I went to Disney World/NASA space center in Orlando a few years back.
One impression I got was: For a place with some many water around, there were no mosquito and extremely quiet- no bird noise and no cricket noise at all.
75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
111–120 of 454 posts
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#112Presumably this is similar here in the U.S.? In the 80's and 90's the fronts of our cars would get so encrusted with mashed bugs that it would take real scrubbing to get them off. I haven't had to do that in many years.
If you really want that experience again you can go drive around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota in June. I had to stop at a gas station very 30 mins because I could literally not see through my wind shield.
Really? I was in the boundary waters in June and I certainly didn't have that problem driving. It wasn't until we were camping in the boundary waters that bugs became a problem.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#113Being an earth dwelling human, this seems pretty bad. Aside from buying ammo or survival rations, what's something proactive that I can do? Is there an organization that is trying to rid the world of pesticides (assuming that's the cause)? If I opt to call my representatives, what am I calling in support of/against? Over the last year, reading the news had made me more passive and worried. I want to dedicate a slice…
> I want to dedicate a slice of time to doing something to solve the problem Eat less meat (huge environmental impact!), bike more, don't consume as much non-local food, etc.
Factory-farmed meat is bad for humans and bad for the environment, true, but any industrial-scale monoculture crop has huge negative impacts, and that includes vegetables too.
Better to avoid monocultures by buying organic/biodynamic, shopping at farmers' markets, CSA, growing your own food, etc. Eat less processed and make more from scratch. Better health, better for the environment, and you can still enjoy meat :)
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
So basically the planet is starting to treat us as a kind of a ... weed, in return.
The planet isn't conscious and can't "treat us" as anything. We are doing this to us. We are changing the environment to support short-term wants/needs at the expense of its human habitability in the future.
Time to face facts. Some of us are weeds.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of the same thing I'm seeing with firefly in Michigan. In the summer time when I first moved to MI over 30 years ago I use to see them everywhere in large amounts. This year they're back but last 3 years I didn't see them at all. As long as there are climate change deniers a.k.a Trump supports we're all in a lot of trouble, even humans.
Some of the people you go out of your way to slander as both trump supporters and climate change deniers exist as they do because of people like you, who immediately take any adverse global trend, blame it on climate change with what amounts to shakey, correlative evidence, and then shame anyone who dares glance over with a skeptical eye. We are dumping all kinds of chemicals into the environment - pesticides, plasti…
> I couldnt find ONE paper discussing ANY benefit on any place on earth from a warmer climate-which is absurd, because northern permafrost could thaw and create arable land, for example.
Bullshit.
Here's what I found within two minutes, from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, i. e. the currently valid "bible" of climate change:
Studies since the AR4 have confirmed that high-latitude locations will, in general, become more suitable for crops (Iqbal et al., 2009). Trnka et al. (2011), for example, examined projections of eleven agro-climatic indices across Europe, and found that declines in frost occurrence will lead to longer growing seasons[..]
https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg2/WGIIAR5-Ch...
Start of Section 7.3.4. on page 504.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#116Being an earth dwelling human, this seems pretty bad. Aside from buying ammo or survival rations, what's something proactive that I can do? Is there an organization that is trying to rid the world of pesticides (assuming that's the cause)? If I opt to call my representatives, what am I calling in support of/against? Over the last year, reading the news had made me more passive and worried. I want to dedicate a slice…
People here argue things like that if whole industries, laws, etc don't change then an individual's actions don't matter. I see it the opposite. Only if I change can I expect or hope anyone else will. My list includes: - Flying less - Driving less - Eating low on the food chain - Avoiding packaged food - Owning and acquiring less stuff ... things like that. My life has never been better. I wish I had started this cha…
to me this implies you don't travel or go out much. so what do you do for fun then?
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is making the headlines in Germany right now: http://www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2017-10/insektensterben-flu... http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/insekten-in-deutsch... http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/insektensterben-dramatisch... Der Spiegel discusses issues in the methodology of the data collection. The intervals over the years weren't uniform, data was collected by volunteers/hobbyists and they did not…
Just speculating wildly and looking at Sweden, for example meadows have more or less disappeared since 30-40 years. I mean flowering meadows, not pastures for grazing. The meadows have been turned into forests and to a lesser extent pastures. It's not a few percent, it's 30% of the land, probably more in Germany where there are much lest forests than in Sweden. The bio-diversity in a meadow strikes me as much higher…
My understanding is that there is a give and take between meadows and forests that occurs on multi-year cycle. Meadows grow when there is too much water, and trees grow when the water recedes. You can see this in the Yosemite Valley really clearly. Perhaps this is a sign that the freshwater in the ground is going away.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm starting to think that as well. As a father it hits me much harder, and I think I'm at stage four of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The human race may just not be special and will be erased, sooner rather than later.
I think when it comes to climate change, you can end up in one of three buckets: - denier (perhaps the happiest group) - defeatist (I recycle and cycle to work, but what can I do? I'm just one person, its all so bad, I'm depressed) - activist (I'm going to do something about this now, they can't do this to my children) I think one of the biggest problems facing us on climate change is somehow making better use of peo…
Well, don't let my depression lead you to the wrong conclusion. I'm am (somewhat) active - I donate to climate causes, it's my number one issue when voting, I drive a hybrid, only buy organic food, minimize eating meat, minimize consumption, grow some of my own food, bike when I can, minimize electricity use, etc. I do recognize that it's not enough and we all need to basically go back pre-industrial lifestyles to really make enough of a change to matter.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#119Being an earth dwelling human, this seems pretty bad. Aside from buying ammo or survival rations, what's something proactive that I can do? Is there an organization that is trying to rid the world of pesticides (assuming that's the cause)? If I opt to call my representatives, what am I calling in support of/against? Over the last year, reading the news had made me more passive and worried. I want to dedicate a slice…
People here argue things like that if whole industries, laws, etc don't change then an individual's actions don't matter. I see it the opposite. Only if I change can I expect or hope anyone else will. My list includes: - Flying less - Driving less - Eating low on the food chain - Avoiding packaged food - Owning and acquiring less stuff ... things like that. My life has never been better. I wish I had started this cha…
Not sure how much of a frequent flyer you'd have to be to make a conscious decision to fly less. I'm certainly not there.
Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> On the other hand, some types of beetles, ants, flies, mosquitoes, even wasps - are just new. Afaik most of these are usually invasives species, displacing local populations, which is happening in the weirdest ways and places. In Germany, our local ladybug species are on the verge of going extinct because an imported Asian ladybug species emits some kind of spores killing them, and the Asian ones generally being st…
Same thing happened with the squirrels in the Pacific Northwest. Little red ones replaced by the big grey ones. In more remote places and in the mountains where the winters are harsher you still see the small red native squirrels though.
According to my recollection of the words of a tour guide in Vancouver, Canada, those big, dark squirrels we see around here were brought to Stanley Park from New York. Then they multiplied and kind of outcompeted the small native squirrels.
Someone's related blog: https://www.miss604.com/2015/03/grey-squirrels-of-stanley-pa...
Quote: So how did this squirrel get here just over 100 years ago? Some reports say that the squirrels were a gift from the Mayor of New York City in 1909 but Jolene from Stanley Park History found that in 1909 Vancouver Park Boar Chair, Charles Tisdall, wrote to various American cities in search of purchasing “grey squirrels” for Stanley Park.