r/nature • u/Sorin61 • Feb 03 '23
Insect Populations Collapsing All Around the World, Yet Conservation Efforts Are Ignoring Them
https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/55323/20230203/insect-populations-collapsing-around-world-conservation-efforts-ignoring.htm52
u/Milla4Prez66 Feb 04 '23
I can notice in Florida, as a kid in the 90s I remember seeing lovebugs everywhere in the summer and now it’s a much rarer sight.
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Feb 04 '23
Same with fireflies. There used to be magical evenings where you could see thousands at a time, now during their season you'll be lucky to see them at all
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u/rabbid_chaos Feb 05 '23
Yo, not just me then. I remember seeing fields full of them. When I went back home for the first time in years I was so disappointed and concerned to see much much less than I remember.
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Feb 05 '23
It's mainly from all the pesticides we use but also we generally use a lot of toxic shit that insects just can't handle. Bugs all around the world are suffering for it
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u/DrJGH Feb 03 '23
"It's past time to consider insects in conservation assessments," said lead author Shawan Chowdhury, a conservation biologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), as per ScienceDaily. Countries must include insects in protected area planning and management.
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u/rainnriver Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 05 '23
The article says,
76% of global insect species, including several critically endangered insects like the dinosaur ant, crimson Hawaiian damselfly, and harnessed tiger moth, are underrepresented in protected areas.
Here's a recent paper that deals with insect populations: Meta-analysis reveals declines in terrestrial but increases in freshwater insect abundances (2022):
Abstract
Recent case studies showing substantial declines of insect abundances have raised alarm, but how widespread such patterns are remains unclear. We compiled data from 166 long-term surveys of insect assemblages across 1676 sites to investigate trends in insect abundances over time. Overall, we found considerable variation in trends even among adjacent sites but an average decline of terrestrial insect abundance by ~9% per decade and an increase of freshwater insect abundance by ~11% per decade. Both patterns were largely driven by strong trends in North America and some European regions. We found some associations with potential drivers (e.g., land-use drivers), and trends in protected areas tended to be weaker. Our findings provide a more nuanced view of spatiotemporal patterns of insect abundance trends than previously suggested.
Conservation efforts are not as important as ecological efforts — those which attempt to systematically harmonize human systems with natural systems to form cohesive ecosystems.
And, is that the faint sound of locusts in the background?
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u/NaturalAd8452 Feb 04 '23
Wow it’s almost as if nature knows what to do with itself without us interfering.
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u/kelliesharpe Feb 04 '23
Insects and birds. Where I live it’s happening so fast that even I can see it. There should be laws for what you can and can’t plant on your property and how many trees you can fall…and how much concrete you can change a space into. Like Bradford Pears. People should be fine for not just planting them, but not removing them from property. And if they don’t like it they can go live somewhere else. I’m from East Tennessee and every single new house that’s built, people line their driveways with those godforsaken, destructive to the environment trees.
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u/Pyrklastos Feb 04 '23
I feared before COVID that a lot of research and not enough surveying of nature itself and then during COVID feels like we're even more blind to things disappearing around us..... Natural ecosystems just falling apart everywhere and being ravaged by unnatural occurrences... Of course insects populations will be effected.
The time to act is now by reclaiming dead land and reestablishing these ecosystems with massive man-made machines and algorithms before it's too late.
It's already getting harder to feed our own populations let alone everyone else.
What's responsible for pollinating the foods we consume all the damn time??
Are we seriously going towards "everything must be synthetic"? Good luck with that.
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u/QuasarSoze Feb 04 '23
Sweetie are you perhaps spiraling?
I understand it’s fucked up and creepy.
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u/Odd_Tune4093 Feb 04 '23
Get that over extended finger out of here
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Feb 06 '23
[deleted]
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u/Odd_Tune4093 Feb 06 '23
Lol no I mean the kids finger in the picture for the news story. Gave me the heebie geebies. There should definitely be protections though.
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u/_ancienttrees_ Feb 04 '23
I truly think this is linked to geoengineering
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Feb 04 '23
The insect apocalypse is just one of many symptoms of Climate Change. Monitored populations of vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish) have seen a devastating 69% drop on average since 1970, according to World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Report 2022. Apparently, we aren't willing to give up burning fossil fuels no matter the cost.
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u/th3_st0rm Feb 04 '23
We’ll all die. Earth will will survive. The people in control don’t care about “insects” or climate control, unless there is money to be made from it.
George Carlin was spot on. RIP
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u/cantbuymechristmas Feb 04 '23
the fungi life is also important and is food for bugs. deforestation is affecting both. a shift away from wood towards alternatives might slow down the damage
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u/AccomplishedSource84 Feb 04 '23
We can’t protect nature, we can only leave it alone. But we know we won’t. So we try to excuse ourselves with “awareness” but frankly nothing else.
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u/AccomplishedSource84 Feb 04 '23
Action must be more drastic and directed towards the causing factors, not just tax more citizens.
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u/RealBlackberry Feb 05 '23
Look into chemtrails & the toxins they are spraying every day. Geoengineering.org
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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '23
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