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Insects Are Dying En Masse

Tim the plumber said:

Given that there has not been any such warming to justify such things it is not that.

I know you want just the one answer to all problems but the world is far more complex.
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Not your World.
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Fledermaus said:
That is sort of my question.... I have asked it of others. If one is no where near an E-Vile Monsanto farm how can the Monsanto evils have an effect?
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The reference really was to widespread use of insecticides and other modern chemical farming products, not just to GMO crops.
 
There is no mass extinction under way.

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[h=1]Paleo Expert: Earth is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction[/h][FONT=&quot]Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t JoNova – According to renowned Smithsonian Paleontologist Doug Erwin, people who claim we are in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction don’t have a clue what a mass extinction actually is. Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction “As scientists we have a responsibility…
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June 17, 2017 in Mass Extinctions.
 
jimbo said:
If habitat loss is due to agricultural uses, then it seems the answer is reducing the need for more agriculture. That would be population control. I seldom if ever see that proposed.

As best we can tell, there have been at least 6 catastrophic climate changes including one which wiped out 95% of the worlds species. All 6 happened long before man existed.
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It’s not proposed because it isn’t necessary. Current methods of farming are absolutely unsustainable. I believe we’re currently using a landmass equivalent of the continent of South America for farming. But the future isn’t sterilizing or mass murdering humans. The future is vertical farming.

Im not sure what the purpose is of ruminating on previous mass extinctions. The first and probably most deadly was caused by the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere. The others by asteroid impacts and volcanism on scales this planet hasn’t seen for hundreds of millions of years. There just isn’t anything happening in nature that can explain the current extinctions except us.
 
Jack Hays said:
There is no mass extinction under way.

[FONT="][URL="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/06/17/paleo-expert-earth-is-not-in-the-midst-of-a-sixth-mass-extinction/"]
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[h=1]Paleo Expert: Earth is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction[/h][FONT="][FONT=inherit]Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t JoNova – According to renowned Smithsonian Paleontologist Doug Erwin, people who claim we are in the midst of an anthropogenic mass extinction don’t have a clue what a mass extinction actually is. Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction “As scientists we have a responsibility…[/FONT]
[/FONT][/COLOR]
[URL="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/06/17/paleo-expert-earth-is-not-in-the-midst-of-a-sixth-mass-extinction/"]June 17, 2017[/URL] in Mass Extinctions.
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That is a very flawed perspective. The Permian extinction referenced is an impact measured in the course of tens of millions of years. We haven’t been around long enough to draw such comparisons for or against. What we can say is that man is responsible for mass destruction within the natural world on a global scale. We’ve hunted entire species to extinction for no reason other than their feathers made pretty baubles for the ladies. We may well rival the Permian if we too operate this way for tens of millions of years.
 
Napoleon said:
That is a very flawed perspective. The Permian extinction referenced is an impact measured in the course of tens of millions of years. We haven’t been around long enough to draw such comparisons for or against. What we can say is that man is responsible for mass destruction within the natural world on a global scale. We’ve hunted entire species to extinction for no reason other than their feathers made pretty baubles for the ladies. We may well rival the Permian if we too operate this way for tens of millions of years.
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I believe you are in violent agreement.

“It is absolutely critical to recognize that I am NOT claiming that humans haven’t done great damage to marine and terrestrial [ecosystems], nor that many extinctions have not occurred and more will certainly occur in the near future. But I do think that as scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.”
 
Jack Hays said:
I believe you are in violent agreement.

“It is absolutely critical to recognize that I am NOT claiming that humans haven’t done great damage to marine and terrestrial [ecosystems], nor that many extinctions have not occurred and more will certainly occur in the near future. But I do think that as scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.”
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I don’t agree with his notion that we cannot recognize a mass extinction event as it happens or that looking at the impacts of a past event that took place over the course of 48 million years somehow invalidates that this too is a mass extinction. You don’t have to look at a mass extinction with 48 million years of hindsight to recognize it as such.
 
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Napoleon said:
It’s not proposed because it isn’t necessary. Current methods of farming are absolutely unsustainable. I believe we’re currently using a landmass equivalent of the continent of South America for farming. But the future isn’t sterilizing or mass murdering humans. The future is vertical farming.

Im not sure what the purpose is of ruminating on previous mass extinctions. The first and probably most deadly was caused by the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere. The others by asteroid impacts and volcanism on scales this planet hasn’t seen for hundreds of millions of years. There just isn’t anything happening in nature that can explain the current extinctions except us.
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You're presuming that we know everything that's happening in nature. We don't.
 
humbolt said:
You're presuming that we know everything that's happening in nature. We don't.
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We’d notice if any of the things which caused mass extinctions in the distant past were occurring today. They would be impossible to miss.
 
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
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...Albert Einstein....

There's really no evidence he actually said that. But it is an interesting theory. And since old Albert was seldom wrong, if he did say it.. Well, that's scary.
 
Napoleon said:
We’d notice if any of the things which caused mass extinctions in the distant past were occurring today. They would be impossible to miss.
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Again, you're presuming to know what caused mass extinctions in the past. I agree that in some instances it's obvious, but in others there's just informed speculation.
 
humbolt said:
Again, you're presuming to know what caused mass extinctions in the past. I agree that in some instances it's obvious, but in others there's just informed speculation.
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And to that I would answer that our own record indicts us.
 
Napoleon said:
I don’t agree with his notion that we cannot recognize a mass extinction event as it happens or that looking at the impacts of a past event that took place over the course of 48 million years somehow invalidates that this too is a mass extinction. You don’t have to look at a mass extinction with 48 million years of hindsight to recognize it as such.
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Erwin says no. He thinks it’s junk science.
“Many of those making facile comparisons between the current situation and past mass extinctions don’t have a clue about the difference in the nature of the data, much less how truly awful the mass extinctions recorded in the marine fossil record actually were,” he wrote me in an email. . . .
“People who claim we’re in the sixth mass extinction don’t understand enough about mass extinctions to understand the logical flaw in their argument,” he said. “To a certain extent they’re claiming it as a way of frightening people into action, when in fact, if it’s actually true we’re in a sixth mass extinction, then there’s no point in conservation biology.”
This is because by the time a mass extinction starts, the world would already be over. . . .
“So you can ask, ‘Okay, well, how many geographically widespread, abundant, durably skeletonized marine taxa have gone extinct thus far?’ And the answer is, pretty close to zero,” Erwin pointed out. In fact, of the best-assessed groups of modern animals—like stony corals, amphibians, birds and mammals—somewhere between 0 and 1 percent of species have gone extinct in recent human history. . . .
 
I have seen people claiming that we need to eat more insects to save the planet.

There are at least two big problems with that idea... the increasingly lack of insects and my quality of life.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Insects Are Dying En Masse, Risking ‘Catastrophic’ Collapse Of Earth’s Ecosystems

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Catastrophic damage to the food chain will occur if insect populations keep dying off. Wild bumblebees have almost disappeared in the United States.

Related: Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers

Bumblebee listed as endangered species for first time
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From what I understand it is mainly the bee population that is dying off in numbers, and there are many theories but not definitive results in research.

It IS a very serious problem, but before the usual global warming panic runs amok first realize that there are many, many different species of pollinators. The studies are inconclusive because of the sudden die off of the North American bat population from white nose sydrome, which would naturally result in more flying insects - pollinators.

One thing is certain. Everything is changing.
 
Fearandloathing said:
From what I understand it is mainly the bee population that is dying off in numbers, and there are many theories but not definitive results in research.

It IS a very serious problem, but before the usual global warming panic runs amok first realize that there are many, many different species of pollinators. The studies are inconclusive because of the sudden die off of the North American bat population from white nose sydrome, which would naturally result in more flying insects - pollinators.

One thing is certain. Everything is changing.
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This isn’t just AGW.

It’s many, many factors.

Loss of habitat, massive disruption in ecosystems, widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, disruption from invasive species, hunting of charismatic megafauna, etc etc etc.

It’s happening on land and, even more dramatically, in the oceans.

But the thing is... climate change just compounds all these problems. And quite likely, it’s the one that may cause the most problems and is the most irreversible.
 
Threegoofs said:
This isn’t just AGW.

It’s many, many factors.

Loss of habitat, massive disruption in ecosystems, widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, disruption from invasive species, hunting of charismatic megafauna, etc etc etc.

It’s happening on land and, even more dramatically, in the oceans.

But the thing is... climate change just compounds all these problems. And quite likely, it’s the one that may cause the most problems and is the most irreversible.
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I know.

I read the material thanks
 
humbolt said:
Perhaps, but we weren't around for some mass extinctions we know of.
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And? Let me know if there’s an asteroid bombardment or landmasses the size of continents exploding with volcanic activity that I missed.
 
One way climate change affects this is that some natural plant and insect pairings are now ships passing in the night.

Some plants and the insects who pollinated them now have conflicting life cycles. If warming triggers insects to emerge too early then they might die too early, before they can do their pollinating duties. Being out of sync by a couple of weeks could have cascading effects.
 
Napoleon said:
And? Let me know if there’s an asteroid bombardment or landmasses the size of continents exploding with volcanic activity that I missed.
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Other events are capable of causing mass extinctions.
 
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