[rhplus]

Humans, man.

The Tree of Ténéré was a solitary acacia that was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth. It was a landmark on caravan routes through the Ténéré region of the Sahara Desert in northeast Niger, so well known that it and the Lost Tree to the north are the only trees to be shown on a map at a scale of 1:4,000,000. The tree is estimated to have existed for approximately 300 years until it was knocked down in 1973 by a drunk truck driver.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9

[jihadjihad]

And then there's the Senator Tree [0], estimated to be more than ten times older (~3500 years), which was "killed when a meth addict started a garbage fire inside the hollow trunk so she could see the crystal meth she was trying to smoke."

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree)

[terribleidea]

I got to see The Senator while it was still living. It didn't strike me as special at the time, now it makes me upset to think something so old died in my lifetime for such a stupid reason.

[orenlindsey]

What I find funny is how the drunk driver was able to hit the only obstacle in sight in the middle of an empty desert.

[QuantumNomad_]

Might’ve been because of this type of thing:

> Target fixation is an attentional phenomenon observed in humans in which an individual becomes so focused on an observed object (be it a target or hazard) that they inadvertently increase their risk of colliding with the object.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_fixation

[hopelite]

forget 300 year old trees... the Californians cut down sequoia trees that were probably up to 6000 years old. The oldest current one alive is estimated to be only 3200 years old.

On a scale of atrocities humans have committed, I can't really think of anything that is more atrocious than the felling of those sequoias that were at the very least as old as the oldest known human civilization. 6000+ years ... poof gone, turned into beams and furniture for houses. They've been around at least 100 Million years, but almost and possibly will not survive what is the equivalent of 0.173 seconds if you scale the 100M years to one day.

Among all the many atrocities humans have and currently are committing, things like destroying something that took 6000 years to grow seems particularly bad because there is no way to even really restore or save that, like you might be able to restore an at-risk population of animals or even revive an extinct species.

It takes about 150-200 years (we don't really know) for a sequoia to become mature, i.e., fruitful, and then it requires fire to reproduce. Let me repeat that, it absolutely requires fire to reproduce once it as matured following surviving around 175 years of human proximity, not sooner.

For our European community, it seems that the various redwoods and sequoia that were planted in Europe in the 19th century, could be coming into maturity now/soon. They are technically invasive, but at a 175 year maturity cycle, I suspect there's not much you have to worry about.

[isolli]

No wonder the location of the oldest tree on Earth is kept secret...

[b00ty4breakfast]

>On a scale of atrocities humans have committed, I can't really think of anything that is more atrocious than the felling of those sequoias

You sure about? You sure you don't wanna think about that one a little longer? Because I can think of a few from just the last few hundred years