There certainly are bigger problems to solve than this one. The article almost reads like, "We need a good reason to allow the reduction in nuisance wild pig populations."
Yes, it's very manipulative. 'You care about the environmental impact of cars, don't you? Well we're not going to do anything about that but you should help us out with our problem instead.'
Right? I noticed a rapid and significant improvement in air quality when the lockdowns were first implemented last year. I can't say I like feral hogs as such but potentially being killed by a wild boar seems like an acceptable tradeoff.
So they are going to complain about some pigs digging in the dirt with their noses, but not even talk about the millions of square acres of dirt that are getting tilled and turned over by tractors every growing season?
The carbon emitted by pigs is the one that already belong to the carbon cycle, depending on the kind of carbon (CO2 or methane) may stay more or less in the system but there is nothing new there.
The cars (or if you want, their fuel), on the other side, brings new carbon to the table.
Well article does speak of continual disturbance of 36000km2 to 100000+. I see their damage here NZ, at scales where it makes growing pasture and animals difficult.
> To wipe out a population, you need to shoot 60 to 80 percent a year, says Mayer, but recreational hunting can only cut their numbers by about a quarter.
These aren't anti-hunting liberal states, either. But apparently that's only made it worse, historically:
> But even when state officials encouraged sport hunting for the explicit purpose of curbing the tidal wave of pigs, it’s backfired. Hunters love to shoot them so they transport the animals to new areas. Even when the new hunting spots are fenced properties, the swine are notoriously good at digging their way out and escaping.
> And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It’s only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals’ intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state. Game ranchers set out feed to attract deer, but wild hogs pilfered it, growing more fecund. Finally, improved animal husbandry reduced disease among domestic pigs, thereby reducing the incidence among wild hogs.
They do that here in texas. Actual automatic machine guns, helicopters, huge traps that can catch 40 at a time. They are still blowing up in numbers. They breed too fast and too often. It's a real problem even with no bag limit.
Animals other than Humans and their livestock are practically a rounding error when it comes to mammalian mass on land. I'm not too concerned about the climate impact of wild pigs.
According to wikipedia, they have been around since early pleistocene, about 2 million years ago. So their contribution has been part of a sustainable equilibrium for that long.
The study is actually titled "Unrecognized threat to global soil carbon by a widespread invasive species". So perhaps they aren't part of the equilibrium on some continents. The title of the news item is silly though as if suggesting that we should kill off the whole species and build another million of cars.
I know noone on HN cares about the environment, it's all about CO2, but in case anyone pops in, if you could use carbon credits to eliminate pigs, and this is a ok amount of carbon credits combined with rural money (pigs damage crops (which also increases crop size) and other funding, it could make a big deal to the environment.
Australia has no native hoofed animals. So they damage a lot.
An issue that is being seen is these introduced animals are becoming an important part of culture. Pig hunting is big deal for rural youth. Similar with the beauty of wild horse. Complex.
I think with pigs, because the hunting community is the same as the farming community, there would be very good support.
Climate impact of wild pigs less than 0.001% of car impact
edit: I’d also allow:
Climate impact of cars greater than 1000x the population of wild pigs