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“Scientists” Reach New Level of Stupidity: Claim They Know There’s 20,000,000,000,000,000 Ants On Earth

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On 9/23/2022 at 9:06 AM, East Coast Aztec said:

When you think of the impact ants have on ecosystems, and how their presence is a reflection on the viability of said ecosystems, having some measure of an estimate is pretty nice to have.  If we start seeing heavy fluctuations due to some set of events, it may indicate habitat and environmental changes.  By your same notion, it is stupid to attempt to quantify CO2 emissions, endangered species counts, human physiological changes in the macro, just because we won't ever be able to capture all the counts without an error range.  As has been already stated, this is an amalgamation of hundreds of on-ground analysis and extrapolations from around the world and various habitats using longitudinal and applied research to ascertain the data.  No one is claiming a high level of preciseness, and they even note they are lowballing the figure to not overstate the estimate.  Calling things stupid because you either don't grasp this very basic premise without providing any example as to why other than "because it might be wrong" essentially equates to not believing much of anything, because most things in science are unquantifiable, not fully provable, or have stated confounding variables.   

Would love to hear your thoughts in church.  Probably be a real debbie downer. 

ha ha. The scientists are establishing a baseline so then they can weaponize it later and declare a crisis and demand more money and foment fear when they, at a later time, deem the world's population of ants is "collapsing". It's stupid because how can anyone possibly know to any meaningful degree of certainty how many ants there are on planet earth. It's like trying to count the individual grains of sand on the sea shore.

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On 9/23/2022 at 9:22 AM, happycamper said:

"the number of something" is objectively quantifiable bob it's kinda the definition of "quantifiable". A more useful measure is the number of ant colonies per square kilometer or something but knowing the average pop per colony matters too. once you have those two for described ant species and a decent estimate of undiscovered species you can build this without much effort. 

Is it really quantifiable if the actual number CANNOT be ascertained, or even close?

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On 9/23/2022 at 9:07 AM, Bob said:

ha ha. The scientists are establishing a baseline so then they can weaponize it later and declare a crisis and demand more money and foment fear when they, at a later time, deem the world's population of ants is "collapsing". It's stupid because how can anyone possibly know to any meaningful degree of certainty how many ants there are on planet earth. It's like trying to count the individual grains of sand on the sea shore.

Did you read the entire thread before writing the bolded sentence? 

With respect to the rest of your conspiracy theory reply, I honestly feel sorry for you if your mind immediately registers suspicion when science/scientists attempt to quantify things in nature. How tiring.

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:02 AM, East Coast Aztec said:

It is a big number.  I am blown away by the notion of infinity

Big numbers are, indeed, very hard for us to comprehend.  The JWST deep field photo illustrated this, it was hard to wrap my mind around even though I had seen the numbers written out.  

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On 9/23/2022 at 12:07 PM, Bob said:

ha ha. The scientists are establishing a baseline so then they can weaponize it later and declare a crisis and demand more money and foment fear when they, at a later time, deem the world's population of ants is "collapsing". It's stupid because how can anyone possibly know to any meaningful degree of certainty how many ants there are on planet earth.

so you're arguing

1 - never count anything so we don't know if they are dying and

2. you can't count basic shit?

Bob you realize the census doesn't count everyone right? and uses estimates? 

and that the calorie count of your food is found the same way? 

and your power bill?

and the national gdp?

and sports analytics?

On 9/23/2022 at 12:07 PM, Bob said:

It's like trying to count the individual grains of sand on the sea shore.

which is absolutely possible and is, frankly, pretty easy, to within an order of magnitude. 

On 9/23/2022 at 12:10 PM, Bob said:

Is it really quantifiable if the actual number CANNOT be ascertained, or even close?

I mean... for one, yes. Something that is "unquantifiable" is "how much better sex is than pooping" or "what is good about art". 

something that is objectably "quantifiable" is "how many of something there are". that is literally what a quantity is bob. 

for that matter, the actual number can be ascertained, fairly closely - certainyl to within an order of magnitude. 

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:13 AM, Posturedoc said:

Did you read the entire thread before writing the bolded sentence? 

With respect to the rest of your conspiracy theory reply, I honestly feel sorry for you if your mind immediately registers suspicion when science/scientists attempt to quantify things in nature. How tiring.

I saw this article days ago and then the next day I saw an article said that there are so many ants on the earth because of climate change. How tiring, indeed.

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On 9/23/2022 at 12:47 PM, Bob said:

I saw this article days ago and then the next day I saw an article said that there are so many ants on the earth because of climate change. How tiring, indeed.

yeah bob. heat helps cold blooded insects. increased carbon dioxide helps insects. what wild things will those tiring scientists come up with next!?!?!?!?!?

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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Here's an example of how the Politicians and water engineers chose to ignore "the Science" over something seemingly "unquantifiable" and it is biting us in the ass today. It's known as the Colorado River Compact. They ignored Science and made promises that can't be delivered upon.

 

https://www.vox.com/2022/9/23/23357093/colorado-river-drought-cuts

"We don't have evidence but, we have lot's of theories."

Americans Mayor

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:53 AM, happycamper said:

yeah bob. heat helps cold blooded insects. increased carbon dioxide helps insects. what wild things will those tiring scientists come up with next!?!?!?!?!?

The Carboniferous period saw insects make up almost all animal biomass on dry land.  This period was marked by a near uniform tropical environment and a carbon dioxide level of 1500 PPM, over 3 times today.  Dragon flies the size of red tail hawks and shit.  Your reasoning tracks.  

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:53 AM, happycamper said:

yeah bob. heat helps cold blooded insects. increased carbon dioxide helps insects. what wild things will those tiring scientists come up with next!?!?!?!?!?

Everything can be blamed on climate change! How convenient. Well-connected people will demand more and more money to fix it. All while you give up your freedoms. And how do they know there has been an increase in ants when it's impossible to know how many ants there are in the first place. It's ridiculous

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On 9/23/2022 at 10:59 AM, Spaztecs said:

Here's an example of how the Politicians and water engineers chose to ignore "the Science" over something seemingly "unquantifiable" and it is biting us in the ass today. It's known as the Colorado River Compact. They ignored Science and made promises that can't be delivered upon.

 

https://www.vox.com/2022/9/23/23357093/colorado-river-drought-cuts

Who would have thpught settling millions and millions of people in the desert would cause there to be no water. Weird.

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On 9/23/2022 at 11:13 AM, Bob said:

Everything can be blamed on climate change! How convenient. Well-connected people will demand more and more money to fix it. All while you give up your freedoms.

What do you mean "blame" here?  A more robust ant and insect population would be one of the benefits from climate change.  

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On 9/23/2022 at 1:13 PM, Bob said:

Everything can be blamed on climate change! How convenient. Well-connected people will demand more and more money to fix it. All while you give up your freedoms.

bob what single thing blamed on climate change have you ever thought "yeah that tracks"

 

?

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

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On 9/23/2022 at 11:15 AM, halfmanhalfbronco said:

What do you mean "blame" here?  A more robust ant and insect population would be one of the benefits from climate change.  

There is no proof one way or the other that ants have decreased or increased their population in recent years. That's the point. The whole thing is stupid because such things cannot be known to a a degree of certainty to be deemed useful for any practical purpose.

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On 9/23/2022 at 11:18 AM, Bob said:

There is no proof one way or the other that ants have decreased or increased their population in recent years. That's the point. The whole thing is stupid because such things cannot be known to a a degree of certainty to be deemed useful for any practical purpose.

Well good news is now we have a baseline global number to compare against future studies :) 

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