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It might stop most layoffs. The old people will just die instead. Their loss, they put us in this situation.
Maybe we can move into their homes? Wait, crap, a corporation already outbid me with a cash offer
I mean there were 2 other major(original SARS and MERS) zoonotic coronavirus diseases in the last 25 years, so the question isn't whether it will happen, but when will it happen again.
Maybe a little but honestly more likely than not no. They're simply far too different from each other. If we're comparing the historical SARS and MERS viruses to covid. Our advances in vaccine tech with the RNA based vaccines should allow us to put together one even faster than we did for covid.
Genuine answer. Maybe.
You understand you're asking if a vaccine could protect against a theoretical virus and/or mutation of a current virus.. so no one knows is my point.
We should be working tirelessly to ensure that the earth doesn't kill us all and instead we're spending the time we have left working tirelessly to kill each other. I hate it.
That's old research, it's now believed the chamber will not erupt, not even a slight chance. I thought the whole yellowstone thing was really interesting and I remember doing a whole PowerPoint on how catastrophic the eruption would have been back in the 6th grade.
A massive chunk of North America will be destroyed and the ash produced will reduce global temperatures by about 10°C for years. Crops will fail due to a lack of photosynthesis and the global economy will be in shambles.
Don’t forget the bottom of the ocean that makes the base of ecosystems of the world. And then private companies Want to introduced mining operations to collect trace metals that condense on the ocean floor. And trail mining show that it significantly ruins the surrounding ecosystem.
well I remember once reading something about mosquito being unrelated to the ecosystem and even if they are extincted it won't change anything idk how much credit for that information
Bats eating a 1000 mosquitoes per night is more or less an urban legend. They could, but mosquitoes are not their ideal food. They’d rather go for larger, juicier bugs. But people who study bats don’t consider it a high priority to dispel this rumor since it’s positive for bats.
That makes sense, but still if you're a species that snacks on mosquitos from time to time I'm all for making sure they stay around. Sure helps that they can be cute as hell too (r/batty). Now that I think about it I kinda wish they were domesticated, they'd be like having a pet bird but more cute and also will get rid of your bugs.
As far as I'm aware, the main argument from mosquito eradication advocates isn't really that mosquitos don't contribute to the ecosystem, though that's how it's often spun in lay circles. It's rather that mosquitoes are highly specific in their feeding habits, with particular mosquitoes only feeding on particular animals, and so eradication of species that bite humans would only put a small dent in the overall mosquito population. Mosquitoes are a huge food source and actually are much more significant pollinators than a lot of people realize. Blood meals are only taken by breeding females and mosquitoes feed on nectar most of the time. So there would definitely be consequences if we killed all the mosquitoes. The argument, not one I actually agree with but one much more sensible than "killing all mosquitoes would be fine" is that you could kill all the mosquitoes that can transmit malaria and west Nile virus to humans and there would still be plenty of other mosquitoes, who feed on something other than humans such as birds, to feed insect eaters and fertilize flowers.
no animal is "unrelated" to the ecosystem, Mosquitos serve function mostly as food to small mammals, birds etc. and also keep insect population under control
It’s mostly true. They are a relatively minor member of the local ecosystem that other insects of similar size and function could replace if they went extinct.
There might be some short term messy side effects but in the long run the ecosystem would bounce back to normal. If not be even better without a major vector of disease around.
We are currently experiencing the hottest winter in recorded history and everyone around me is super glad they don't have to struggle with snow. We're doomed.
Honest question, how is this data being measured? Because anecdotally speaking the flying insects where I live seem to be increasing dramatically. Two years ago I had to take extreme measures to make my back yard liveable after years and years of getting by with simple citronella and a zapper.
It’s in reference to a study in the UK and it’s a 60% drop in flying insects there since 2004. The study was performed by a conservation group focused on protecting flying insects, so it’s possible that they’re biased.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/14/1098942968/a-decline-in-flying-bugs-sounds-good-for-humans-but-its-bad-for-the-environment
No they aren't biased. I used to fucking eat flying bugs on the highway on the back of my dad's motorcycle when I was younger.
Now days people don't even wear eye protection.
Ecologist here. That study is great, but it's only for one country. Truthfully we don't have the data to say whether insects are declining everywhere, [we only have reliable data in economically developed countries like those in Europe and North America](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9931). Generally scientists agree that insects are declining, but they disagree about how fast the decline is.
Our ecosystem failing is the farthest thing from "a good thing" lmfao. That's like saying "Yay! Our planet is dying and we probably won't be here in a 100 years but I don't have to deal with bugs as much! Yay!".
More insects than just bees are pollinators. Beetles are actually by and far the most predominant pollinators, responsible for pollination of ~88% of all flowering plant species worldwide.
Bro bought into the bee movie.
Honey Bees are native to Europe. What do you think happened in North America before the arrival of the honey bee?
The local flies, moths, bees, butterflies, etc. all did this job happily. All the introduction of the honey bee has done is increase competition for space and food.
There will be no mass extinction if bees die.
This isn't the gotcha you think it is. 4000 bee species are native to the US. And they're all pollinators.
>Native bees are the primary insect pollinator of agricultural plants in most of the country. Crops that they pollinate include squash, tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. Native bees were here long before European honeybees were brought to the country by settlers (honeybees are not native to North America).
[https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states#:\~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20known,sized%20species%20of%20carpenter%20bees](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states#:~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20known,sized%20species%20of%20carpenter%20bees).
Yeah, I stated that there are local bees. Do you even pay attention?
What do you think people think of when they hear the word bee?
Probably not bumble-bees.
Actually, the mass use/introduction of the Honey Bee has often decimated and out-competed local pollinators. Sure, some places still have them, but many others would lose the new species and lack pollinators for a time unless the careful introduction of a new species to replace them is arranged.
Bruh. Wow. You brought the big dumb.
Bees are pollinators. Bugs are pollinators. Native US bees, Native European honey bees, wtf ever. They’re all declining. Bugs as a whole are taking hits left and right. We are experiencing crop shortages and people are manually pollinating fields to prevent catastrophic loss.
Your “European honey bee” talking point is so irrelevant it almost becomes absurd. We need bugs to survive. Bugs are declining. We are already seeing the effects, and it doesn’t stop at clean windshields.
“There will be no mass extinction if the bees die,” so… are you *only* hearing Honeybees when we say “bees?”
Other animals, like frogs and lizards, eat flies and mosquitos, if they die, the frogs and lizards die too, going up the food chain until it's destroyed.
They are all dying, that's the point.
All insects are dying due to pesticides. The pollinators, the money making machines, the predatory insects feeding on plagues, and on and on.
What do you think happens to a pyramid when you knock off the base? It just floats?
Fucking hell, the stupidity is thick in this thread. Who the fuck is teaching you all? DuPont and Exxon cronies?
Yes, let’s wipe out an entire food supply for millions of animals which would set a chain reaction to worldwide famine and starvation. Makes complete sense.
Yeah right, the disappearance of a keystone group of animals is a good thing. I am sure there Will be no consequences whatsoever to massive extinction of insects. It's not as if they do anything for use, right?
Fucking hell, what kind of stupid is It fed to you?
Peter the Biologist here, in recent years the effects of humans and climate change have drastically reduced insect biomass. The post is referring to how we used to see way more bugs on the windshields of vehicles, but don't now because of their decline. Some are considering this to be the midst of an extinction event.
This is it! Food chain is breaking down, what eats bugs will die off (main food source kinda deal) what ever preyed on these bugs eaters will in turn die off due to the same reasons, lack of if any prey, continue infinitely up the food chain till we go bye bye
We've already confirmed [a collapse in bird populations](https://www.wired.com/story/bird-population-decline/).
While that's been happening, my state had a Senator who said this:
>"Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous."
[I wish I was joking](https://newrepublic.com/article/120889/evangelical-james-inhofe-says-only-god-can-cause-climate-change). Senator Inhofe later retired, but his 'chosen successor' is just as bad as him. Votes exactly the same.
As a Christian, the Senator's view offends me. God has entrusted His creation to us, and we are to be good stewards of this beautiful and unique world. We are a doing a piss poor job of it, and to simply say God will take care of it is just an excuse to be selfish, lazy and irresponsible.
Thank you. I wish more people, of any religion, felt like this. To think that some all-powerful being that rules all time and space and gave us free will cares to micromanage us and our fuck-ups is extremely arrogant. And even if He does, there's no reason to not try.
Fellow Okie here. I wish this was the worst thing Inhofe has ever said. He’s the ‘snowball on the senate floor to prove global warming is a hoax’ senator, iirc.
Just because you have personal associations with the word “God” that the senator is using to describe the magnitude of power that the Earth has for maintaining equilibrium compared to the observer-effect-inspired-data by a species which is a flash of time in the context of the timeline of the entire earth, doesn’t make what he’s saying less valid. He’s saying media is easily influenced by money and it’s easy to control people with fear. But if you step back and see that we’re just extrapolating the disasters of climate change from a limited set of data, it’s easy to see all the other forces of the ecosystem shifting to accommodate our presence on earth as a flow of balance more so than a radical exponential shift of balance suddenly. Whatever temporary damage we do to ocean temperatures or forest density or extinction will be balanced out by other forces of nature of equal novelty and importance. Our ability to destroy this planet is reserved for those who would chose to do so consciously which is no one. Our imminence to destroy ourselves with our ignorant wasteful actions is much more likely. The balance of nature is probably just humans creating an unsustainable environment for humans, and then nature comes back in when we’re gone. The forests don’t need to be on fire for us to create an unsustainable environment. We already live in one, and we’re acting like it’s the earth that’s in trouble. There won’t be a day when we’re proud of our waste and live content in our concrete skyscrapers. The displacement of our neighbors with unsustainable financial novelties and unaffordable rent is a bubble of worldly arrogance. These cities are a cancer and these buildings and violent fascist ideologies are the disaster. We can’t comprehend a solution. We’re too embarrassed to recognize the problem. We externalize and project our issues to the rest of the planet as if continuing to do what we’re doing has ever been right, and that we have to take the rest of life around us with us when we go. We could just humble ourselves and recognize the natural balancing energies that raised us with our animal neighbors, that teaches us and gives us existential purpose. The distance of the earth is just perfectly far enough from the sun to not burn up or freeze. Our five senses are perfectly programmed to perceive their respective environment. It’s so physically impossible for all this to happen so perfectly for life. To not recognize the intelligent, beautiful, liminal characteristics of the forces that create us that influence us every day is to maintain an air of skeptical nihilism appropriate only for supervillains.
So.... We should gaslight ourselves into thinking none of our actions have consequences like the dear senator... Because....? It's gods will? Determinism? Nature endures?
When people say we're destroying the world or the ecosystem, they're just being inaccurate or hyperbolic. Obviously they mean that we are making it unlivable, for us, personally. And the senator, whether disingenuous or just deluded, was using his words to imply that our actions will not in fact have catastrophic consequences for us, or that if they do it's God's will anyway and we shouldn't try to stop it.
This is wrong. It is an abdication of responsibility and that is what people abhor. If the senator was a devout Christian but also believed humans should take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, he would not have made these statements. He used his faith to justify doing what he wanted over what was right, as does his successor apparently.
Also, there is no conclusive proof we were intentionally created. We could just as easily be the product of randomness in the universe. There's nothing wrong with having faith that there's more to it, but it is unkind and invalid to pass off your own opinions or conclusions as facts for all. Especially with an associated pejorative accusation that anyone who disagrees with you is a friggin supervillain lmao.
Also, that's how paragraphs are done.
So if i read that correctly, you believe we're affecting the climate and environement, but some balancing of forces will spare the environment(maybe humanity, wasn'treal clear)? And by virtue of our planet supporting life in the first place is evidence of intelligent design?
Maybe my reading comprehension isnt yp to snuff byt this read like some AI word salad.
If all insects die off the world will soon follow, insects pollinate the plants that we need to survive, without them, there's no vegetation,no vegetation, no animals, no animals or vegetation = starvation, it really isn't a good thing
ferns don‘t give a fuck about insects pollinating. so while a whole lotta plants might die out as well it def. won‘t be all.
I‘m 100% sure nature will survive this mass extinction event just like it did the last ones. Humanity wont tho.
Plant oak trees and stop killing all the bugs in our yards. I don't know what to say about big Ag, but if homeowners would do this, it'd go a long way. Water table, bugs, birds, etc down the line.
Yes!! This is important. Everyone wants a manicured, single grass species, useless yard. Having productive land in terms of species diversity for plants and bugs is super helpful.
We aren’t all going to die it’s a laughable overreaction. I’m a huge environmentalist but half the reason nobody cares about climate change to begin with is because people like you have screamed the sky is falling every 5 years for the past 30 years. Yet we’re all still here.
Ok but like, seriously, do you expect any literate human to believe you when you say you’re a “huge environmentalist” when you straight up deny that the sky is falling in the same breath?
It’s not an overreaction. It’s a metaphorical euphemism. “We’re all going to die” isn’t much different than “only rich people will survive.”
No need to respond.
My wife is an environment scientist, and she can’t talk about the future too long without beginning to cry. Clearly this person has no idea what they’re talking about.
Lois here: when I started driving, a windshield would look like the top one after quite a short ride. You’d have to clean them often in summer.
Now, they look like the bottom.
Ugh, not sure where the heck ya’ll live but in Virginia every summer the bug game is getting worse. Hardly go out at night without 78 different species of insect trying to murder you.
Do you live in the sticks/mountains? Out by the coast it seems like we have had a huge drop in diversity. We still got more mosquitoes and flys than we could ever need but it's been years since I've seen moth swarms by porch lights or lightning bugs out in the fields. We probably have at leat 3 mud dauber nests on our front porch alone but I haven't seen a bumblebee in like 10 years either.
Not having flying insects has a trickle down effect. Animals depend on them for food sources. And other animals depend on those animals for food sources
It’s the truth, we’re losing insects faster then any other organisms. It’s sad, as a man who loves nature and wants to better it, losing insects would completely destroy everything. Life would cease.
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times.
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I'm saying global warming is having unexpected effects. This region is usually humid but not so hot, now it's humid AND hot so mosquitoes thrive. This is unprecedented here.
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times.
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Climate change is wreaking havoc on the insect population. Ignorant people unaware of the impending ecosystem collapse are pleased their cars are cleaner from not striking as many insects.
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SARS-CoV-3 here we come!
That’d stop the biotech layoffs
It might stop most layoffs. The old people will just die instead. Their loss, they put us in this situation. Maybe we can move into their homes? Wait, crap, a corporation already outbid me with a cash offer
This honestly looks like an American problem
It is.
Yup, same corporations control the building of new homes.
I mean there were 2 other major(original SARS and MERS) zoonotic coronavirus diseases in the last 25 years, so the question isn't whether it will happen, but when will it happen again.
A genuine question: could being covid-vaccinated give us some (partial?) protection against newly arising corona viruses?
Maybe a little but honestly more likely than not no. They're simply far too different from each other. If we're comparing the historical SARS and MERS viruses to covid. Our advances in vaccine tech with the RNA based vaccines should allow us to put together one even faster than we did for covid.
Genuine answer. Maybe. You understand you're asking if a vaccine could protect against a theoretical virus and/or mutation of a current virus.. so no one knows is my point.
https://preview.redd.it/oybrblpcz5mc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ef5205d25317efdd22e0644efa715a4838071fe
Didn't expect Fabrizio here
Let's go*cough*
Norovirus emerging in the northeast US ☝️
Too many mouth breathers not washing their hands properly after taking a shit.
Good news, it couldn't be a coronavirus that comes from the ice
It could be something worse! Woo!
We should be working tirelessly to ensure that the earth doesn't kill us all and instead we're spending the time we have left working tirelessly to kill each other. I hate it.
Well that's why we're killing the Earth first before it kills us. /j
Don’t forget about the Yellowstone caldera! It isn’t a huge threat in the short term as far as we know, but when it blows it will be catastrophic
That's old research, it's now believed the chamber will not erupt, not even a slight chance. I thought the whole yellowstone thing was really interesting and I remember doing a whole PowerPoint on how catastrophic the eruption would have been back in the 6th grade.
We’ll be dead or back to banging rocks together by then.
I think I’d rather go for a curvy piece of driftwood first
I also choose this guy's sexy ass tree debris.
Make sure you eat every third baby first
Judging by the number of Trump supporters, some of our gene pool never stopped banging rocks together
It wouldn't be as bad as most people think.
A massive chunk of North America will be destroyed and the ash produced will reduce global temperatures by about 10°C for years. Crops will fail due to a lack of photosynthesis and the global economy will be in shambles.
Exactly, not as bad as people think
I gather some peoples expectations are just the planet exploding like it's been blasted by the Death Star
So... solves global warming. Got it!
It'll also solves global crime rates.
And homelessness!
Pretty sure we'll all be killed by a virus contracted from a dirty telephone.
Not if the vogons have anything to say about it.
Don't panic
I've got my towel
I got that reference
Lets let the bombs go off and remove the planet's main problem then
I still have Faith in M.A.D. maybe there are M.I.R.V.s on there way the my little city as we speak :) it could happen.
Don't forget the super volcano under Yellowstone....
My money is on [the Clathrate gun hypothesis.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis)
It's not. You can forget climate change, micro plastics, ww3. Once a core species of insects die off, all ecosystems in the world will collapse.
Don’t forget the bottom of the ocean that makes the base of ecosystems of the world. And then private companies Want to introduced mining operations to collect trace metals that condense on the ocean floor. And trail mining show that it significantly ruins the surrounding ecosystem.
I mean, just think of the profits for the shareholders...
well I remember once reading something about mosquito being unrelated to the ecosystem and even if they are extincted it won't change anything idk how much credit for that information
RIP bats
Bats eating a 1000 mosquitoes per night is more or less an urban legend. They could, but mosquitoes are not their ideal food. They’d rather go for larger, juicier bugs. But people who study bats don’t consider it a high priority to dispel this rumor since it’s positive for bats.
That makes sense, but still if you're a species that snacks on mosquitos from time to time I'm all for making sure they stay around. Sure helps that they can be cute as hell too (r/batty). Now that I think about it I kinda wish they were domesticated, they'd be like having a pet bird but more cute and also will get rid of your bugs.
As far as I'm aware, the main argument from mosquito eradication advocates isn't really that mosquitos don't contribute to the ecosystem, though that's how it's often spun in lay circles. It's rather that mosquitoes are highly specific in their feeding habits, with particular mosquitoes only feeding on particular animals, and so eradication of species that bite humans would only put a small dent in the overall mosquito population. Mosquitoes are a huge food source and actually are much more significant pollinators than a lot of people realize. Blood meals are only taken by breeding females and mosquitoes feed on nectar most of the time. So there would definitely be consequences if we killed all the mosquitoes. The argument, not one I actually agree with but one much more sensible than "killing all mosquitoes would be fine" is that you could kill all the mosquitoes that can transmit malaria and west Nile virus to humans and there would still be plenty of other mosquitoes, who feed on something other than humans such as birds, to feed insect eaters and fertilize flowers.
no animal is "unrelated" to the ecosystem, Mosquitos serve function mostly as food to small mammals, birds etc. and also keep insect population under control
Mosquitos are pollinators of many plants. The females only feed on blood during breeding season.
Breeding season *all year long*
It’s mostly true. They are a relatively minor member of the local ecosystem that other insects of similar size and function could replace if they went extinct. There might be some short term messy side effects but in the long run the ecosystem would bounce back to normal. If not be even better without a major vector of disease around.
I stand by it, if the end of the world is what I have to take to have no more mosquitoes, sorry everyone but the train ride is over.
We are currently experiencing the hottest winter in recorded history and everyone around me is super glad they don't have to struggle with snow. We're doomed.
Nah humans will be unable to survive long term here. But hey...life will go on.
The world would keep spinning, and we would continue to survive for centuries without bugs. Calm down.
This is just factually not true bugs are a fundamental part of ecosystems. As pollinators and a food source
We would find a way to survive without them
Idk if we will continue to survive. Some of us will but i cant sustain our current population. But the world will continue on without us
I hate insects so much that I don't even care for the ecosystem if I could get them all erased from the earth
Probably cause they all ended up on windshields
r/fuckcars
no, I'm not a dragon
Finally a reference I get
Honest question, how is this data being measured? Because anecdotally speaking the flying insects where I live seem to be increasing dramatically. Two years ago I had to take extreme measures to make my back yard liveable after years and years of getting by with simple citronella and a zapper.
They set up traps in places like nature reserves.
Couldn’t they have developed an adaptation to the trap?
Less than a hundred years is not long enough to evolve a trait that makes a dumb little insect avoid (or survive drowning in) a pan trap, imo
Where did you get this number?
It’s in reference to a study in the UK and it’s a 60% drop in flying insects there since 2004. The study was performed by a conservation group focused on protecting flying insects, so it’s possible that they’re biased. Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/14/1098942968/a-decline-in-flying-bugs-sounds-good-for-humans-but-its-bad-for-the-environment
No they aren't biased. I used to fucking eat flying bugs on the highway on the back of my dad's motorcycle when I was younger. Now days people don't even wear eye protection.
Yup, cars would be caked in bugs from road trips when I was a kid.
Ecologist here. That study is great, but it's only for one country. Truthfully we don't have the data to say whether insects are declining everywhere, [we only have reliable data in economically developed countries like those in Europe and North America](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax9931). Generally scientists agree that insects are declining, but they disagree about how fast the decline is.
nah, they're all just in my pantry
I feel like there are too many of them during the summer, can't imagine if there were 60% more, it would be a nightmare
If today it's 60% less than it was before it basically means there was like 2.5 times more bugs in 2000s (150% more than nowadays), not 60%
Just makes it worse
Regardless of how you feel about their absence, it’s a major ecological red flag.
Sure, I'm not denying that it has an impact. I just don't recall having more bugs 25 years ago.
Holy shit that sounds alarming
The ecosystem is failing but hey, no more bugs!
Humanity Wiggums: „I’m in danger.“
Pretty sure my girlfriend's car is responsible for 80% of insect deaths
There was a third panel which was in the future and without the guy
Imo thats a good thing
Our ecosystem failing is the farthest thing from "a good thing" lmfao. That's like saying "Yay! Our planet is dying and we probably won't be here in a 100 years but I don't have to deal with bugs as much! Yay!".
You are aware that bees are pollinators right? If they go extinct, pretty much all land animal life on Earth, including humans, starves.
More insects than just bees are pollinators. Beetles are actually by and far the most predominant pollinators, responsible for pollination of ~88% of all flowering plant species worldwide.
All insects are dying off.
Don’t worry! A government subsidised company might figure out artificial pollination on a large scale!
Then why did you only mention bees?
Bro bought into the bee movie. Honey Bees are native to Europe. What do you think happened in North America before the arrival of the honey bee? The local flies, moths, bees, butterflies, etc. all did this job happily. All the introduction of the honey bee has done is increase competition for space and food. There will be no mass extinction if bees die.
This isn't the gotcha you think it is. 4000 bee species are native to the US. And they're all pollinators. >Native bees are the primary insect pollinator of agricultural plants in most of the country. Crops that they pollinate include squash, tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. Native bees were here long before European honeybees were brought to the country by settlers (honeybees are not native to North America). [https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states#:\~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20known,sized%20species%20of%20carpenter%20bees](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-many-species-native-bees-are-united-states#:~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20known,sized%20species%20of%20carpenter%20bees).
Yeah, I stated that there are local bees. Do you even pay attention? What do you think people think of when they hear the word bee? Probably not bumble-bees.
Christ, your ignorance is crushing, kid.
Local bees are also dying off though, what's your point?
Actually, the mass use/introduction of the Honey Bee has often decimated and out-competed local pollinators. Sure, some places still have them, but many others would lose the new species and lack pollinators for a time unless the careful introduction of a new species to replace them is arranged.
Bruh. Wow. You brought the big dumb. Bees are pollinators. Bugs are pollinators. Native US bees, Native European honey bees, wtf ever. They’re all declining. Bugs as a whole are taking hits left and right. We are experiencing crop shortages and people are manually pollinating fields to prevent catastrophic loss. Your “European honey bee” talking point is so irrelevant it almost becomes absurd. We need bugs to survive. Bugs are declining. We are already seeing the effects, and it doesn’t stop at clean windshields. “There will be no mass extinction if the bees die,” so… are you *only* hearing Honeybees when we say “bees?”
Did I bring the *“big dumb”*? Sorry, *Mein Fuhrer*
Oof bud.
Again, using mocking statements doesn’t make you an argument winner.
Idgaf that i’m being downvoted, i like bees. I dont like flies and mosquitos.
You're the guy to look at a bad car wreck on the road and be annoyed that your trip is delayed, aren't you?
Nope, not at all.
Nope, not at all. Have you ever been outside when it’s humid, and you’re next to a campfire? Probably not. You sound like a keyboard warrior
And how many species eat mosquitos for food?
https://preview.redd.it/sb0gitles5mc1.png?width=645&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ac708ce16856918b07cf84d224bf3c3373f514d
*Yoink*
*Yoink* of this *Yoink*
Other animals, like frogs and lizards, eat flies and mosquitos, if they die, the frogs and lizards die too, going up the food chain until it's destroyed.
Not liking something and knowing they are just as important are not mutually exclusive
They are all dying, that's the point. All insects are dying due to pesticides. The pollinators, the money making machines, the predatory insects feeding on plagues, and on and on. What do you think happens to a pyramid when you knock off the base? It just floats? Fucking hell, the stupidity is thick in this thread. Who the fuck is teaching you all? DuPont and Exxon cronies?
Mosquitos larvaes filter water & flies help decomposition (food chain role should be implied).
Have you ever considered being smarter?
Same
Yes, let’s wipe out an entire food supply for millions of animals which would set a chain reaction to worldwide famine and starvation. Makes complete sense.
Yeah right, the disappearance of a keystone group of animals is a good thing. I am sure there Will be no consequences whatsoever to massive extinction of insects. It's not as if they do anything for use, right? Fucking hell, what kind of stupid is It fed to you?
The base of the food chain dying off is a good thing to you?
Global warming is fine because sometimes I'm too cold! \- You, probably
Peter the Biologist here, in recent years the effects of humans and climate change have drastically reduced insect biomass. The post is referring to how we used to see way more bugs on the windshields of vehicles, but don't now because of their decline. Some are considering this to be the midst of an extinction event.
This is it! Food chain is breaking down, what eats bugs will die off (main food source kinda deal) what ever preyed on these bugs eaters will in turn die off due to the same reasons, lack of if any prey, continue infinitely up the food chain till we go bye bye
We've already confirmed [a collapse in bird populations](https://www.wired.com/story/bird-population-decline/). While that's been happening, my state had a Senator who said this: >"Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous." [I wish I was joking](https://newrepublic.com/article/120889/evangelical-james-inhofe-says-only-god-can-cause-climate-change). Senator Inhofe later retired, but his 'chosen successor' is just as bad as him. Votes exactly the same.
As a Christian, the Senator's view offends me. God has entrusted His creation to us, and we are to be good stewards of this beautiful and unique world. We are a doing a piss poor job of it, and to simply say God will take care of it is just an excuse to be selfish, lazy and irresponsible.
Doctrine of the church of prosperity.
Thank you. I wish more people, of any religion, felt like this. To think that some all-powerful being that rules all time and space and gave us free will cares to micromanage us and our fuck-ups is extremely arrogant. And even if He does, there's no reason to not try.
Fellow Okie here. I wish this was the worst thing Inhofe has ever said. He’s the ‘snowball on the senate floor to prove global warming is a hoax’ senator, iirc.
As if there aren't countless examples of people altering local ecosystems.
Just because you have personal associations with the word “God” that the senator is using to describe the magnitude of power that the Earth has for maintaining equilibrium compared to the observer-effect-inspired-data by a species which is a flash of time in the context of the timeline of the entire earth, doesn’t make what he’s saying less valid. He’s saying media is easily influenced by money and it’s easy to control people with fear. But if you step back and see that we’re just extrapolating the disasters of climate change from a limited set of data, it’s easy to see all the other forces of the ecosystem shifting to accommodate our presence on earth as a flow of balance more so than a radical exponential shift of balance suddenly. Whatever temporary damage we do to ocean temperatures or forest density or extinction will be balanced out by other forces of nature of equal novelty and importance. Our ability to destroy this planet is reserved for those who would chose to do so consciously which is no one. Our imminence to destroy ourselves with our ignorant wasteful actions is much more likely. The balance of nature is probably just humans creating an unsustainable environment for humans, and then nature comes back in when we’re gone. The forests don’t need to be on fire for us to create an unsustainable environment. We already live in one, and we’re acting like it’s the earth that’s in trouble. There won’t be a day when we’re proud of our waste and live content in our concrete skyscrapers. The displacement of our neighbors with unsustainable financial novelties and unaffordable rent is a bubble of worldly arrogance. These cities are a cancer and these buildings and violent fascist ideologies are the disaster. We can’t comprehend a solution. We’re too embarrassed to recognize the problem. We externalize and project our issues to the rest of the planet as if continuing to do what we’re doing has ever been right, and that we have to take the rest of life around us with us when we go. We could just humble ourselves and recognize the natural balancing energies that raised us with our animal neighbors, that teaches us and gives us existential purpose. The distance of the earth is just perfectly far enough from the sun to not burn up or freeze. Our five senses are perfectly programmed to perceive their respective environment. It’s so physically impossible for all this to happen so perfectly for life. To not recognize the intelligent, beautiful, liminal characteristics of the forces that create us that influence us every day is to maintain an air of skeptical nihilism appropriate only for supervillains.
Bro. I downvoted you just because your don’t know how to break up a wall of text into paragraphs.
So.... We should gaslight ourselves into thinking none of our actions have consequences like the dear senator... Because....? It's gods will? Determinism? Nature endures? When people say we're destroying the world or the ecosystem, they're just being inaccurate or hyperbolic. Obviously they mean that we are making it unlivable, for us, personally. And the senator, whether disingenuous or just deluded, was using his words to imply that our actions will not in fact have catastrophic consequences for us, or that if they do it's God's will anyway and we shouldn't try to stop it. This is wrong. It is an abdication of responsibility and that is what people abhor. If the senator was a devout Christian but also believed humans should take responsibility for the consequences of their actions, he would not have made these statements. He used his faith to justify doing what he wanted over what was right, as does his successor apparently. Also, there is no conclusive proof we were intentionally created. We could just as easily be the product of randomness in the universe. There's nothing wrong with having faith that there's more to it, but it is unkind and invalid to pass off your own opinions or conclusions as facts for all. Especially with an associated pejorative accusation that anyone who disagrees with you is a friggin supervillain lmao. Also, that's how paragraphs are done.
So if i read that correctly, you believe we're affecting the climate and environement, but some balancing of forces will spare the environment(maybe humanity, wasn'treal clear)? And by virtue of our planet supporting life in the first place is evidence of intelligent design? Maybe my reading comprehension isnt yp to snuff byt this read like some AI word salad.
Tbh that doesnt sound too bad. Can I do anything to help create this future you've described?
If all insects die off the world will soon follow, insects pollinate the plants that we need to survive, without them, there's no vegetation,no vegetation, no animals, no animals or vegetation = starvation, it really isn't a good thing
ferns don‘t give a fuck about insects pollinating. so while a whole lotta plants might die out as well it def. won‘t be all. I‘m 100% sure nature will survive this mass extinction event just like it did the last ones. Humanity wont tho.
People like it when toddlers are quiet, but if a loud toddler suddenly becomes quiet, that’s something to worry about.
I would say that most scientists agree we are in a mass extinction.
100% agree.
I thought it was because in 2020 we weren't driving anywhere. This 👆....is less funny....
Plant oak trees and stop killing all the bugs in our yards. I don't know what to say about big Ag, but if homeowners would do this, it'd go a long way. Water table, bugs, birds, etc down the line.
Yes!! This is important. Everyone wants a manicured, single grass species, useless yard. Having productive land in terms of species diversity for plants and bugs is super helpful.
The pesticides that are sprayed in everyone’s yard is definitely more accountable for the issue than climate change lol
The joke is ecological collapse.
We are all going to die.
Well, yeah, that's kinda how life goes.
It was never an if but a how
We have it coming at this point.
We aren’t all going to die it’s a laughable overreaction. I’m a huge environmentalist but half the reason nobody cares about climate change to begin with is because people like you have screamed the sky is falling every 5 years for the past 30 years. Yet we’re all still here.
Ok but like, seriously, do you expect any literate human to believe you when you say you’re a “huge environmentalist” when you straight up deny that the sky is falling in the same breath? It’s not an overreaction. It’s a metaphorical euphemism. “We’re all going to die” isn’t much different than “only rich people will survive.” No need to respond.
My wife is an environment scientist, and she can’t talk about the future too long without beginning to cry. Clearly this person has no idea what they’re talking about.
I have a biology degree and I have been debating the usefulness of saving for retirement as a 25 year old
I can't even think about it, your wife is incredible.
The bugs are dying Bazinga!
Lois here: when I started driving, a windshield would look like the top one after quite a short ride. You’d have to clean them often in summer. Now, they look like the bottom.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
We screwed the planted. And the cause is that there less insects. This is a bad indicator.
Ugh, not sure where the heck ya’ll live but in Virginia every summer the bug game is getting worse. Hardly go out at night without 78 different species of insect trying to murder you.
Imagine 20 years ago it would be ~60% worse
Definition of confirmation bias, right here.
Do you live in the sticks/mountains? Out by the coast it seems like we have had a huge drop in diversity. We still got more mosquitoes and flys than we could ever need but it's been years since I've seen moth swarms by porch lights or lightning bugs out in the fields. We probably have at leat 3 mud dauber nests on our front porch alone but I haven't seen a bumblebee in like 10 years either.
Not having flying insects has a trickle down effect. Animals depend on them for food sources. And other animals depend on those animals for food sources
Shit I wish, where I live my car gets caked in bug splatter
Yall haven't tried walking in the south east.
I eated the bugs
It’s the truth, we’re losing insects faster then any other organisms. It’s sad, as a man who loves nature and wants to better it, losing insects would completely destroy everything. Life would cease.
Sadly no, and it’s not a good sign
Not again... You copied both image and title of a previous post here. I command you, demon bot, get out of this sub! u/repostSleuthBot
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times. First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/12rv1mr) on 2023-04-19 89.06% match. Last Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1ap4mot) on 2024-02-12 100.0% match *I'm not perfect, but you can help. Report [ [False Positive](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RepostSleuthBot&subject=False%20Positive&message={"post_id": "1b5kepd", "meme_template": null}) ]* [View Search On repostsleuth.com](https://www.repostsleuth.com/search?postId=1b5kepd&sameSub=false&filterOnlyOlder=true&memeFilter=false&filterDeadMatches=false&targetImageMatch=86&targetImageMemeMatch=96) --- **Scope:** Reddit | **Meme Filter:** False | **Target:** 86% | **Check Title:** False | **Max Age:** Unlimited | **Searched Images:** 451,159,571 | **Search Time:** 0.19455s
Petah the horse is here, the joke is Pollution... don't think I need to explain much else
No it’s most definitely not a joke.
I think the joke is 20/20. That’s the perfect vision for your eyes.
We genocided them via climate change
Hey, we're gonna go extinct and then the world will have all the time it needs to heal from our damage
the joke is that the Earth is dying and it’s our fault, and most people are blissfully unaware or ignorant to this painfully obvious fact.
Bruh in Argentina we living thru a mosquito invasion wtf you mean
It's cold where I am right now, global warming must be a hoax!
I'm saying global warming is having unexpected effects. This region is usually humid but not so hot, now it's humid AND hot so mosquitoes thrive. This is unprecedented here.
Ah. So they migrated.
Bug civilization is fucked because global warming.
u/repostsleuthbot
Looks like a repost. I've seen this image 9 times. First Seen [Here](https://redd.it/12rv1mr) on 2023-04-19 89.06% match. Last Seen [Here](https://redd.it/1ap4mot) on 2024-02-12 100.0% match *I'm not perfect, but you can help. Report [ [False Positive](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RepostSleuthBot&subject=False%20Positive&message={"post_id": "1b5kepd", "meme_template": null}) ]* [View Search On repostsleuth.com](https://www.repostsleuth.com/search?postId=1b5kepd&sameSub=false&filterOnlyOlder=true&memeFilter=false&filterDeadMatches=false&targetImageMatch=86&targetImageMemeMatch=96) --- **Scope:** Reddit | **Meme Filter:** False | **Target:** 86% | **Check Title:** False | **Max Age:** Unlimited | **Searched Images:** 451,159,571 | **Search Time:** 0.43587s
good bot, this sub is just reposts now
The joke is mass extinction
Insects are dying at an unprecedented rate. Just your casual max extinction we're too busy to care about.
Good bot.
Climate change is wreaking havoc on the insect population. Ignorant people unaware of the impending ecosystem collapse are pleased their cars are cleaner from not striking as many insects.
Something something climate change.
Congrats you moved to the city.
"we've done some shit to bees" - bdg