Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on February 17, 2019
Which species are we sure we can survive without?
Two years ago I asked the question in the title of this piece. Now comes a wide-ranging study that suggests we are about to test that question in a major way.
The study predicts that at the current rate of loss of insect species, 40 percent could be gone “in the next few decades.” What is particularly alarming is that this “could trigger wide-ranging cascading effects within several of the world’s ecosystems.” That means that many other life-forms including other animals and plants could find themselves without what they need to survive in this dangerous game of musical chairs orchestrated by humans. Might we be one of those species?
Insects do much of the crop pollination necessary for food production. A list of crops pollinated by bees is quite long. Humans could survive without these foods, but the nutrition and variety in our diets would be severely limited. And yet there is a greater problem. Outside of agriculture 80 to 95 percent of plant species require animal pollination. Since those plants are the base of every food chain, catastrophic declines in insect populations could lead to a collapse of existing ecosystems. The exact scope and effects of such a collapse cannot be fully anticipated. But it is doubtful humans would be unharmed.
Human civilization uses an enormous amount of free ecoservices, that is, services provided by nature including the purification of water, the formation of soil, the regulation of climate, and energy resources such as hydropower and biomass. However one values these services, the value is enormous. If humans had to pay for these services, that is, if we had to set up mechanical and chemical substitutes, we would never able to afford it. But, we probably wouldn’t be able to set up substitute systems that work as precisely and effectively as nature’s.
For the last 600 million years oxygen levels have been kept in a range friendly to life by the almost perfectly balance synchronization of the sulfur and carbon cycles mediated by life processes. (For an excellent account of this, I can recommend the book, Life as a Geological Force.) Right now we are interfering with the carbon cycle in a major way that is affecting climate. While it doesn’t seem to be affecting oxygen levels much, our actions do threaten the stability of modern technical civilization which grew up in an era of mild climate fluctuations.
It has taken a long time to begin to understand the sulfur and carbon cycles and to understand the origins and full ramifications of climate change. Do we believe that we can understand in short order both the ramifications of the vast loss of species among insects and practically every other class of living organisms? Do we believe we can then come up with a response that will protect us from major reductions in our food supply or in the ecoservices mentioned above?
The best response would be to stop doing those things, the consequences of which could be grave and about which we understand very little. So far, it appears that we as a human community will continue to be as careless about our own survival as we have been about the survival of the species that surround us.
Resource Insights by Kurt Cobb
25 Comments on "Which species are we sure we can survive without?"
Davy on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 10:01 am
“Insects do much of the crop pollination necessary for food production. A list of crops pollinated by bees is quite long. Humans could survive without these foods, but the nutrition and variety in our diets would be severely limited. And yet there is a greater problem. Outside of agriculture 80 to 95 percent of plant species require animal pollination.”
I like to think I am doing my part with our farm. Native grasses, weeds, and brushy draws are being maintained and cultivated. Pollinators of all kinds are calling these areas home. Monarchs are still visiting and staying around for a time stocking up for their long migrations. These type areas are also great for animals like deer, turkey, and rabbits. I am not optimistic for the future of a healthy ecosystem but maybe more places that have potential will be set aside for pollinators. We have 8 bee hives on the farm in addition to the wild pollinators.
Cloggie on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 10:56 am
Netherlands today: 18 Celsius.
August is still 6 months away.
Donald Maze on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 11:36 am
Some countries such as France, there has been a large scale reduction in insect populations from the use of pesticides. As such there is a corresponding drop in the population of birds which rely on insects for food. It has become a disrupter of the food web.
jawagord on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 12:10 pm
Could, might, maybe, the words we use when something is unlikely. The referenced paper is a study of other studies taken almost entirely from Europe and USA. I don’t think you can make an extrapolatation to the entire world from this but doomers are going to doom!
https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0006320718313636-gr1_lrg.jpg
tahoe1780 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 1:03 pm
https://guymcpherson.com/2018/11/extinction-foretold-extinction-ignored/
Extinction Ignored
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 1:17 pm
‘I don’t think you can make an extrapolatation to the entire world from this but doomers are going to doom!”
Really? What do you base your “opinion”?
And denialists will always ignore the evidence until it’s too damn late. At that point, the only benefit will be poetic justice.
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 1:31 pm
” Right now we are interfering with the carbon cycle in a major way that is affecting climate. While it doesn’t seem to be affecting oxygen levels much…”
Not for long. 50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. Specifically, oxygen comes from tiny ocean plants – called phytoplankton – that live near the water’s surface and drift with the currents. “When it persists — for in our case now for three or four years — alarm bells start sounding because it means that something fundamental has changed in the food web.”
Pepin says it is difficult to understand how long it takes the effect of this lack of basic food to make its way through the ocean ecosystem.
Over the past three to four years, scientists have seen a persistent drop in phytoplankton and zooplankton in waters off Newfoundland and Labrador. “Based on the measurements that we’ve been taking in this region, we’ve seen pretty close to 50 per cent decline in the overall biomass of zooplankton.”
https://livingresilience.net/50-drop-in-plankton-cbc-december-2018/
Researchers at Canada’s Dalhousie University say the global population of phytoplankton has fallen about 40 percent since 1950. That translates to an annual drop of about 1 percent of the average plankton population between 1899 and 2008.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/phytoplankton-population/
But the denialists tell us not to worry.
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 1:44 pm
tahoe1780
“Agree completely. Many here suffer from a genetic high loyalty quotient. None so blind as those that will not see.”
So anyone who does not agree in lock-step with your political persuasion is blind. According to your thinking, loyalty is a character fault. And up is down and down is up. Next, you will tell us honesty and truth are equal character faults.
Gotta love modern man. No wonder the whole house of cards is so damn near collapse.
jawagord on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 2:01 pm
I base it on the fact they’re are uncounted millions of insect species in the world while the studies involved countries with only a small fraction of those species.
The one benefit is doomers will likely worry themselves into an early grave, or just not have children, natural selection at work.
“It has long been recognized and documented that insects are the most diverse group of organisms, meaning that the numbers of species of insects are more than any other group. In the world, some 900 thousand different kinds of living insects are known. This representation approximates 80 percent of the world’s species. The true figure of living species of insects can only be estimated from present and past studies. Most authorities agree that there are more insect species that have not been described (named by science) than there are insect species that have been previously named. Conservative estimates suggest that this figure is 2 million, but estimates extend to 30 million. In the last decade, much attention has been given to the entomofauna that exists in the canopies of tropical forests of the world. From studies conducted by Terry Erwin of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Entomology in Latin American forest canopies, the number of living species of insects has been estimated to be 30 million. Insects also probably have the largest biomass of the terrestrial animals. At any time, it is estimated that there are some 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive.
In the United States, the number of described species is approximately 91,000. The undescribed species of insects in the United States, however, is estimated at some 73,000. The largest numbers of described species in the U.S. fall into four insect Orders: Coleoptera (beetles) at 23,700, Diptera (flies) at 19,600, Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) at 17,500, and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) at 11,500.”
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos
tahoe1780 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 2:10 pm
DerHundIstLos Let me clarify. A high loyalty quotient blinds you to the atrocities the group you are loyal to commits. It keeps you from being a critical thinker. It makes you a puppet to the opinion leaders / narrative spinners in your group. It blinds you to agendas. It has nothing to do with what I think. It has to do with critical thinking and verifiable facts.
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 2:47 pm
tahoe1780
As Davy likes to remind me, I’m old and irrelevant. Maybe so, but that’s OK by me. I grew-up in an era when such character attributes as loyalty, hard-work, honesty, education, kindness were considered the hallmarks of a respected person. I’m not sure what matters anymore.
It causes me profound sadness to realize I am a member of a failed species that will soon be relegated to the trash bin of eternity. I also believe much larger forces are at work that will eliminate or replace ourselves with a new and improved model before we are allowed to inflict irreparable harm. Maybe we will be remembered as a footnote to a text on the natural history of earth.
tahoe1780 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 3:11 pm
DerHundIstLos – I’m 70 and have great, educated kids struggling to get by. I, too, am dismayed (is that strong enough of a word?) of what the world has become. I feel you.
Regarding loyalty: “There is almost no kind of outrage—–torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians—–which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” : George Orwell
Regarding the state of things:
“Herbert Stein’s Law,” – “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” or “Trends that can’t continue, won’t.” If a trend cannot go on forever, there is no need for action or a program to make it stop, much less to make it stop immediately; it will stop of its own accord.
“It has often been said that, if the human species fails to make a go of it here on the Earth, some other species will take over the running. In the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have or soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary systems. On each of them there will be one chance, and one chance only.” – Sir Fred Hoyle
makati1 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 5:02 pm
Three good quotes, tahoe1780. We have a nationalist here that proves Orwell correct. He lives in Missouri. He bragged above about his weed filled farm. The only positive he can claim and it is because he spends all his time on here.
Yes, life will go on after humans, and will likely be some form of roach as they are very resilient. They have been around for at least 350 million years, predating the dinosaurs.
https://owlcation.com/stem/The-Fascinating-Truth-about-the-Worlds-Oldest-Pests-Cockroaches
Homo sapiens was a failed experiment of Mother Nature which she is working to erase from her planet. Will there be any humans left to celebrate New Years 2100? Stay tuned.
Anonymouse on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 6:11 pm
The only thing the exceptionalturd has cultivated lately, or ever, is an intense hatred for JuanP, who has supplanted even you and GregT as his #1 nemesis.
The only part of his ‘farm’ that has seen any development, is the well-worn path between his shack, and his goat-pen.
Now he is claiming he has Bee-hives. Sure he does. More like 8 natural bee-hives, you know the ones that hang from trees. He probably spotted some of them and upgraded himself to Davy the Bee-Keeper. Is there anything the delusional one does not do, own, possess or tried his hand at? Apparently not if this stories are to be believed (lol). He has one of everything. Except his sanity. Or humility, or, even basic humanity. Other than those three, he seems to have everything anyone could ever want or need on his fantasy farm.
How much you want to bet, DavyMOB has not gotten out of his chair once today to do any actual work on that amazing ‘farm’ of his? Unless he had to relieve himself, or scratch his ass. That might have gotten him out of his chair. Maybe.
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 6:37 pm
jawagord
I see. So the potential number of individual insect species means global insect populations are healthy? What?
FACT:
As reported by the U.K.’s Guardian, an alarming study published in the journal Biological Conservation recently has confirmed that the planet’s insects are “hurtling down the path to extinction,” with more than 40 percent of all insect species declining and around a third endangered. The researchers found that there are several contributing factors to these shocking statistics, with the worst culprits being habitat loss caused by intensive agriculture and the use of “agro-chemical pollutants,” i.e. synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. (Related: Even TINY traces of pesticides found to cause infertility in insects, scientists discover.)
The cornucopian denialists provide the big polluters and destroyers with just enough cover to prevent change. Too bad, we don’t have the ability to choose living with like minded individuals. You can choose a world where it’s BAU while I choose a world that recognizes the validity of science and is committed to taking menaingful action.
DerHundIstLos on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 6:53 pm
Earth’s Ecosystems Are On A Collision Course With Extinction: Insect Populations Have Declined By Up To 98 Percent In Some Areas Of The World.
Scientists are calling it “the insect apocalypse”, and it has extremely serious implications for the future of our planet.
All over the globe, insect populations are plummeting dramatically. And since insects are at the very foundation of the global food chain, that is really bad news for all of us. In fact, one expert described what is happening to the global insect population as “hyper-alarming”. If we continue down the path that we are currently on, a bleak, apocalyptic future for our planet is all but assured.
When scientist Brad Lister recently returned to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico, he quickly realized that something was very, very wrong. And once his team began taking measurements, they discovered that 98 percent of the insect population on the ground was completely gone…
“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”
His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished.
But if this was just happening in Puerto Rico, it definitely would not be a global crisis.
Unfortunately, similar numbers are coming in from all over the planet…
Flying insect numbers in Germany’s natural reserves have plunged 75% in just 25 years. The virtual disappearance of birds in an Australian eucalyptus forest was blamed on a lack of insects caused by drought and heat. Lister and his colleague Andrés García also found that insect numbers in a dry forest in Mexico had fallen 80% since the 1980s.
“We are essentially destroying the very life support systems that allow us to sustain our existence on the planet, along with all the other life on the planet,”Lister said. “It is just horrifying to watch us decimate the natural world like this.”
And one study that looked at data from the entire world concluded that there has been “a 45 percent drop in the abundance of invertebrates”…
Worldwide, a 2014 summary of global declines in biodiversity and abundance estimated a 45 percent drop in the abundance of invertebrates, most of which are insects. And many individual species and species groups are declining or even being threatened with extinction, from bumblebees in Europe and the United States to fungus weevils in Africa.
When I said that we “are on a collision course with extinction” in the title of this article, I was not kidding around.
Without insects, we would have an exceedingly difficult time trying to survive on this planet. I really like how a Scientific American article made this point…
Insects pollinate a spectrum of plants, including many of those that humans rely on for food. They also are key players in other important jobs including breaking dead things down into the building blocks for new life, controlling weeds and providing raw materials for medicines. And they provide sustenance for a spectrum of other animals—in fact, the Puerto Rico study showed a decline in density of insect-eating frogs, birds and lizards that paralleled the insect nosedive.
As the planetary food chain systematically breaks down, we can rely on the artificial food chains that we have created for a while, but once things get bad enough those artificial food chains will not be nearly enough to feed the entire planet.
And it isn’t just invertebrates that are seeing their populations collapse.
Vertebrate populations are collapsing too, and according to one recent report they are down “an average of 60 percent since 1970”…
The population of the planet’s vertebrates has dropped an average of 60 percent since 1970, according to a report by the WWF conservation organization.
The most striking decline in vertebrate population was in the tropics in South and Central America, with an 89 percent loss compared to 1970. Freshwater species have also significantly fallen — down 83 percent in that period.
Vertebrates include all mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles.
Needless to say, a 60 percent decline in less than 50 years is absolutely horrific, and essentially what we are facing is a slow-motion global cataclysm.
We are literally teetering on the precipice of disaster, and yet most people don’t realize what is happening.
The clock is ticking, and time is running out for the late, great planet Earth. We are literally destroying the globe, and we lack the willpower to do anything to stop our destructive behavior.
A massive global environmental collapse is already well underway, and it is only going to accelerate in the years ahead as humanity races toward a date with destiny.
tahoe1780 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 8:40 pm
DerHundIstLos, makati1 Do you guys follow http://www.fasterthanexpected.com/blog/ or http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2019-02-17T20:30:00%2B13:00
tahoe1780 on Sun, 17th Feb 2019 8:50 pm
In reading all of the recent climate stuff, especially from the likes of Guy McPherson, Paul Beckwith, Dahr Jamail, Sam Carana, etc. it feels like we’re all 80 now. No green bananas.
https://truthout.org/video/a-third-of-the-himalaya-ice-cap-will-melt-by-2100/
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/
Davy on Mon, 18th Feb 2019 4:05 am
I am on board with climate change. I see it more as a combination of warming and a disruption of normal patterns. This feels abrupt to me in the last few years. I have experienced the worst cold and wet winter in my 6 years of keeping detailed weather data. My feelings are this is the result of a disrupted polar vortex. Yet, I personally see this as a longer term process of decades between the crossings of thresholds in regards to the extremes. I think we are past threshold 1 with the Arctic warming from a warming ocean and atmosphere system. I am not yet on board for a quick climate disaster. I am a doomer (lite) so it is not like I am a cornucopian discounting these things. I am worried about methane but have not read much new material recently. I am not saying quick climate disaster is not in the cards. I am saying it is happening but I am not comfortable with defining the process as extreme yet.
DerHundIstLos on Mon, 18th Feb 2019 10:16 am
tahoe 1780
Many thanks for the web site information……
skumfucks on Tue, 19th Feb 2019 6:40 pm
commies, “progressives”, libtards
skumfucks on Tue, 19th Feb 2019 6:43 pm
there is no global warming. there is an ice age. the best thing about Armageddon is knowing that scum on this site will die a horrible death
Sissyfuss on Tue, 19th Feb 2019 10:08 pm
Don’t feed the trolls, don’t feed the trolls.
Dredd on Thu, 21st Feb 2019 10:55 am
“Which species are we sure we can survive without?”
Oil-Qaeda (Despotic Minority Does Time Travel – 2).
NathanPhillipsAKAfmr-paultard on Thu, 21st Feb 2019 11:06 am
hello mr. tarddred bin laden is dead and you’re still talking about ‘oil-qaeda’ since you are fed by russian shekles and the morphine just has to keep moving through your veins. where is al-queda, ISIS? all dead except the dispersed jihadis which should be gathered, amputated all feet and hands and made left to fend for themselves in supertards’ plantation. we’re all libtards here mr. dredd. even supertard is a libtard when he said ‘sky daddy’. he must be very happy now that abortion is ok up to birth.
so you’re against the enemy of liberty huh? welcome to the club. i’m a former paultard remember? i learned all about liberty going back to supertard frederic bastiat. so you’re against big armies and also against clandestine service? oh ok so you think the world is full of angels and there’s need for force? but why did supertard Founders wanted us to keep the blessing of liberty by guaranteeing it with “the 2nd?”