Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'.

[Animavore]

Worrying.

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.


....


“The main cause of the decline is agricultural intensification,” Sánchez-Bayo said. “That means the elimination of all trees and shrubs that normally surround the fields, so there are plain, bare fields that are treated with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.” He said the demise of insects appears to have started at the dawn of the 20th century, accelerated during the 1950s and 1960s and reached “alarming proportions” over the last two decades.

He thinks new classes of insecticides introduced in the last 20 years, including neonicotinoids and fipronil, have been particularly damaging as they are used routinely and persist in the environment: “They sterilise the soil, killing all the grubs.” This has effects even in nature reserves nearby; the 75% insect losses recorded in Germany were in protected areas.

....

In the tropics, where industrial agriculture is often not yet present, the rising temperatures due to climate change are thought to be a significant factor in the decline. The species there have adapted to very stable conditions and have little ability to change, as seen in Puerto Rico.

Let me be quite clear here. If you vote for dangerous fuckwits who deny climate change and strip environmental regulations you are one dumb, destructive motherfucker.

[pErvinalia]

But.. but.. Social Justice Warriors!

[Tero]

It’s really surprising how right wingers seem to think enterprise and free market is the solution to everything. Somehow temporary profits are always the most important.

[Seabass]

The economy is BOOMING!

[pErvinalia]

And imagine how many insects would be dead under COMMUNISM!!

[Woodbutcher]

Body lice, mosquitoes, black flies, sand flies, horse flies and shit flies will be doing just fine.

[BarnettNewman]

Body lice, mosquitoes, black flies, sand flies, horse flies and shit flies will be doing just fine.

Indeed I can see tweets like Trump’s climate change ones “What insect crisis? I’ve got flies around me all the time!!”

[Tero]

I used to have this cartoon in my lab, Ziggy or somerhing. It was a one panel thing saying ”how many species do we need?” and showing three things: chicken nugget, hamburger and maybe bacon.