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75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

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251–260 of 454 posts

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#251
post #3

Yes. This is a case of hard data confirming what we already know. As in - few types of butterflies I used to like, and see yearly as a kid - are gone. I see them now once in 5 years, if lucky. I bring my kids to look because it's a first time for them. On the other hand, some types of beetles, ants, flies, mosquitoes, even wasps - are just new. They were not here 20-30 years ago. Now, what are the consequences of all…

This year, I left a portion of my lawn unmowed. I seeded it with a $10 bag of wildflower seeds. It's given me 4 months of beautiful flowers, loads of polinators, many butterflies, and it's given me less yard to mow. I now think that lawns of neatly trimmed grass are about as dumb as it gets.

Yes, a big problem for insects in suburban areas is humans tendency to want "manicured" nature. Just walk around anywhere in e.g. silicon valley, where lawns are kept short and there are less than a dozen types of trees and bushes (also often trimmed) and you'll note there are very few insects, which has resulted in even fewer types of birds and practically no small animals. Insects need old, decomposing tree trunks and branches on the ground, and humans tend to remove those because it isn't tidy enough for them. I share a vacation house on a small (maybe 5 square km) island in the archipelago of Stockholm and despite there being houses on almost all of that island, we have 120 different species of birds on it. This is likely a result of a longtime policy that says house owners should strive to keep old, fallen trees when possible and avoid tidying up their land too much, and the parts that are public land are not interfered with much at all.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#252
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Large areas had been meliorated (in 70-ties in my country Poland) so the meadows are gone for good outside of some protected areas. All these wild weeping willow which had been a signature of Masovian landscape and which I still remember from childhood visits to family farm died soon thereafter. So did the frogs. It is like coming to different country now.

Same in Lithuania. Although it's not as permanent as you might think. In 90s many state farms went under and huge portions of land was left to it's own devices. By 00s, many of them turned into grass with wild flowers, tiny trees, and everything Wherever melioration failed, it was slowly nearing meadow-like conditions. Now big portions of it are used again either for agriculture or housing...

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#253
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not sure if this is case in Sweden, but here in the US the reforestation is actually a return to the natural state. Much of the country was logged repeatedly in the last few centuries. Modern sustainable logging and the transition to other energy sources is resulting in the land returning to the endless forest it was before settlers arrived. This is mostly clearly seen on the east coast because most of the Midwest is…

Sustainable logging isn't enough in itself to really maintain insect diversity because logging forests aren't very diverse forests so they only help a small number of insects thrive. But if done right (e.g. leaving some dead tree trunks behind when harvesting, as homes for insects) it is much better than nothing.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#254
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not sure if this is case in Sweden, but here in the US the reforestation is actually a return to the natural state. Much of the country was logged repeatedly in the last few centuries. Modern sustainable logging and the transition to other energy sources is resulting in the land returning to the endless forest it was before settlers arrived. This is mostly clearly seen on the east coast because most of the Midwest is…

The industrial forests of Sweden is nothing like a 'natural' state, and I don't think we even know what a natural state would look like since people have been around since the ice age.

But the case in point was that the countryside has changed considerably because of changes in agriculture.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#255
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Let’s say you were interviewing a butterfly — or a Mayfly. A Mayfly lives for four or five days. Say that Mayfly was standing on the branch of a giant Sequoia tree in California, which lives for thousands of years. If you were to ask that Mayfly, “Do you perceive this branch that you are standing on as being alive?” The Mayfly would say, “Of course not. I’ve been here my entire life, four days, and the branch hasn’t…

Still doesn't mean this clump of rock has any kind of intentionality.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t there local ordinances in some jurisdictions, requiring an orderly yard about the house? For sure, in many places there are laws regulating tree count and what you can and can’t chop down. I swear I’ve heard of fines for unmowed lawns too.

AFAIK, I can do with my garden whatever I want to do, as long as a I don't turn it into forrest. But that's here in Austria. What you describe sounds terrible. Fines for not mowing? In which country do you live?

The land of the 'free' I believe they call themselves....

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#257

Results like this are some confirmation of what everyone not entirely swaddled in the virtual worlds of city and business is already entirely aware of: that our living planet is dying. All the people I know who have lived in rural areas for decades (in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and SE. Asia) are in no doubt that their local ecologies are collapsing, and that the collapse is accelerating. I'm not sure…

If you can't figure out what to do, that doesn't mean you have an excuse to do nothing. Get organized and act. Stop sitting there waiting for a plan to come along that you can get on board with, just start *doing stuff now.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#258
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

No, you're not active. You're still a consumer, you've just changed your consumption choices to feel less bad. Join an activist group and start protesting, picketing, learn about direct action tactics, and interrupt the smooth running of the machine that is killing you and destroying your future.

Trust me, even taking small actions against an impossibly large problem feels about 1000 times better than sitting there wringing your hands over it.

Re: 75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Turning things around would require changes of a pace and scale that we have no idea how to motivate and coordinate." Things like electricity, the automobile, air travel and the internet went from nonexistent to universal in developed countries in phenomenally short time spans. Renewable energy appears to be following a similar trajectory, leaving all the estimates in the dust and emerging faster than most people r…

Two problems with that. Firstly: climate change is only one of the problems caused by a culture based almost entirely on the ecocidal fantasy of stolen-from-the-future 'economic growth'. We are losing topsoil at a dizzying pace. Fresh water is disappearing. The habitats on which natural systems depend are being ripped apart. Novel substances are being created and released into our air, water and land with unknown con…

So start doing something. What have you got to lose if you're already doomed? Get yourself a copy of Deep Green resistance and join an aboveground affiliate group. It's easy to manufacture excuses not to do something because it looks impossible. So what? Better than saying you sat there and did nothing and watched it all disintegrate.
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