What? You do know what the Smokey The Bear Effect is, don't you?
The Smokey The Bear example of the effect is somewhat complicated. The best example of the effect is what happened in China in the late 50s, early 60s -
They wanted to increase crop production. They noticed that birds eat the crop. Which is 100% true. Birds eat the crop.
So they killed as many birds as they could. Because if there were no more birds eating the crop, then they'd have more crop. And that's 100% true.... on it's own.
But what else happens? Birds eat bugs. And without the birds eating the bugs, the insect population exploded. Instead of crop production increasing, it instead decreased by 70%. A farmer that grew enough food to feed 100 families, now only grew enough for 30. 40 million people didn't just go hungry. 40 million people starved to death.
Yes it is true that masks prevent your spittle from hitting others in the face when you talk. It is 100% true that masks limit the distance that you breathe out viruses. Those are 100% true. 100% UNDENIABLY TRUE!! Just like it's 100% undeniably true that if you kill all the birds, then there won't be any birds eating your crop.
But other things happen when people wear masks. They're more likely to go out when sick or potentially sick, believing that it's ok because they have a mask on. They touch the mask with their hands, transferring everything on their hands onto the mask to eventually be breathed in. Viruses get sucked into the mask in one place or area, transported to other places and areas, where they are blown out of the mask spreading viruses that much more.
It's the Smokey The Bear Effect. The intent makes perfect sense on its own..... On it's own it makes perfect sense.... On it's own it is 100% undeniably true and makes perfect sense...... But due to other outside factors, you end up with the exact opposite result.
That comment of mine was just a shitpost, but thanks for the background.
How does smokey the bear come into it though? Did that campaign result in people being less careful with camp fires somehow? Or did the massive crackdown on forest fires make the ones that did happen more catastrophic?
Without fires burning through the forest on a regular basis, the undergrowth gets too thick. So when it does catch fire, it burns much hotter.
Forest fires are a natural thing. And established trees survive them. Unless the fire burns hot enough to burn the established trees.
Humans carelessly starting forest fires (for the most part) kept the undergrowth down and kept the forests that much healthier. Also the forest service extinguishing both natural and man made forest fires as quick as possible, allowed the undergrowth to build up.
Now when there's a fire, it completely destroys the forest. Even trees that have stood for hundreds of years. And once a fire gets going, it spreads and spreads. Because there are no natural firebreaks where a fire burned through an area years before and burned up all the fuel.
Then there's the health of the forest. With the undergrowth getting too thick, it takes too much of the nutrients out of the soil, killing the trees. Some tree's seeds will only germinate after a small fire. Forest fires are a natural thing that forests evolved around. Then man started messing with nature, trying to do what they thought was best, and things got all fucked up.
Add in that people now think that all fires are bad, and the forest service can't do controlled burns without people freaking out.
In the end, the intent was a good and noble one. They were trying to save the forests. But the result is that they killed the forests.
Sorry for the rambling. I think I repeated myself about ten times there.
Thanks. And yeah, that's what I'd heard. I'd also heard that small fires are a part of some of those trees life-cycle, since their seeds are programmed to wait for a fire to germinate, so they can take advantage of the clear brush when they sproud.
I also suspect they're deliberately cutting down on controlled burns to cause uncontrollable fires for political purposes.
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