Young people can't remember how much more wildlife there used to be
Young people can't remember how much more wildlife there used to be
Walking in England’s New Forest in 1892, butterfly collector S. G. Castle Russell encountered such numbers of the insects that they “were so thick that I could hardly see ahead”. On another occasion, he “captured a hundred purple hairstreaks” with two sweeps of his net. Patrick Barkham, who recounts...
Cross posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14411660
Even a few decades ago the front windows of your car would be so dirty due to dead insects that you had to clean it after a long drive. Today it is due to dust, if you have to clean it at all.
I read somewhere that it was due to cars being more aerodynamic so the bugs just "slide". Don't know how much of a factor it is though.
Nah, there has been a widespread extinction or endangerment of flying insects in the past few decades. Something like 5% of the previous year’s population per year, which has totaled up to ~80% loss over the last 30 years. It’s also why there are fewer birds, as flying insects make up a large part of their diet.
I actually wrote a quick poem about it a little while ago. The first verse isn’t mine; It was from a coworker of mine, (apparently her dad used to say it a lot when she was a kid) and it gave me the idea for the rest. It needs some work, but it’s relevant so I’ll go ahead and post it anyways:
Spring has sprung,
The grass is riz.
I wonder where
The birdies is?The bees all buzz,
Or so we thought.
The birds have starved,
Their food chain fraught.Spring has sprung,
In lands of ice.
Where frost once ruled,
Now blooms entice.Glaciers melt,
Their waters rise.
Oceans swell,
Beneath warm skies.Spring has sprung,
In forests deep.
Where shadows dance,
And rivers weep.The frogs once sang,
Their chorus clear.
Now silence reigns,
As they disappear.Spring has sprung,
But at what cost?
Wall Street soars,
While earth is lost.it's not.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm not even 40 and I seem to recall more bugs, more rabbits, more birds, more everything around. But now it's all roads and lawns and warehouses and parking lots. It reminds me of a character from C.S. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" who wanted to replace all trees with artificial trees, with clockwork birds in their limbs.
I like to remember though that while biodiversity is shrinking something will survive. Scientists think that this planet has hosted life for over 3 billion years. There is no indicator that we have fucked things up enough to destroy all life. Something will live on and reproduce and it's children's children will inherit this planet for another time.
Love you all, and thanks for all the fish!
The thing about all the doom and gloom is that I don't think anyone is seriously expecting the end of humanity. We're not talking extinction, at least not yet and probably not for a very long time. We're talking really hard times for people, though. Some previously habitable areas becoming uninhabitable, reduction in how much food we can produce and therefore how many people can be fed, things like that.
There's this idea that we're making Earth unlivable but, short of large-scale nuclear war, I don't think we're really capable of that. And humans are smart, when they have to be, and very adaptable. As a species, we'll survive. But how many of us, and in what conditions, is very much up in the air.
We’re talking really hard times for people, though.
millions will die. millions more will flee the worst places, putting more pressure on the enormous populations already migrating due to conflicts in Africa, the middle east and now eastern Europe.
The misery will compound, and the rich will continue to stick their heads in the sands and act like nothing is wrong.
Based on my personal experience in Poland, thus based on anecdotal evidence, I think numbers and variety of big animals has increased. Never seen so many rabbits, foxes, deer and birds of prey as a child compared to now. Poland has created lots of national parks, fought river pollution and reintroduced many animals to their habitats since the 90s.
However, the amount of flying insects has never been lower for sure. The windshields are clean, and I experience a lot less mosquito bites for sure.
I would like to compare my experience with data, but I don't really know where to look.
I have the opposite experience. I've seen more aquatic insects (am fly fisherman) and started photographing them. Also more fly catchers, kingfishers, wild turkeys, mink, beaver, muskrat, osprey, bald eagles. I've been an outdoorsman (everything but hunting) for thirty years. Maybe it depends on your location?
1892 was before the Chestnut Blight killed off all the Chestnut trees that made up the forest in the eastern half of the United States. Literally billions of trees were killed off by Chestnut Blight between 1900 and 1950. Those trees are what allowed all of the insects, birds, and mammals to thrive and when the trees went away they did as well.
We've been trying to resurrect the American Chestnut for decades but it's not an easily solved problem.