This is green washing no matter how you slice it. While it’s an interesting idea, artificial refugia, like bat boxes or these balls, have to be very carefully designed so they don’t have one of these negative outcomes:
- Act as a trap for the targeted species with regards to predators
- Kill the target species - often through thermal extremes
- Just don’t get used by the target species
There’s some good work about this on (fuck, fine rummaging for paper) Australian quolls
I actually reached out to Cowan to asks a few questions. He was pumped that we were citing his work and using it in reclamation planning as landscape enchantments.
Anyway, artificial refugia should, at best, be viewed as a temporary fix, or a way to layer habitat on the landscape, never a full substitution.
Not to mention that just leaving tennis balls out in the wild for wildlife means all that rubber and plastic and glue and whatnot leeching into the soil and environs.
I actually reached out to Cowan to asks a few questions. He was pumped that we were citing his work and using it in reclamation planning as landscape enchantments.
I’m in a completely different field, but there’s nothing more awesome than seeing your work get used in real life situations that actually match up with your goals.
And people showing a genuine interest is a close second.
Thank you, I treasure comments like this! Does he weigh in on swift bricks anywhere? I do hope he likes those, at least.
I’d cheer to this but I put my nuts in a meatgrinder if these balls aren’t as full of microplastics as my braincells
That’s exactly my first thought. Whenever I see upcycled things that will just break down into microplastics in nature, I wince.
Your nuts are also full of microplastics
55000? Do they use a new one every… uh… s… serve? Is serve the word? Anyway, where does this huge number come from?
A professional tennis serve often reaches speeds up to 230km/h, with the fastest recorded being 263km/h. So yeah, the balls wear out quickly.
I just learnt that there are 660 matches. That’s SIGNIFICANTLY more than I thought (I know nothing about tennis), the number of balls makes more sense now.
There’s also all the activity on the practice courts too.
My first thought as well.
This seems to be missed by… everyone here.
That’s still about 100 balls per match
True but if I’m seeing this correctly and a match may consist of 3 (5?) sets of 6+ games of 4 points, that’s already 72+ (120?) balls.
That’s a new ball every serve
Yes. I know. That was my original question.
So do mine for similar reasons ifyouknowwhatimean
I didn’t know this until recently, but tennis balls wear out quite fast. Not structurally, not the felt, but the air inside escapes with the extreme pressure they endure. And soon they don’t bounce so well.
If only sports balls had a way to refill the air…
Or just set a rule that you use the same ball the entire match. Balls wears out? Tough titties… improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Imagine if professionals had to play like you and I did.
Not ideal conditions because who tf wanna go through 6,000 tennis balls in 1 day.
Wonder what the feasability of redesigning the tennis ball to be like those airless basketballs are
Or maybe sports could be pass times for normalsaurs to play. Instead of some insane culturally mandatory entertainment industry.
What colour are tennis balls again?
