Schneller als degacht - Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

FTE19 ~ worldwide connected ~ Burden on Other Species

Schneller als gedacht,

26 November, 2014

Co-hosted episode with Kevin from New Zealand and Wolfgang from Germany

This episode we want to dedicate to the animals and the burden inflicted on the other species by us, Homo sapiens. In times of abrupt climate change or ongoing anthropogenic climate disruption, there is no doubt, we are in the sixth mass extinction event. Billions of animals are dying and suffering. And 200 species (of animals and plants) are going extinct every day.

So this may be a grief session about this suffering around the world, but I hope, we’ll find a way not to forget the gift and the beauty we receive, because we can share living on this planet with all these creatures.

Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

Guardian 18-Oct-2017

Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.

An article from Stanford which lists the role population diversity plays in the carbon cycle

Although scientists have long understood that animals – through ingestion, digestion, breathing and decomposition – are part of the carbon cycle, the work, published Oct. 9 in Nature Ecology and Evolution is the first to suggest the importance of animal biodiversity rather than just animal numbers in the carbon cycle.

If we want to increase carbon sequestration, we have to preserve not only high numbers of animals but also many different species, the authors said.

The researchers found that soil had the highest carbon concentrations where they saw the most vertebrate species. When they looked for a mechanism that could explain this relationship, it turned out that the areas with highest animal diversity had the highest frequency of feeding interactions, such as animals preying on other animals or eating fruit, which results in organic material on and in the ground.

World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns

The Guardian 27-oct-2016

The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends.

The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020.

• here Paul Beckwith discusses the insect collapse
• The Counter Punch article from Robert Hunziker
• Natural News Coverage of the insect collapse
• Song of The Blue Dolphin by Andy Blackwood - cc-by (personal use)
• Kevin Hester‘s site 

From Paul Beckwith on the subject

Agriculture killing bugs