“One of the things I noticed in the forest was a lack of butterflies,” he said. “They used to be all along the roadside, especially after the rain stopped, hundreds upon hundreds of them. But we couldn’t see one butterfly”
Guardian UK:
Insect collapse:
‘We are destroying our life support systems’
Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished
His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.
“It was just astonishing,” Lister said. “Before, both the sticky ground plates and canopy plates would be covered with insects. You’d be there for hours picking them off the plates at night. But now the plates would come down after 12 hours in the tropical forest with a couple of lonely insects trapped or none at all.”
“It was a true collapse of the insect populations in that rainforest,” he said. “We began to realise this is terrible – a very, very disturbing result.”www.theguardian.com/...
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The Puerto Rico work is one of just a handful of studies assessing this vital issue, but those that do exist are deeply worrying. Flying insect numbers in Germany’s natural reserves have plunged 75% in just 25 years. The virtual disappearance of birds in an Australian eucalyptus forest was blamed on a lack of insects caused by drought and heat. Lister and his colleague Andrés García also found that insect numbers in a dry forest in Mexico had fallen 80% since the 1980s.
“We are essentially destroying the very life support systems that allow us to sustain our existence on the planet, along with all the other life on the planet,” Lister said.www.theguardian.com/...
From Pandala: See Link
"info on the effect of light on nocturnal moth pollination...apparently switching to a partial lighting schedule is as beneficial as going totally dark. This was not obvious. It’s not that hard to accomplish, as it also aids in energy conservation and cost"
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LINKS
Extreme weather Australia heatwave:On fifth day of record-breaking extreme weather, temperatures in parts of Victoria, ACT and NSW forecast to soar above 40C,[104o f] including in Sydney’s westwww.theguardian.com/...
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INTERNATIONAL SIGNUP
WE DECLARE:
INTERNATIONAL NON-VIOLENT REBELLION AGAINST THE WORLD’S GOVERNMENTS FOR CRIMINAL INACTION ON THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
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