"What we're losing is not just the diversity part of biodiversity bu the bio part: life in sheer quantity. While I was writing this article, scientists learned that the world's largest king penguin colony shrank by 88 percent in 35 years."
"Scientists have begun to speak of functional extinction (as opposed to the more familiar kind, numerical extinction). Functionally extinct animals and plants are still present bu no longer prevalent enough to affect how an ecosystem works."
"We've begun to talk about living in the Anthropocene, a world shaped by humans. But E.O. Wilson, the naturalist and prophet of environmental degradation, has suggested another name: the Eremocine, the age of loneliness."
"In insects int he forest that Lister studied haven't been contending with pesticides or habitat loss, the two problems to which the Krefeld paper pointed. Instead, Lister chalks up their decline to climate change, which has already increased temperatures in Luquillo by 2 degrees Celsius since Lister first sampled there."
"Thomas believes that this naturalist tradition is also why Europe is acting much faster than other places - for example, the United States - to address the decline of insects: Interest leads to tracking, which leads to awareness, which leads to concern, which leads to action."
All of the above paragraphs are from "The Insect Apocalypse is Here: What will the decline of bugs means for the rest of life on earth?," cover story of the December 2, 2018 New York Times Magazine.
What to do?
Drive less so fewer roads need to be built so more land can stay dirt and weeds and anything that grows.
Use pesticides that are biorational.
Promote construction growth that does fill-in rather than sprawl. Work for zoning laws that limit conversion to development while maintaining the rights of land-owners.
Anything else of which you can think.
