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Mass Extinction of Insects Underway

posted by chromas on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the debug-the-planet! dept.

edIII writes:

The first global scientific review of insect population decline was published[$] this week in the journal Biological Conservation. This is the first global study of its kind, and the term "impending catastrophe" would not be hyperbolic with respect to the findings:

Highlights

  • Over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction.
  • Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and dung beetles (Coleoptera) are the taxa most affected.
  • Four aquatic taxa are imperiled and have already lost a large proportion of species.
  • Habitat loss by conversion to intensive agriculture is the main driver of the declines.
  • Agro-chemical pollutants, invasive species and climate change are additional causes.

For some time now we've been warned by scientists that pollinators are having a hard time, creating problems for humanity WRT many food sources. However, this study paints a far more dire picture with the possibility of irreparable harm to ecosystems on a global level. Without strong insect populations, it's not unreasonable to conclude that humanity may not continue either.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:11PM (3 children)

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:11PM (#800109)

    Wasn't cockroaches supposed to outlive us all? Weaklings.

    Here, we present a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, and systematically assess the underlying drivers.

    I didn't read the article, paywalled and all that -- plus I don't really know much about these kinda bugs. But it seems their study is infact more of a meta-study where they take data from other peoples studies and then try and find commonality. I'm sure if one only wanted, and knew enough about biology, could rip this study (or review) a new orifice or two. One probably doesn't even need to know anything about biology and could just rip them a new one purely on statistical grounds. Extrapolation from data based from 73 different report ... yickes. They could probably find support for almost anything. It really doesn't take much probably to blame it all on pollution and "climate change" as the main culprits.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @04:41PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @04:41PM (#800151)

    Wasn't cockroaches supposed to outlive us all?

    From the summary:

    Over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction.

    I'm pretty sure that much less than 60% of all insect species are cockroaches, so no contradiction there.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @06:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @06:33PM (#800219)

      If humans go extinct then the roaches will have a hard time. No trash, no poop, no tasty humanade...

  • (Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:52PM

    by Pav (114) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:52PM (#800397)

    Both cockroaches and sinapsids (ie. the mammal-like reptiles we're decended from) almost became extinct during the permian extinction event... the so called "great dying". Amusingly coal "fly ash" has been discovered from ocean deposits layed down during that time. They believe a monumental flood basalt event in Siberia burned through massive coal deposits releasing CO2, sulphur and other polutants causing catastrophic global warming and ocean acidification.