We're losing these guys ...

Striking a pose

We're losing these guys ... from butterflies to bees, the impact of man regarding habitat loss, pollution, poison and over population, for starters, is eliminating insects at record pace, something being replicated all over the world for all life as the 6th great extinction, known as the Anthropogene, is well underway 24/7, a dire situation capable of ending man's reign on earth without exception.

To whit.

In my recent book, Nature Underfoot, I argue that we crush, poison, and destroy insects and their habitat at our own peril. Yet reasons for acting to prevent insect decline run much deeper than self-interest. Humans cause habitat loss, produce pesticides, and import non-native species. We bear, according to certain strands of philosophical and religious thought, responsibility for the catastrophic losses insects experience today. Some say that insects have moral value since they strive to achieve their ends, just as we and other animals do. Others argue that insects have moral value as a part of God’s creation. Scientists point to the value of insects in global ecosystems, or the value implied by tens or hundreds of thousands of years involved in the evolution of an insect species.

The insect apocalypse has captured headlines, but the situation is more nuanced than that. Scientists find an increase in the overall numbers of arthropods in the Arctic, but a decline in diversity. Certain habitats in the Arctic are also affected more than others.3 In Puerto Rico, insect declines initially attributed to climate change may have resulted instead from hurricanes.4 Some insect species have even increased in numbers—mainly those that are tolerant of human activities or that benefit from associating with humans or from climate change. 

Hanging by a thread

Apropos is it not?