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Study shows insects count drop 75% over 25 years - warnings of "ecological Armageddon"

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SPCTRE

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[The Guardian] Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.

Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.
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The new data was gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.

The cause of the huge decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to landscape in the reserves as causes, but data on pesticide levels has not been collected.
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“Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”
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Anecdotally, we have noticed a significant decrease (such as the degree to which cars get insect splatter on windshields), but a 75 % decline is hard to comprehend. Frightening stuff given the importance of insects for the global ecosystem.
 
It is troubling stuff.
The graph for the insect decline since 1970 are a mirror image of the global emission of greenhouse gases during the same periode.
Nuclear energy are probably the only way out of this mess.
 
Wasn't there something if all the frogs on Earth vanish could mean some huge ecological disaster if they vanished?
 
People have saying the world's go to end for many centuries.

This is more of that, nothing more.
 
Rather alarming, no insects no pollination which is kinda needed if you still want to have something to eat...
 
The Bread Ghost said:
Maybe we should just get ready for the fungally-grown textured gruel we'll all have to subsist on in our impending dystopia.
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It's ironic because of how many cheeky articles have come out lately talking about how much lighter we'd tread on the planet if we just learned to accept eating insects.

Soylent green here we come.
 
mos6507 said:
It's ironic because of how many cheeky articles have come out lately talking about how much lighter we'd tread on the planet if we just learned to accept eating insects.

Soylent green here we come.
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Bugs are yummy, but in light of this thread maybe we shouldn't take up eating them en masse.
 
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