SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the don't-care-is-not-america[sarcasm] dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Two degrees decimated Puerto Rico's insect populations
While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s, the biomass of arthropods—invertebrate animals such as insects, millipedes, and sowbugs—has declined by as much as 60-fold, according to new findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The finding supports the recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warnings of severe environmental threats given a 2.0 degree Celsius elevation in global temperature. Like some other tropical locations, the study area in the Luquillo rainforest has already reached or exceeded a 2.0 degree Celsius rise in average temperature, and the study finds that the consequences are potentially catastrophic.
"Our results suggest that the effects of climate warming in tropical forests may be even greater than anticipated" said Brad Lister lead author of the study and a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "The insect populations in the Luquillo forest are crashing, and once that begins the animals that eat the insects have insufficient food, which results in decreased reproduction and survivorship and consequent declines in abundance."
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @09:42AM (3 children)
+50% CO2 vs. +25ppm (+0.0025% for the illiterate) increase.... yeah, so like comparing "temperature of the Sun" vs. "electric blanket on low" to keep yourself warm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @10:59AM (2 children)
Yes, but this is arthropogenic CO2.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @01:25PM (1 child)
Maybe you are trying to be sarcastic, but CO2 is CO2. Just like radiation is radiation no matter if its from nuclear reactor or from "natural background".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @01:40PM
I mean the insects produced too much local CO2 due to overpopulation in that forest so their populations collapsed, like a microcosm of how humans are destroying the earth with CO2.