Pirate's Cove

The same people are not particularly concerned by all the birds and insects chopped up by wind turbines or immolated by some solar projects

Climate change, big agriculture combine to threaten insects

Climate change and habitat loss from big agriculture are combining to swat down global insect populations, with each problem making the other worse, a new study finds.

While insects may bug people at times, they also are key in pollinating plants to feed people, making soil more fertile and they include beautiful butterflies and fireflies. Scientists have noticed a dramatic drop both in total bug numbers and diversity of insect species, calling it a slow-motion death by 1,000 cuts. Those cuts include pesticides and light pollution.

Big single-crop agriculture that leaves less habitat and leafy food for bugs plus higher temperatures from climate change are huge problems for insects, but a new study in the journal Nature Wednesday based on more than 750,000 samples of 18,000 different species of insects says it’s not just those two threats acting on their own. It’s how habitat loss and climate change interact that really smashes bug populations.

In about half the cases where numbers of insects had plummeted, researchers found climate change and habitat loss from agriculture magnifying each other. In more than a quarter of the cases of biodiversity loss, meaning fewer species, the same dynamic was at work.

This is not some little article, it was put out by the Associated Press and crazy Warmist Seth Borenstein, who is one of the climate cult’s biggest media propagandists, so, the agriculture industry should take this very seriously, especially since a lot of news outlets (the industry is pretty much about creating news Narratives, not reporting real news) are printing it, and others are doing their own. The cult has been putting out feelers over the past few years, taking a light approach, but, they are getting much more serious, and a piece like this means one thing: they want the government to get heavily involved in dictating how all farmers run their business, putting the heavy hand of government on them. But, hey, people don’t mind seeing their food availability reduced, the prices skyrocketing, and the government telling them what they can eat, right?

For example, monoculture agriculture often reduces tree shading, making it hotter in a given spot. On top of that comes climate change, she said. Then insects that need heat relief or need to move north for cooler climates can run into problems with lack of proper habitat from large farms.

It’s especially a problem in countries like Indonesia and Brazil, where forests are being cleared and temperatures are heating up higher than other parts of the globe, Outhwaite said.

There is a point in all this, things like defoliation, clearcutting, pesticides (which also run off into the water supplies). It is an environmental issue, as well as land use. It has nothing to do with anthropogenic climate change, but, see, the cult must involve themselves in every issue, proclaiming coming doom, in order to force compliance.