<ul><li><strong>Google, in partnership with The <keyword id="9091696" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="honeybee-conservancy">Honeybee Conservancy</keyword>, developed an interactive game.<br /></strong></li><li><strong>The doodle game allows you to use your mouse and move the bee between different colours of flowers and matching the pollen to its designated flower<br /></strong></li><li><strong>“The game goes on as long as you want it to, you can end seeing thousands of flowers, trees, and bushes,” said <a href="https://observer.com/2020/04/honeybee-conservancy-nyc-earth-day-google-doodle-interactive-game/">Gerben Steenks</a>, who created the Google bee game.</strong><br /></li></ul>Google today marked the 50th anniversary of <keyword id="6453991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Earth-Day">Earth day</keyword> with an interactive doodle to celebrate the small yet crucial creatures of the environment— bees.<br /><div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75286189" title="Coronavirus cases in India climb to 19,984— 1,383 new cases in the last 24 hours" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br />The tradition of celebrating the Earth day started on April 22, 1970 to remind us of the need to preserve our planet.<br /><br />To mark the occasion, Google developed an interactive game honeybee game in partnership with The Honeybee Conservancy. “In North America, currently one in four of the 4,000 native bee species are at risk of extinction, On a larger scale, the world’s survival depends on theirs,” said The Honeybee Conservancy founder and director <keyword id="9091695" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="guillermo-fernandez">Guillermo Fernandez</keyword>. <br /><br />The doodle game allows you to use your mouse and move the bee between different colours of flowers and matching the pollen to its designated flower. In between the game, the system provides useful facts about the honeybees and their incredible contribution.<br /><br />“The game goes on as long as you want it to, you can see thousands of flowers, trees, and bushes,” said <a href="https://observer.com/2020/04/honeybee-conservancy-nyc-earth-day-google-doodle-interactive-game/">Gerben Steenks</a>, who created the Google bee game.<br /><div type="twitter" handle="GoogleDoodles" handlename="Google Doodles" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1236881897323544582/pbldSit3_normal.jpg" favoritecount="87" retweetcount="41" status="See what all the BUZZ 🐝 is about in this year’s interactive #GoogleDoodle celebrating #EarthDay! 🌎Guide your bee… https://t.co/g2ilhrJ9bu" createdat="1587527976000" id="1252809253053542402"></div><br />This doodle today will be the start of a Earth Day GIF series on Tenor. It will allow you to find and share GIFs, including Gboard. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/data-of-coronavirus-patients-state-wise-in-india/articleshow/74669748.cms">Coronavirus cases in India state wise</a><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/checkout-the-name-of-coronavirus-containment-zones-in-mumbai/articleshow/75045928.cms"><strong>List of coronavirus hotspot in mumbai</strong></a><br />

Google Doodle celebrates Earth Day with a honey bee interactive game

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bbbab4721e9cb0f2b31fce2-2400/webpnet-resizeimage.jpg" border="0" alt="Detroit bee highway" data-mce-source="Brian Peterson-Roest" /><p class="source"><span>Brian Peterson-Roest</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The nonprofit Bees in the D is managing a network of beehives in Detroit to offset the decline of honeybees.</li><li>Honeybee populations have declined dramatically for most of the past decade. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate about $15 billion of crops each year.</li><li>Bees in the D, which launched two years ago, currently operates 102 hives. Half of them are within the city limits, and they reach as far as Canada.</li><li>Brian Peterson-Roest, the nonprofit's co-founder and CEO, told Business Insider that his team is building a "bee highway" to bring hives to nearby areas that currently do not have any.</li></ul><p>A nonprofit in Detroit is setting up beehives around the city to help increase local bee populations and educate residents about the importance of pollinators.</p><p><a href="https://beesinthed.com/">Bees in the D</a>, which launched two years ago with six hives, operates 102 hives throughout Michigan and nearby areas, said co-founder and CEO Brian Peterson-Roest, an elementary school teacher.</p><p>Peterson-Roest told Business Insider that he started the nonprofit with his husband, Brian Roest-Peterson, after a trip to New York City. Noticing there were hives throughout Battery Park in Manhattan, Peterson-Roest said he felt inspired to help with the conservation of honeybees in Detroit.</p><p>The US Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2016/05/12/usda-releases-results-new-survey-honey-bee-colony-health">estimates</a> that honeybees pollinate about $15 billion of crops each year, including almonds and zucchinis. But honeybee populations <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-honey-bee-is-facing-an-existential-threat-and-it-could-be-very-bad-for-humans-2017-7">have declined dramatically</a> for most of the past decade, largely due to <span>Colony Collapse Disorder, in which a majority of worker bees disappear from their colony. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder">According to the EPA</a>, the disorder is less prevalent than a few years ago, but it remains a concern.</span></p><p><span>About half of Bees in the D's hives are within Detroit's city limits, though the nonprofit also manages hives to the west, north, and even in Canada.</span></p><p>"It has just blown up, but I think it's just because people are starting to open their eyes to the importance of honeybees and pollinators," Peterson-Roest said. "It's very encouraging."</p><p>Peterson-Roest said he focuses mainly on the honeybees' health by checking for diseases and parasites. He said managing more than 100 hives allows him to rotate which are used for educational programs, so he does not disturb the same hive for a long period of time.</p><p>Hives can be found on top of a convention center, on the roof of a hotel, at an outdoor adventure center, and at Detroit Abloom, a flower farm and florist.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bbbba5a805383106710e9dc-2044/webpnet-resizeimage.jpg" border="0" alt="Detroit urban bee highway" data-mce-source="Brian Peterson-Roest" /><p class="source"><span>Brian Peterson-Roest</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>While Bees in the D is managing a growing number of hives, Peterson-Roest said it is still difficult to help the bees survive in the cold due to pests.</p><p>"Unfortunately, you're lucky if even 50% of your hives are able to survive the long winter months," he said.</p><p>As the nonprofit looks to expand, Peterson-Roest said the team is creating a "bee highway," or a network of hives that ensure honeybees have nearby access to food, water, and shelter wherever they are. The team will use maps to identify which pockets of land do not have hives, and they will add waystations of hives to fill gaps from Detroit to the "outposts" in nearby cities like Ann Arbor.</p><p>Peterson-Roest added he would like to collaborate with the Michigan Department of Transportation to plan on the highway project.</p><p>"There are so many more areas that could be left natural with wildflowers to help the pollinators, so we would love to help get some kind of initiative going with that," he said. "Instead of using fuel to mow the grass, letting it grow and letting those pollinators have that space."</p><p>The bee highway is still in its early stages, as Bees in the D is working on finding business partners and securing funding, Peterson-Roest said.</p><p>He noted that Detroit is well suited for urban beekeeping because it has lots of green spaces, like parks and gardens, that are not treated heavily with sprays that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/monsanto-weed-killer-ingredient-hurts-honeybees-2018-9">harm honeybees</a>. </p><p>In much of Detroit, Peterson-Roest said, wildflowers and plants are free to grow, and the open spaces are less dangerous to bees than heavily sprayed areas.</p><p>Peterson-Roest said most people will be unlikely to want beehives on their property, but residents can help improve conditions for honeybees in other ways, from planting wildflowers to being mindful of how much they rely on insecticides and pesticides.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/is-it-bad-to-eat-moldy-bread-2018-8">Never eat the 'clean' part of moldy bread</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/veg2laCP-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

A 'bee highway' is being created in Detroit, and it could help offset the dangerous decline of honeybees

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dozens of endangered South African <keyword id="12133598" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="penguins" source="Orion">penguins</keyword> have been killed by a swarm of <keyword id="12133601" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bees" source="Orion">bees</keyword>. </li><li>The birds were part of a famous colony of penguins who live near Cape Town, <keyword id="11992087" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="south-africa" source="Orion">South Africa</keyword>.</li><li>The discovery has puzzled scientists.</li></ul><p>Dozens of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/penguins-roads-2020-4">endangered African penguins</a> were killed by a swarm of honeybees on a beach outside of Cape Town last week, according to the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob).</p><p>Rangers were shocked to find 63 dead penguins close to Simon's Town last week, home to a famous colony of about 3,000 African penguins known as Boulders Penguin Colony. </p><p>The discovery has puzzled experts, who have described it as a "very rare occurrence," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/20/bees-kill-63-endangered-penguins-in-south-africa">The Guardian reported.</a></p><p>"After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins' eyes," the foundation's clinical veterinarian, David Roberts, said according to The Guardian. "There were also dead bees on the scene." </p><p>Roberts also said that the stings were so small that they could "easily have been missed" and that it took them several attempts to find them, The Times reported. </p><p>"We checked the other bodies again and found stings still embedded around the eyes in almost all of the birds. We found more than 20 stings in some individuals," he said, according to The Times.</p><p>The birds most likely died from the toxins in the stings.</p><p>The area is a national park and the honeybees are part of the ecosystem.</p><p>Scientists are now looking into the possibility that a nearby beehive was disturbed, causing a mass of bees to swarm and become defensive.</p><p>Incidents like this are very rare, according to Sanccob. In the past 20 years, there have only been two occurrences in which penguins suffered from bee stings. </p><p>African penguins are on the red list of threatened species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The penguin population has declined by 73% in the past 30 years.</p>

A swarm of bees killed dozens of endangered African penguins by targeting their eyes

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d82a1bd2e22af06bd3fc882-2400/western meadowlark by matthew pendleton macaulay library at cornell lab of ornithology 52661031.jpg" border="0" alt="Western Meadowlark by Matthew Pendleton, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology 52661031" data-mce-source="Matthew Pendleton, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology" data-mce-caption="A chirping western Meadowlark." /><p class="source"><span>Matthew Pendleton, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology</span></p><p class="caption">A chirping western Meadowlark.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Nearly 3 billion birds have disappeared across the US and Canada since 1970.</li><li>A new study found that there has been a 29% decline in bird populations over the last 48 years.</li><li>The scientists point to agriculture practices, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">pesticides</a>, and habitat loss as the primary culprits for these declines.</li><li>The finding is another data point in an ominous trend that suggests the Earth is in the middle of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-3">6th mass extinction.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>There are 2.9 billion (yes, that's billion with a B) fewer birds on the North American continent today than there were 50 years ago.</p><p>In <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1313">a study</a> published today in the journal <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword>, researchers report that hundreds of North American bird populations - from songbirds like meadowlarks to backyard favorites like sparrows - are thinning. Overall, the analysis suggests, we've seen a 29% decline.</p><p>"We expected to see continuing declines of threatened species. But for the first time, the results also showed pervasive losses among common birds across all habitats, including backyard birds," Kenneth Rosenberg, the lead author of the study, said in <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2019-09/cu-nsf091219.php">a press release</a>.</p><p>Rosenberg, a scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and American Bird Conservancy, told Business Insider that entire bird species aren't going extinct yet, but the animals' total population numbers are taking a hard hit. </p><p>"We make the analogy to the passenger pigeon - once one of the most numerous birds on the planet," he said of his team's paper. "No one thought that bird could go extinct, but it did. It provides a poignant reminder that even abundant species can go extinct rapidly."</p><p>The bird losses described in the study are part of a larger trend: The Earth appears to be in the middle of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">a mass extinction</a> - the sixth time in history that animal and plant species are disappearing in enormous numbers. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1-million-species-could-go-extinct-un-report-2019-5">A recent report from the United Nations</a> found that between 500,000 and 1 million plant and animals species face imminent extinction.</p><p>Rosenberg said the new findings are "absolutely part of the sixth mass extinction trend."</p><h2>Common bird species were among the hardest hit</h2><p>For the new study, Rosenberg and his colleagues looked at data sets showing net changes in the numbers of birds across 529 species in the continental United States and Canada. They also examined weather radar data that tracked bird migration patterns over the past decade.</p><p>They found that 90% of the birds that are disappearing belong to 12 families, including sparrows, warblers, finches, and swallows. These common and abundant species play important ecological roles - they help control insect population numbers and spread plant seeds.</p><p><a href="https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/08/17/top-25-grassland-birds/">Grassland birds</a> like sparrows and meadowlarks experienced the greatest total population loss since 1970, according to the data. More than 700 million breeding birds disappeared across 31 grassland species. The report also found 37% of shorebird species - like sandpipers and plovers - have experienced a consistent, steep population loss.</p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d82a3502e22af10c16165c5-2400/sanderling by andy eckerson macaulay library at cornell lab of ornithology 83166281.jpg" border="0" alt="Sanderling by Andy Eckerson, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology 83166281.JPG" data-mce-source="Andy Eckerson, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology" data-mce-caption="A small, wading Sanderling." /><p class="source"><span>Andy Eckerson, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology</span></p><p class="caption">A small, wading Sanderling.</p></div><p></p></div></div></em></p><p>The number of North American birds migrating in the spring has also declined, dropping 14% in the past decade alone, the researchers found.</p><p>Michael Parr, a co-author of the study and the president of the American Bird Conservancy, told Business Insider that the overall bird loss represents a biodiversity crisis on par with the "insect apocalypse." <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313636">According to a study published in February</a>, 40% of the world's insect species are in decline.</p><p><em><strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">Last year, 40% of honey-bee colonies in the US died. But bees aren't the only insects disappearing in unprecedented numbers.</a></em></p><p>"The global biodiversity crisis has come to America's backyard here. When people picture losses, they think orangutans and elephants - creatures that aren't here," Parr said. "Sure, this is not as dramatic as the potential loss of the Bald Eagle, but it's something that's more insidious. Most people won't notice that most of their backyard birds have gone, slowly but surely, over the last 50-year period."</p><p>However, the authors found a few bird groups that have seen population increases over the last five decades, including waterfowl like ducks, geese, and swans, as well as raptors like the Bald Eagle. These particular birds have benefited from endangered-species legislation in the US and Canada and from wetland restoration work across the continent, the researchers said.</p><h2>Shrinking bird populations are a sign of the 6th mass extinction</h2><p>Since the 1500s, human activity has killed off 680 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish species. As much as half of the total number of animal individuals that once shared the planet with us are already gone.</p><p>At least 10% of insect species and more than 33% of all marine mammals and reef-forming coral are threatened, the UN report found.</p><p>Declines in common birds are not just restricted to North America, Rosenberg said: "When you step back, it's really a global phenomenon."</p><p>A 2018 study <a href="https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/where-have-all-the-farmland-birds-gone">revealed</a> that one-third of France's farmland bird populations had disappeared in the previous three decades. Data from Bird Life International, a global partnership of bird-conservation organizations, shows that Europe as a whole has <a href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/europe-wide-monitoring-schemes-highlight-declines-in-widespread-farmland-birds">lost 300 million farmland birds</a> since 1980.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d839db52e22af235d5123c4-2400/baltimore oriole by ryan schain macaulay library at cornell lab of ornithology 41874221.jpg" border="0" alt="Baltimore Oriole by Ryan Schain, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology 41874221" data-mce-source="Ryan Schain, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology" data-mce-caption="A Baltimore oriole." /><p class="source"><span>Ryan Schain, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology</span></p><p class="caption">A Baltimore oriole.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Birds are literally the canaries in the coal mine," Parr said. "Their disappearance is telling us there's a problem in nature."</p><h2>These declines are likely linked to habitat loss</h2><p>According to Rosenberg, the biggest factor driving these declines is habitat loss and degradation. A lot of these birds' breeding and nesting grounds are being transformed into fallow fields due to expanding agricultural development, the authors wrote.</p><p>"Grassland birds are some of hardest hit, along with birds like the red-winged blackbird that prefer farmland and rural landscapes," Rosenberg said. "It's no question that the intensification of agriculture, as farmers squeeze out grassy margins and trees to make room for acres of corn, is impacting birds."</p><p>Other risk factors for birds include predators like cats; collisions with glass, buildings, and other structures; and the possible toxicity of the insects that they eat. </p><p><em><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d82a52c2e22af10f409fb49-2400/barn swallow by karen hogan macaulay library at cornell lab of ornithology 164502631.jpg" border="0" alt="Barn Swallow by Karen Hogan, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology 164502631" data-mce-source="Karen Hogan, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology" data-mce-caption="A barn swallows sits atop a branch." /><p class="source"><span>Karen Hogan, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology</span></p><p class="caption">A barn swallow sits atop a branch.</p></div><p></p></div></div></em></p><p>The pervasive use of pesticides like neonicotinoids in the US has likely contributed to bird losses as well, Parr added.</p><p>"We don't have categorical proof, but it'd be very surprising if the billions of pounds of insect poison being spread across the landscape wasn't connected to the decline of insect-eating birds," he said.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/racing-pigeons-most-expensive-china-belgium-races-2019-8">The most expensive racing pigeon sold for $1.4 million in China. Here's why people drop millions on these prized birds.</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/OCHx7tMG-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds in the last 50 years - another sign that we're in the middle of a 6th mass extinction

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dcc18ce7eece530312cbba4-2400/ap16132649159068.jpg" border="0" alt="bee keeper" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Eric Risberg" data-mce-caption="In this photo taken Monday, April 18, 2016, beekeeper Roger Garrison holds a container with a queen bee inside on the roof of the W hotel in San Francisco. Aware of the well-publicized environmental threats to honeybees that have reduced numbers worldwide, several San Francisco hotels have built hives on their rooftops." data-link="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Hotel-Bees/bd401d7207284db8bbb3bfd17e8ae29d/12/0" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Hotel-Bees/bd401d7207284db8bbb3bfd17e8ae29d/12/0">AP Photo/Eric Risberg</a></span></p><p class="caption">Beekeeper Roger Garrison holds a container with a queen bee on the rooftop of a San Francisco hotel, April 18, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li> Of the world's 1 million known <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insects-dying-off-sign-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-2">insect species, 400,000 are in decline</a>, according to a new report..</li><li>Since 1970, 50% of all insects may have disappeared.</li><li>The die-offs are happening because farmers are using <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/epa-banned-pesticides-killing-bees-2019-5">more pesticides</a> to protect crops. Insects are also losing their habitats to farming and urbanization.</li><li>Three-quarters of the world's crops are pollinated by insects, so extinctions could have a major impact on food production.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Insects are disappearing en masse.</p><p><a href="https://www.somersetwildlife.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/FULL%20AFI%20REPORT%20WEB1_1.pdf">A new report</a> from the Somerset Wildlife Trust in the UK found that 41% of the world's 1 million known insect species are threatened with extinction.</p><p>The decline of butterflies, bees, and other bugs might seem low on a list of environmental concerns that includes rising seas and melting glaciers.</p><p>Yet the loss of these species could be devastating.</p><p>Insects are food sources for countless bird, fish, and mammal species. They recycle nutrients in the soil, and break down dead carcasses and animal waste. Pollinators like bees and hoverflies also perform a crucial role in fruit, vegetable, and nut production.</p><p>But insects are quickly losing their habitats to farmland and urbanization, and are threatened by farmers' <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/epa-banned-pesticides-killing-bees-2019-5">use of pesticides</a> as well.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59b1905b5124c9a73068800f-800/monarchs-in-western-us-risk-extinction-scientists-say-2017-9.jpg" border="0" alt="FILE PHOTO:    A monarch butterfly clings to a plant at the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, California, December 30, 2014. REUTERS/Michael Fiala/File Photo" data-mce-source="Michael Fiala/Reuters" data-mce-caption="A monarch butterfly clings to a plant at the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, California, December 30, 2014." /><p class="source"><span>Michael Fiala/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A monarch butterfly clings to a plant at the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, California, December 30, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"We can't be sure, but in terms of numbers, we may have lost 50% or more of our insects since 1970 - it could be much more," ecologist Dave Goulson, the author of the new report, wrote. "We just don't know, which is scary ... Perhaps more frightening, most of us have not noticed that anything has changed."</p><h2>'A catastrophic collapse of Earth's ecosystems'</h2><p>According to Goulson's report, "it is hard to avoid the conclusion that there has been a major decline in insect biomass."</p><p>Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, found that in the UK specifically, 23 bee and wasp species have gone extinct in the last century. Butterfly species have declined by as much as 77% since the mid-1970s, and populations of local insect-eating birds, like the spotted flycatcher, have similarly shrunk. </p><p>His work relied heavily on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313636">a February 2019 study</a> in which scientists Francisco Sánchez-Bayo and Kris Wyckhuys looked at 73 historical reports on insect declines around the world. Their results showed that the total mass of all insects on the planet is decreasing by 2.5% per year.</p><p>Beyond the 41% of the world's known insect species that are already in decline, Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys noted that 31% are threatened (according to criteria set by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/conservation-tools/iucn-red-list-threatened-species">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>), and 10% are going locally extinct. </p><p>The February study also suggested that moths and butterflies are disappearing; between 2000 and 2009, the UK lost 58% of butterfly species on farmed land. </p><p>Dragonflies, mayflies, and beetles appear to be dying off as well.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dcc48cc7eece57c331f6e82-973/91188473024612c437d1b.jpg" border="0" alt="moth bug insect" data-mce-source="Flickr/Jen Forman Orth" data-mce-caption="Pink-legged tiger moth" data-link="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503155549@N01/9118847302/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503155549@N01/9118847302/">Flickr/Jen Forman Orth</a></span></p><p class="caption">A pink-legged tiger moth.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>If this trend continues unabated, Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys warned, the Earth may not have any insects at all by 2119. </p><p>Already, insects' extinction rate is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds, and reptiles. That biodiversity crisis could trigger a "catastrophic collapse of Earth's ecosystems," the authors said.</p><p>Gary Mantle, chief executive of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (another environmental group in the UK), <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/13/insect-apocalypse-poses-risk-to-all-life-on-earth-conservationists-warn">told The Guardian</a> that "this unnoticed apocalypse should set alarms ringing."</p><h2>Disappearing bees</h2><p>One of the most concerning trends in this insect apocalypse is the decline of honey bees.</p><p>In the US, the number of honey-bee colonies dropped from 6 million in 1947 to just 2.5 million in 2014.</p><p>Between October 2018 and April 2019, about 40% of US honey bee colonies died, according to <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/uom-ubl061919.php">research from the University of Maryland</a>. That's the highest winter bee loss in 13 years.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dcc365c7eece5603f2bbb52-1565/capehoneybeeonoxalis.jpg" border="0" alt="Cape honey bee on Oxalis" data-mce-source="Wikimedia Commons" data-link="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_honey_bee_on_Oxalis.jpg" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_honey_bee_on_Oxalis.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Researchers have observed a similar problem in the UK: one-third of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species there experienced declines between 1980 and 2013, according to <a href="https://press.nature.com/wp-content/uploads/files/2019/03/41467_2019_Article_8974-1.pdf">a March study</a>.</p><p>Honey bees pollinate $15 billion worth of US food crops, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/e1fd6336b6f74c0fb726865a7c1bce8e">according to the Associated Press</a>. One-third of everything Americans eat comes from pollinators like honey bees, per US Department of Agriculture estimates.</p><p>Worldwide, approximately three-quarters of all crops are pollinated by insects, Goulson said. So insect extinctions could have a major impact on our food production and supply.</p><p>Experts think honey bees are dying due to a combination of decreasing crop diversity, poor beekeeping practices, and loss of habitat. Pesticides like neonicotinoids can also kill bees in droves, causing colony collapses.  </p><p>Goulson reported that 75% of honey samples from around the world contained neonicotinoids.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dcc35657eece55ec105efc5-2104/2019-06-11t170536z1lynxnpef5a1dyrtroptp4grains-igc-climate.jpg" border="0" alt="FILE PHOTO: A labourer sprays pesticides on genetically modified cotton crops in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mayank Bhardwaj/File Photo" data-mce-source="Mayank Bhardwaj/Reuters" data-mce-caption="A laborer sprays pesticides on genetically modified cotton crops in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, October 17, 2017." /><p class="source"><span>Mayank Bhardwaj/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">A laborer sprays pesticides on genetically modified cotton crops in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, October 17, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>He added that in the UK, the number of pesticide applications has doubled over the last 25 years, and that's primarily to blame for widespread insect declines there.</p><p>To make the problem worse, insect habitats are disappearing as more land area gets used for farmland and urban development around the world.</p><h2>'We can't wait another 25 years before we do anything because it will be too late'</h2><p>Studying changes in insect populations over time is challenging, and many analyses rely heavily on reports about bugs in Europe and North America, even though most insects live in the tropics. Because of this, some scientists have pushed back against the idea that all insects could disappear within a century.</p><p>"I understand the desire to put numbers to these things to facilitate the conversation, but I would say all of those are built on mountains of unknown facts," Michelle Trautwein, an entomologist from the California Academy of Sciences, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/insect-apocalypse-really-upon-us/583018/">told The Atlantic's Ed Yong</a> in February.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5dcc51953afd3702b0030536-1307/2893876500a888897d40o.jpg" border="0" alt="dragonfly swarm dragonflies insects bugs" data-mce-source="Steven / Flickr" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/steven-young/2893876500" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/steven-young/2893876500">Steven / Flickr</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>But the data trends we do have are troubling.</p><p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809">A 2017 study</a> concluded that populations of flying insects in Germany had decreased by more than 75% percent in the last three decades. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/44/E10397">Another study</a> conducted in Puerto Rico found that 98% of the island's ground insects had vanished since the 1970s.</p><p>"The overwhelming weight of evidence that exists suggests the rapid decline is a real phenomenon," Goulson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/13/insect-apocalypse-poses-risk-to-all-life-on-earth-conservationists-warn">told The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Although he agrees that there is a shortage of data on insect population trends, he added: "It really worries me to hear people say we need more long-term studies to be sure. That would be great, but we can't wait another 25 years before we do anything because it will be too late."</p><p>Trautwein agreed that it's better to approach the risk of insect extinctions with caution, rather than disregard.</p><p>"I don't see real danger in overstating the possible severity of insect decline, but there is real danger in underestimating how bad things really are," she told the Atlantic.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bees-cleaning-themselves-slow-motion-amazing-2017-3">Scientists just discovered how bees clean themselves - and the slow-mo footage is mesmerizing</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/Qx6kieBf-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

More than 50% of insects have disappeared since 1970, an ecologist warns - even more evidence of an 'insect apocalypse'

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59664abdabc1c8c4008b4c49-1778/shutterstock244886398.jpg" alt="skulls bones extinction" /><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock/Photosite</span></p><p class="caption">The sixth extinction is already further along than we thought.</p><p>When kids learn about extinction in school, they're told about creatures that have disappeared from the planet, and those that are endangered.</p><p>But rarely are they told that we are currently witnessing a mass extinction event - an incredibly rare phenomenon in which the majority of species on the globe die off.</p><p>This has happened five times in the history of Earth so far. The one happening now will be the sixth.</p><p>According to a study recently published in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/05/1704949114.full">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, populations of animals all over the planet are declining so rapidly that the researchers say a process of "biological annihilation" is now ongoing.</p><p>"As much as 50% of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth with us are already gone, as are billions of populations," the ecologists and biologists behind the study wrote.</p><p>It's not just species facing total collapse that we should worry about, they said - local population extinctions (when a species disappears from a specific region but not the whole planet) are a "prelude to species extinctions." In other words, declines in populations of animals that aren't yet categorized as endangered are indicators of a mass extinction. </p><p>This trend is further evidence that the Earth "is already well into a sixth mass extinction episode," the authors of the study wrote.</p><h2>Global population collapse</h2><p>For this study, researchers looked at 27,600 vertebrate species - almost half of all the ones we know of - and found that more than 30% of them are in decline. Entire local populations of these animals are becoming extinct in certain areas, even though the overall numbers for many species haven't yet triggered alarms.</p><p>The extinction of local populations is reason for alarm, the authors wrote, because the disappearance of essential species from local ecosystems will cause cascading effects that ripple through the entire system. When larger populations of animals disappear, the smaller populations left behind are also much more vulnerable and closer to extinction, as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/maybe-were-at-the-start-of-a-sixth-mass-extinction-after-all/533124/">Ed Yong pointed out in The Atlantic</a>. </p><p>For example, if forest elephants disappear from all but one national park in Africa, the ones that used to disperse seeds and create pathways for smaller animals and plant life in other parts of the continent would no longer facilitate those processes. And those changes the ecosystem could in turn wipe out plants that rely on elephants for seed dispersal, and the animals that consume those plants.</p><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57e7cdff5124c97e60f24c00-800/african-elephant-population-tumbles-due-to-poaching-2016-9.jpg" alt="A pair of elephants are seen at a park in Knysna, South Africa, July 12, 1999.  REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo" /><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p>The collapse of local populations of pollinators like honeybees could have an even more devastating effect, since fruit-bearing plants rely on those pollinators. If those plants don't survive the bee population losses, that affects the many animals, including humans that rely on those plants for food. (The team behind the study didn't focus on insects, but note that the same population declines are happening to outside the realm of terrestrial vertebrates as well.)</p><p>"[B]y losing populations (and species) of vertebrates, we are losing intricate ecological networks involving animals, plants, and microorganisms," the authors wrote. "This suggests that, even if there was not ample sign that the crisis extends far beyond that group of animals, today's planetary defaunation of vertebrates will itself promote cascading catastrophic effects on ecosystems, worsening the annihilation of nature."</p><p>The ongoing cause of this is, of course, humans.</p><p>As people have spread across the globe, we've <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/two-thirds-of-the-worlds-wildlife-will-have-been-wiped-out-by-2020-2016-10">built on top of animal habitats</a>, spread <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/invasive-species-cause-huge-problems-2016-3">invasive species</a>, hunted populations down to nothing, fished <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/the-ends-of-the-world/529545/">more than 90% of large predators out</a> of the sea, released toxic pollutants, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-plantations-seen-behind-more-than-half-malaysian-borneo-deforestation-2016-12">harvested entire forests</a>.</p><p>Plus, since the start of the industrial age, human activity has been releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These have not been the biggest driver of species decline so far, but in the future they could push this mass extinction event into something that can't be reversed, as <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html">David Wallace Wells noted</a> in a recent feature in New York Magazine:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"The Earth has experienced five mass extinctions before the one we are living through now, each so complete a slate-wiping of the evolutionary record it functioned as a resetting of the planetary clock, and many climate scientists will tell you they are the best analog for the ecological future we are diving headlong into. Unless you are a teenager, you probably read in your high-school textbooks that these extinctions were the result of asteroids. In fact, all but the one that killed the dinosaurs were caused by climate change produced by greenhouse gas."</p><h2><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59665e2a0976db5e008b4ba9-1288/brazil agent wood natural resources logging.jpg" alt="Brazil Agent Wood Natural Resources Logging" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes</span></p></h2><h2>Can the sixth extinction be stopped?</h2><p>The authors behind the new study suggested their work shows how far along the sixth extinction already is. They said their seemingly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/climate/mass-extinction-animal-species.html">"alarmist" language is essential</a> in the face of such an alarming situation.</p><p>Experts who study mass extinctions agree about the gravity of the present moment. But some disagree that the extinction event is already underway.</p><p>Smithsonian paleontologist Doug Erwin told Peter Brannen for a story in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/the-ends-of-the-world/529545/">The Atlantic</a> that if we were in the midst of such an event, it would be already too late to act. And the data doesn't indicate that's the case yet, though it does suggest we could be about to begin a mass extinction.</p><p>That distinction is purely academic for most of us, however, since experts like Erwin and the authors of this new study agree that the world's sixth mass extinction will proceed unchecked unless humans take immediate action. Curbing the trend will require both intensive local efforts to conserve species and habitats, and global efforts to prevent the climate from tipping too far into a danger zone.</p><p>As the authors of the study wrote:</p><p>"[W]e emphasize that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short, probably two or three decades at most. All signs point to ever more powerful assaults on biodiversity in the next two decades, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-live-woolly-mammoths-two-years-2017-2">Harvard researchers say they can bring the Woolly Mammoth back from extinction</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video                    

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