Insect collapse study 'one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read,' expert warns [View all]

[turbinetree]

Just 3.6°F warming has wiped out up to 98% of rainforest insects.
JOE ROMM
OCT 18, 2018, 11:11 AM

A disturbing new study finds that global warming helped drive as much as a 60-fold decline in insect population in Puerto Rico’s tropical rainforest between 1976 and 2013.

“Our results suggest that the effects of climate warming in tropical forests may be even greater than anticipated,” said lead author, biologist Brad Lister, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

And that’s a potentially catastrophic problem given that the forest saw 3.6°F (2°C) warming during that time — yet warming this century is on track to be far greater.

These new findings follow several studies in recent years that found collapsing insect populations around the world.

A 2014 review of scientific literature and data in the journal Science found the number of insects “such as beetles, butterflies, spiders and worms has decreased by 45 percent” since 1980. The reason: “loss of habitat and global climate disruption.”

https://thinkprogress.org/insect-collapse-study-disturbing-expert-warns-29ae68123fa8/

You may not like bugs.........................but we humans are being warned...............................without them we will die , or our food chain will cost everything more..................that is a fact..............