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Insects going extinct within a century
- Thread starter Keikaku
- Start date
Yeah, I was watching Enterprise the other day and saw this exchange between the captain and a Ferengi and just laughed and laughed
What do you need all this for, anyway? You seem to already have plenty of technology."
"One can never have too much! The Rules of Acquisition say 'Expand or Die.' "
"Rules of Acquisition?"
"That's rule number forty-five. I've memorized all one-hundred and seventy-three, including the most important one: 'A man is only worth the sum of his possessions.' "
"Back on my home world that kind of thinking almost destroyed our civilization."
Here is an extensive read but so damn good
Insect Apocalypse:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html
Insect Apocalypse:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/magazine/insect-apocalypse.html
Jesus guys I think you're jumping the gun just a little bit here. Insects aren't going extinct any time soon. It's a sensationalist article saying a few insect populations are experiencing a decline. They also seem to have this decline linked to neonics in pesticides. Something that can be fixed relatively quickly. Insects also breed like, well Insects, so it's not gonna take all that long for populations to blow up again.
Some of you need to relax a bit and stop seeing doom and gloom in everything.
Some of you need to relax a bit and stop seeing doom and gloom in everything.
Overconsumption/Third Way Capitalism is the root cause of our massive waste, pollution, and climate change.
But people don't care
"If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish."
Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk
People do not care, and they never will until it is too late. The people who do care will be ignored or made fun of. It is easier to live life asleep than to wake up and view the horrifying reality. Literally the one quote that remains true forever and is one of my favorites is this:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke
Personally, I try my best to wake people up but you just get shut down and labelled as annoying or whatever. I will never stop doing what I can because individuals can make a difference in the world and only a defeatist would believe otherwise.
I wonder if there is a way to start just breeding bees safely... hmm
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke
Personally, I try my best to wake people up but you just get shut down and labelled as annoying or whatever. I will never stop doing what I can because individuals can make a difference in the world and only a defeatist would believe otherwise.
I wonder if there is a way to start just breeding bees safely... hmm
I agree with 100%.
And it is not something that is addressed by any political party because most people just want more resources to be able to consume more themselves. No one is talking about everyone consuming less.
I believe domesticated bees are doing alright, it's the wild ones that are dying. Still important, but we're not totally doomed.
This makes me sick to my stomach. Not just the fact that people may be extinct within 100 years, but some of the flippant responses to the article. Someone in this thread wrote "I'll be dead by then so it doesn't matter." Fuck people who think that way. They are a true waste of life.
Well considering that even a radioactive wasteland is better for animals than the company of humans i´d say yes.
You need to do some reading on the windshield effect. Also, no, insects struggle to breed because we hate the environments that they use for it. For instance, insects often lay their eggs in the dry leaves during the fall. Our obsession with green grass is a huge problem for them, and that's just a tiny example. The closer you look, the more fucked up it is.
It reminds me of that Quote from Free Solo: "people who don't know much about climbing think he's safe, people who understand climbing think what he's doing is fucking insane". This is the same, everyday people always say the same: insects will be fine, we'll find a solution to climate change, we need jobs, blablabla. Talk to a scientist who understands the dimension of the problem and how everything is interrelated and they'll tell you a very different story. We are beyond fucked. No, life won't disappear, and we will probably not go extint, but you are witnessing entire ecosystems being wiped out from the face of the Earth at the speed of light, literal forests being destroyed every day when there is nothing that we need more right now than trees, and point out that, you know, insects breed like insects which is something that surely nobody in the scientific community has noticed before.
We are so worried about tigers and gorillas that often forget that for the hundreds of large mammals that are severely endangered right now to be in that situation, the entire system that supports their lives has to be about to collapse. Insects are the base of that system.
We're going to die, and people are embracing it. It's scary as fuck. People are fucking idiots.
It's insane to think that even among activists it's taboo to suggest that we should stop increasing our population right away.
This would have a serious impact on the ecosystem. Governments need to take this way more seriously, but when you have people like Trump and Bolsonaro in charge of major nations, then I can't see anything changing any time soon.
Yeah but every prediction for climate change seems like they've been way off the mark and the crazy runaway climate change and sea level rises are going to be far bigger and impact far sooner than anyone ever thought.
The world's fucked.
Dude, I'm a biologist. You don't need to tell me how insects affect everything else. I know. Also I don't think people raking their leaves has all that big an impact on insects. I would say it has much more to do with deforestation and pesticides, something the average everyday person really has nothing to do with.
I'm not saying it isn't a huge problem. Climate change, deforestation, extinction of animals and insects, it's all connected and a lot needs to be done to right the ship again.
What I don't agree with are all the posts saying "Ah man it's over! Humanity is doomed! Extinction imminent! Everyone kill yourselves now to just get it over with!!". Humans are an incredibly adaptable species. I think the idea that we're gonna go extinct in the next few hundred let alone 100 years ludicrous barring a huge asteroid strike or something.
Yes, these are all problems that need fixing and we definitely need to rethink how we live, grow our food etc. if we want humanity to continue to thrive. But all these "We're fucked people! Game over! Humanity had a good run!" posts accomplish nothing but making you look like an idiot
The farmers around me last year stopped letting there fields go wild and reploughed/started allowing grazing
As a result the production of honey from my bees seems to have taken a massive nose dive and I'm having to keep fed with sugar water.
While an isolated scenario I can't help but wonder what effect this has had on wild insect populations
As a result the production of honey from my bees seems to have taken a massive nose dive and I'm having to keep fed with sugar water.
While an isolated scenario I can't help but wonder what effect this has had on wild insect populations
Wouldn't be surprised if this is how other civilizations headed towards extinction beyond eating up all resources on the planet.
I'm cool with roaches... it's the mosquitoes and fly's I can't stand...
Flies will survive the bugopolyse too so they could feed off our corpses.
Uhh, this is a big deal. Bugs are something like 40% of all species, and the ecosystem depends on them.
While I don't think this means we're headed towards extinction, my thoughts are haunted by the number of people who will die and suffer because we were greedy, stupid, and reckless with the way we've treated the resources we have access to.
This is the inevitable end result of the unsustainable agriculture and over reliance on pesticides people seem to be ok with. A significant portion of gmo crops are engineered to simply be more resistant to pesticides, resulting greater pesticide use and basically irreversible environmental impact. Congrats on the cheap food though...
Some insects would be better off extinct, as I see no positive benefit in the world to having fleas, ticks, or mosquitoes. But there are many insects like bees that extremely beneficial.
That's pure ignorance. Think of all the animals that rely on those animals for feeding, from frogs to chameleons to birds to other insects. All animals but humans are an important, positive part of the ecosystem. We can't expect those creatures and plays that are directly benefitial to us to survive when we annihilate everything around them.
a world with no butterflies or lady bugs is a world I don't want to live in. I am sure the roaches will still be here when I am dead and gone.
I don't have it on me, but I remember hearing that at least mosquitoes are actually not that important to the food chain.
Eh, here's an interesting collection of studies that gets in to it some: https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
And so, while humans inadvertently drive beneficial species, from tuna to corals, to the edge of extinction, their best efforts can't seriously threaten an insect with few redeeming features. "They don't occupy an unassailable niche in the environment," says entomologist Joe Conlon, of the American Mosquito Control Association in Jacksonville, Florida. "If we eradicated them tomorrow, the ecosystems where they are active will hiccup and then get on with life. Something better or worse would take over."