other weather events give visible mortality here.
When the 2003 European heat wave hit France, excess mortality was 1600 people per day - more than both sides are suffering in the war in Ukraine.
The total per all of Europe was estimated at 70 000 people.
Quite an interesting article, thanks for sharing. :)
I knew about them, but learnt new things about their model by reading this. :)
Thanks for sharing the knowledge. :)
They wouldn't grow on my land, but it made me curious, so I might get a few puffs to experiment with. :)