# Extinction!  The Falling Domino Effect



## Em in Ohio (Jul 4, 2020)

My lawn is peppered with Dutch clover, a short flowering plant that, in my childhood, would be a moving mass of honey bees.  This year, I have seen 3 honey bees.  This got me thinking of extinction issues and the loss of biodiversity.  I came across this UK site.  This is the link for those outside the UK.

From - https://rebellion.global/why-rebel/

*Here’s The Problem:*
We’ve all heard it before - the Earth is getting hotter, CO2 levels are rising, and we are in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction (The Anthropocene). We are facing two equally critical issues - biodiversity loss and climate change. Both are having unprecedented dire consequences not only on us as humans, but on every living being and ecosystem on the planet. It is beyond a doubt that human activities are triggering these changes.

*Biodiversity Loss & Mass Extinction*
We are facing a loss of over 1 million species, directly due to humans’ way of life, extractive economies, and levels of consumption. The ‘father of biodiversity’ E.O. Wilson estimates we are losing 27,000 species a year, or one every 19 minutes - itself a conservative estimate with the United Nations own council on biodiversity putting it at 150 each day. Our planetary systems work together as part of a whole - when one part is affected, it can have a domino effect, having drastic implications for all parts of the whole. Deforestation is diminishing the earth’s ability to naturally store carbon; extraction of raw materials and agriculture are destroying natural spaces; diseases and invasive species are spreading through commercial routes; and overexploitation is leading many species to extinction.

As we continue to destroy the natural world - the Earth’s life support systems - we risk spillover of disease from wild species, leading to the continued possibility of more pandemics like Covid-19.


> These activities cause pandemics by bringing more people into contact and conflict with animals, from which 70% of emerging human diseases originate...untold human suffering and halt economies and societies around the world. This is the human hand in pandemic emergence. Yet [Covid-19] may be only the beginning.
> - The Guardian


Biodiversity loss affects so much more - our food systems, economic systems, resiliency in the face of extreme weather. From Aspirin to numerous cancer treatments, more than 50% of all medicines in active clinical use come from irreplaceable natural sources, with scientists believing countless more undiscovered medicines await us in biodiverse rich places like the Amazon and the jungles of East Asia. By destroying habitats, we destroy our own future.
*Climate Change & CO2 Levels*
Each of the past 4 decades has been hotter than the last, while the past 5 years alone have been the hottest ever recorded. Climate change is one of the most damaging effects of our industrialized society. In 2018, the top experts in their fields, the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report on the systemic effects of 1.5°C on the planet.

1.5 degree doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? When we’re talking about the entirety of the planet, it’s quite a lot. Consequences of allowing us to go beyond 1.5°C would be disastrous on every level: islands and coastal cities disappearing because of rising sea levels, deadly extreme heat, droughts and shortages of food and water, forcing entire populations to flee their homes. It’s not hard to see that we have a serious problem on our hands. 1.5°C could be catastrophic - to our health, nature, the global economy, and our way of life.

We know that the concentration of warming greenhouse gas CO2 in our atmosphere has risen by a meteoric 45% since the Industrial Revolution, mainly as a result of human activities - burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, depriving the earth of a crucial “carbon sink” by clearing forests for livestock and food production, transportation systems, and industrial byproducts.

We must address both climate change and biodiversity simultaneously if we have any chance of averting disaster.


----------



## Don M. (Jul 4, 2020)

I , too, have a yard that is overwhelmed with clover this year....and, likewise, I also have seen very few honey bees this year.  Those bees are one of the most important species, as they "pollinate" so many of our food crops.  Without this natural means of propagating our food chains, we could see shortages and increasing prices in the future.  

There are so many things that are being impacted by human activity that it would take volumes to list them all.  The combinations of climate change, and overpopulation will only continue to worsen our environment.  

At some point, Nature is going to catch up with humanity, and restore some "balance" to this planet.  When...not if....that happens, the process will make things like this current CV-19 crisis seem like a minor "sniffle".


----------



## MarciKS (Jul 4, 2020)

If this sounds stupid I'm sorry but, I know nothing about all this earth & science stuff. I just wanted to share that where I'm at, I've seen zero honey bees so far. I have seen 2 wasps. Which is unusual for this time of year. Usually once it's hot they are all over. I haven't even seen all the ant hills in the yard like normal. 

Normally have crickets and grasshoppers by now too and I haven't seen them either. Usually the summer heat brings all these critters out & about. I didn't see one single possum last year at all which is even more unusual. I'm starting to wonder about the future of our planet at this point. Between this and all these funky viruses.


----------



## Em in Ohio (Jul 6, 2020)

MarciKS said:


> If this sounds stupid I'm sorry but, I know nothing about all this earth & science stuff. I just wanted to share that where I'm at, I've seen zero honey bees so far. I have seen 2 wasps. Which is unusual for this time of year. Usually once it's hot they are all over. I haven't even seen all the ant hills in the yard like normal.
> 
> Normally have crickets and grasshoppers by now too and I haven't seen them either. Usually the summer heat brings all these critters out & about. I didn't see one single possum last year at all which is even more unusual. I'm starting to wonder about the future of our planet at this point. Between this and all these funky viruses.


You have already shown that you know something bad is going on through your observations! If not for people observing phenomena, there would be no scientific inquiries.   Thanks for posting!


----------



## Em in Ohio (Jul 6, 2020)

Don M. said:


> I , too, have a yard that is overwhelmed with clover this year....and, likewise, I also have seen very few honey bees this year.  Those bees are one of the most important species, as they "pollinate" so many of our food crops.  Without this natural means of propagating our food chains, we could see shortages and increasing prices in the future.
> 
> There are so many things that are being impacted by human activity that it would take volumes to list them all.  The combinations of climate change, and overpopulation will only continue to worsen our environment.
> 
> At some point, Nature is going to catch up with humanity, and restore some "balance" to this planet.  When...not if....that happens, the process will make things like this current CV-19 crisis seem like a minor "sniffle".


As a child, you couldn't walk over the summer grass - it was a solid, moving mass of honey bees on clover.  I purposely try to provide a bee-friendly yard, so this loss is particularly upsetting to me.  As you said, they are major pollinators and vital!


----------



## Repondering (Jul 6, 2020)

Here's a suggestion:  Take up the hobby of beekeeping.  Read up on how to do it, buy a copy of "Beekeeping For Dummies", or any other of a multitude of books on the subject.  Watch youtube videos of the craft.....there are hundreds of them.  Locate a source of honeybees for sale....packages, nukes, queens, and put in your order by January 2021 or so.  Invest in the paraphernalia......put aside about $500 or so to start with and be ready to go active next spring......March or April.
If your location is satisfactory for bees and the neighbors are even moderately reasonable, you can do a little bit to help the world.
And the hobby is endlessly fascinating.  Once people know you have honey from your own bees, even if they don't usually consume honey, they'll want some of your bees' honey.  It's even possible you could make it a paying hobby but don't count on it.


----------



## RadishRose (Jul 6, 2020)

We've heard about the dwindling population of honeybees for a few years now and it's terrifying.
Back further, it was frogs who were disappearing, but I heard they've made a comeback.


----------



## Aneeda72 (Jul 6, 2020)

Yup, here to, less bees for years.


----------



## Phoenix (Aug 4, 2020)

Where I live in Oregon the honey bees number are way down too. At least something pollinated the flowers on our small apple orchard, so we do have apples this year.  Something pollinated the cherry also this year.  We had a bumper crop of cherries.  Usually we have lots of bumble bees, but this year I've only seen a couple.  From the documentaries I've seen viruses are killing the bees.  Here we are way down on rain, so the fir trees are dying from the bottom up.  So many of the limbs area dead.  The tree is only sending nutrition to the top parts of the trees.  This became very apparent in our freak snow storm a year and a half ago.  Those limb littered the ground.  It was heavy wet snow.   We humans who love our RVs, travel on big ships and air planes that dump their waste into the oceans and over the land, who buy products we don't need, that can't be recycled, are making the oceans too acidic to sustain life and over populating the planet with too many copies of ourselves are killing ourselves and all other life.  Last night I watch a documentary on the 5 big extinctions.  We are in the sixth and we are causing it ourselves.  While some of us are aware and trying to ward it off, too many including big corporations and those with political clout deny it's a problem.  We have known of the problem since at least 1970.  In the early 1990s Al Gore published his book about it.  He was shut down by those who wanted to continue to rape the planet.   We are in the end game for life on this planet.


----------



## Repondering (Aug 4, 2020)

@ Phoenix:  Night flying moths pollinate apple blossoms; so do various species of non-social bees....mason bees and others.
And I agree with your assessment of our world's plight.  I'm glad that I was young when I was.  Too bad none of us saved the world.  
But I don't think we're in the end game for all life.....just for a lot of the species and probably human civilization.


----------



## Phoenix (Aug 4, 2020)

Servid flies also pollinate blossoms.  Those are the ones I saw.  They look like tiny honey bees.  Yes, it is too bad none of us saved the world.  I'm still trying with the books I write.  I hope you are right, and not me.  In the documentary I saw the other day it said that there would be 3 plus billion more people by 2050.  40 percent of the land is now taken up with cities, agriculture and projects for humans.  It showed pictures of all the forests we had lost.  We are way out of balance.  In one of the extinction events the shell fish in the ocean could not make shells to house themselves.  The ocean was too acidic.  It's happening now.  There are dead zones in the ocean where there is no oxygen because of what we have done.  There are islands of trash floating on the ocean and sea birds are feeding their babies styrofoam.


----------

