How Alberta Eradicated Rats

Posted by tzury 6 days ago

How Alberta Eradicated Rats(worksinprogress.co)

206 points | 136 commentspage 3

tim333 6 days ago|

I wonder if people could do bed bugs? Those are rather annoying.

hollerith 6 days ago|

And pigeons!

dwd 6 days ago||

The whole public buy-in is very much what is going on in Queensland, Australia right now that is attempting to eradicate fire ants. Even the funding fight to get the Commonwealth and neighbouring states to pitch in, as they have the potential to become endemic to the whole continent.

We also have a lot of "sovereign citizen" people pushing misinformation about the safety of the various chemicals used, attempting to deny inspectors onto properties, and general complaints about helicopter/drone dispersal in inaccessible areas and large farms/properties.

conartist6 6 days ago||

... ... all i learned is that eventually Alberta will have rats, and that nowhere else can ever replicate their success. Thank you, next

yawnxyz 6 days ago||

> Author: Deena Mousa

clearly an article sponsored by Big Mouse

greazy 6 days ago||

Clever joke. FYI Mousa is the Arabic pronunciation of Moses.

mcmoor 6 days ago||

Anglicized Arabic I guess. In my spelling, it is Musa.

debo_ 6 days ago|

Alberta has shown us that proper policy incentives can drive meaningful change. Instead of leaving rats to languish in cellars, they created incentives for them to do meaningful work in the provincial government instead.

verelo 6 days ago||

The irony that they figured out how to eliminate rats, but can’t diversify from oil and gas is pretty special.

gucci-on-fleek 6 days ago||

It's unsurprising from a financial perspective, since both oil and gas (directly) and rat eradication (indirectly) make the province a ton of money.

verelo 4 days ago||

Given the trajectory of the world’s on, it seems pretty obvious to me that diversifying from oil and gas is required for a long-term sustainable economy. I think the more interested in short term benefits than long-term success.

gucci-on-fleek 3 days ago||

> Given the trajectory of the world’s on, it seems pretty obvious to me that diversifying from oil and gas is required for a long-term sustainable economy.

I agree that that would be a good idea, but oil and gas are so deeply embedded in the local culture that it won't be very easy to convince everyone else that it's a good idea.

> I think the more interested in short term benefits than long-term success.

There is unfortunately a tendency to do that here [0] [1] :(

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Heritage_Savings_Trust...

[1]: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/alberta-governmen...

kazinator 6 days ago||

Also, many of them are sepa-RAT-ists.