"Nobody and nowhere will be safe": Experts say we can't hide from climate change
"Nobody and nowhere will be safe": Experts say we can't hide from climate change
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"Nobody and nowhere will be safe": Experts say we can't hide from climate change
We have lost 80% percent of insect biomass in the last 60 odd years, which has a huge ripple effect up the food chain, lots and lots of species (used) to rely on them for food. With most of them gone all the upstream species are being sffect / dying out as well.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations
Everything except the actual temperature could be said about where I live in Southern Saskatchewan, including the insects in winter. A week before the cold snap we're in I'd been seeing flying insects almost daily. That's right, flys outdoors over Xmas in Saskatchewan!
To top it off, I read this article yesterday. Ok, I'm not thrilled that I might have to factor Lyme disease into my outdoor planning, but the thing that really caught my attention was that there are many tick reports coming in over winter.
I graduated in 1974, so I might be a few years older than you, but it sounds like we've seen similar "progress".
One thing I miss is "snow houses". When we were kids, we could build multi room shelters with connecting tunnels high enough that even many adults could walk upright. All you had to do was hit the lee side of any windbreak, starting in mid-late December. We usually did the bulk of the work over Xmas break.
I am not nearly old enough to see such drastic shange as you but even at 22 years old I have seen getting less and less snow each year as the time passes. When I was little we got at least 30-50cm of snow each winter. Not that much in the grand scheme but it was enough for everything to be snow covered and we used to build snowmen and igloos during the winter holidays. Our local lake used to freeze each winter and people would go out ice skating. It has not frozen more than once in the last 10 years. If we do get some snow it usually melts the same day because it changes from snowing to raining, or it just rains the next day. We had 1 day this year when snow was even falling and all the rest was just rain. We had rain on new years while I was able to go outside and rake the leaves last year while wearing nothing but a tshirt. I remember having 30cm of snow about 7 years ago on the same day so you can say it's quite a change. I used to get excited for winter but now it's just colder autumn with none of the nice colours.
This. When I was a kid during the 90s, cars were covered in bugs during summer. Today there are bugs on windshields too, but compared to back then it's maybe only 10% of them. What also comes with the decliine in the insect population is a decline in the population of birds, because there are lesser and lesser natural habitats and food sources.
I am from Europe. What I also noticed is that, when you find insects or spiders and such, many of them are invasive and originally located in southern Europe. But each year they appear farther north, probably because of cilmate change.
For instance, the spider Zoropsis spinimana is a relatively new species in our region, and it's venomous*. Due to it's similarity it can be confused with Tegenaria domestica which is harmless to humans.
Also, with a warmer climate there are more ticks which are prone to spread diseases harmful to humans.
2008 was the last cold winter in Tulsa? I live there and I distinctly remember february 2011. The power didnt get knocked out, but there was over 2ft of snow that stayed for a long time.