Saturday, May 14, 2022

Just Noticing, Somebody's Missing

SINCE 2005, the population of flying insects in the United Kingdon has declined by sixty percent. Not only is it shocking the severity of the decline, but even more so, it is shocking how recently the decrease has occurred. The methods used to determine this are varied; counting the number of smashed bodies on "number plates" (what are called "license plates" in America) being among them. The term "U. K. " or "United Kingdom" refers to the entire island; England, Scotland, and Wales. Similar declines in insect population have been documented in much of Europe. In the United States and North America, measurements are less comprehensive as of yet, but scientsts suspect a similar decline has taken place. The causes are many, but the main ones are destruction of habitat, fragmentation of habitat, and environmental chemical pollution, including insecticides. People of a certain age will notice that over the decades our cars seems to collide with fewer bugs. The decline in windshield insect collisions has indeed been considerable, studies reveal. It may well be that we the human race hate insects so much, find them so annoying, and have become so accomplished at eradictaing them from our immediate environment - that we are on the verge of eradicating them entirely from planet Earth. The only problem with this, unfortunately, is that if insects go extinct, so do we humans. So does all life on Earth, so important is the place of insects in the greater eco-system. Insects pollinate plants, perpetuating plant species, the plant species upon which all animal life on Earth depends for its existence. In the United Kingdom there is growing interest in restoring the insect population by restoring insect habitat, forests, pasture land, and so forth. Climate change is upon us, far earlier than predicted, and is going to get worse, fast. That's why all these environmental projects; reforestation, restoration of wilderness and habitat, cleaning up the oceans, among others, are so urgently necessary. The great ongoing mass extinction, well documented and far worse than anyone could have imagined, is closely related to climate change and the general environmental pollution human activity has had and continues to have on the planet Earth. We humans are to blame - for all of it - and must change and stop it.

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