Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
15 replies, posted
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature?
The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.
More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.
“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”
The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant factors.
The 2.5% rate of annual loss over the last 25-30 years is “shocking”, Sánchez-Bayo told the Guardian: “It is very rapid. In 10 years you will have a quarter less, in 50 years only half left and in 100 years you will have none.”
One of the biggest impacts of insect loss is on the many birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish that eat insects. “If this food source is taken away, all these animals starve to death,” he said. Such cascading effects have already been seen in Puerto Rico, where a recent study revealed a 98% fall in ground insects over 35 years.
Other scientists agree that it is becoming clear that insect losses are now a serious global problem. “The evidence all points in the same direction,” said Prof Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex in the UK. “It should be of huge concern to all of us, for insects are at the heart of every food web, they pollinate the large majority of plant species, keep the soil healthy, recycle nutrients, control pests, and much more. Love them or loathe them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”
One year in prison for every billionaire for every insect death
https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ap6fl2/plummeting_insect_numbers_threaten_collapse_of/eg66iyp/
Saw this comment on a Reddit comment section. Figured it might be worth sharing.
As a suburbanite, its amazing how stagnant and plastic yards are
people pump gallons of chemicals into their yards to kill off weeds and then proceed to never use their yard, ever
I've never understood why people feel the need to use weedkillers anyway. But, our family has always done yardwork the old fashioned way. We have weeded by hand since as far back as I can remember. And we also don't have a wasteful curated lawn. Everything there is natural. The only thing we curate is our flowerbeds.
Maybe this will lead to a push towards insect breeding/farming? Kinda like that first scene in Bladerunner 2049 with the maggot or whatever farms.
I've always planned that when/if I get my own house I want to set up a bee hive box in my backyard and surround the edges of the garden with native/high pollen plants.
Obviously its not going to make a great deal of difference but this is the sort of thing we need government subsidies for or at least some kind of social push to be embracing rather than cookie cutter green lawns of nothing but grass.
Who would have thought that spraying shit designed to kill insects everywhere would kill insects everywhere?
that was completely different, that was for protein, this is bug populations in the wild
thanks, industrial society
I hate the short-sighted and ignorant side of our species.
Why is no-one acting against the erasure of our own foundation as a species in a larger ecosystem and acting on a big scale to prevent even more unnecessary damage that might wipe large populations out as a result.
They are and have tried so for a while. But the problem is conservatives and conservative governments are pretty much always in the way
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/220592/6155e0ef-e132-4d62-8f35-d4ee49e4606f/image.png
Relevant
Except this is very much not goooood.
The Guardian published a small follow-up sort of article with FAQs:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/why-are-insects-in-decline-and-can-we-do-anything-about-it
Why are we only really noticing the insect collapse now?
The lack of bugs on car windscreens after a drive in the country, compared with a few decades ago, is real. But hard scientific data requires careful and long-term research, and relatively little has been done. Insects are small and often hard to identify, and they are certainly much less charismatic than elephants or eagles. Worse, just when we need more information, researchers say entomology courses are being cut.
What can be done?
Ultimately the size of the human population and how much land it uses for the food, energy and other goods it consumes determine how much wildlife is lost. Protecting wild spaces is important, as is reducing the impact of industrial, chemical-based farming. Fighting climate change is also vital, particularly for the many insect species in the tropics. So demanding political action, eating fewer intensively farmed meat and dairy products, and flying less could all help.
Just in the last 10-15 years I've noticed a huge decline in my area. I remember seeing tons of lady bugs, beetles, bees, ect and now I see none. What use to be a screen door full of lady bugs, now is a rare sight of a single lady bug.
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