Posts Tagged ‘insects’

Global cooling is killing off the birds and the bees

June 28, 2013

Humans have always looked to the birds and the bees for figuring out how to do it. But now we are doomed!

Whole populations of plants, bees, insects and even birds are already dying of cold. 

Those who deny that global cooling has set in and have their heads buried in the sand are still lost in the fantasy world of trying to “stop global warming” by cutting carbon dioxide emissions.  That horse has bolted and to make it worse they are trying to close the wrong stable door! In the meantime, the sun and the earth and the climate have moved on. Global warming is no longer fashionable. Global cooling is here – at least for the next 2 or 3 decades.

BBC: Winged insects including bees, moths and butterflies are suffering this year following the UK’s late, cold spring, a National Trust report has revealed.

The charity warns the drop in numbers of winged insects could lead to food shortages for birds and bats. The six-month review assessed the state of plants and animals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and came up with a “winners and losers” list. 

Snowdrops, bluebells and daffodils are all on the winners’ list

Among the “losers”, butterflies have been “very scarce” this year, due to a combination of an unsettled spring and the last year’s extremely wet summer. Likewise, moth numbers have been driven down by cool, wet or windy nights over the past few months. Mason bees and mining bees also struggled to survive in poor weather in May, which may have a knock-on effect for plant pollination. “Insect populations have been really very low. Then when they have got going, they’ve been hit by a spell of cool, windy weather… so our environment is just not bouncing with butterflies or anything else,” said Mathew Oates, a naturalist at the National Trust, who worked on the report. …  

Birds on the “losers” list include martins, swifts, swallows and warblers, all of which rely on airborne insects to feed and may struggle to survive in the coming months.

Some seabird populations have been hard hit too. In March, windy weather along the coast of Scotland and northern England led to the apparent starvation of thousands of puffins along with guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and shags.

However, a number of animals and plants have enjoyed a more fruitful year, earning a place on the list of “winners” of the first half of 2013. Snowdrops and daffodils had “amazingly long flowering seasons”, according to the charity, with daffodils flowering well into May and snowdrops appearing from January through to mid-April. ….

But the UK Government has been moved to urgent action. They have decided that the bee decline is not due to pesticides – which leaves only global cooling which can be blamed. The government has called an urgent  “bee summit to “carry out an “urgent and comprehensive” review of the decline of bees. The majority of the participants will not have any experience of keeping bees!

The bees themselves are not invited:

BBC againThe government is to announce it will carry out an “urgent and comprehensive” review of the decline of bees.

Minister Lord de Mauley will tell a bee summit, organised by Friends of the Earth, that the review will lead to a “national pollinator strategy”.

There is great concern across Europe about the collapse of bee populations and the European Commission wants to ban pesticides linked to bee deaths.

But the UK has opposed the move, saying that the science is inconclusive.

 

Purple coloured wind turbines might save some bats

October 15, 2010

Reported by the BBC:

 

purple windmill

 

A study has revealed that a wind turbine’s colour affects how many insects it attracts, shedding more light on why the turbines occasionally kill bats and birds. Scientists say that turbines, most commonly painted white or grey, draw in insects. These then lure bats and birds – as they pursue their prey – into the path of the turbine blades. Support for the idea comes from another study showing that bats are most often killed by turbines at night and in summer, when insects are most abundant.

Bats are more likely to be killed by wind turbines at night and during the summer, researchers have discovered. The reason is thought to be because the turbines attract migrating insects. At some sites, 20 to 40 bats are killed each year per turbine, although rates of one to three bats are more typical.

Now scientists have ascertained that 90% of bat mortality occurs in northern Europe between late July and early October. A similar pattern occurs in North America. Observations from both continents also show that most bats are killed on relatively warm nights with low wind speed.

While the review by scientists does not provide all the answers, it suggests wind turbines are tall enough to attract insects migrating at night, which typically fly at heights of over 60m. Bats and birds are then killed by turbine blades as they feed on this insect bonanza.

PhD student Chloe Long of Loughborough University, UK. and her Loughborough colleagues, Dr James Flint and Dr Paul Lepper, conducted the first empirical study of insect attraction to wind turbines, the results of which are published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research.

In particular, they measured how a turbine’s colour alters how many insects gather around it. Most turbines are painted pure white or light grey, in a bid to make them as visually unobtrusive as possible. But insects, it seems, are unlikely to ignore these muted tones. The researchers measured how many insects were attracted to a range of paint colours, including pure white, light and dark grey, sky blue, red and purple.

Turbines painted pure white and light grey drew the most insects bar just one other colour; yellow. The colour they found least attractive was purple.

 

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH

 

The researchers also found that the ultraviolet and infrared components of paint colour, which humans cannot see but insects can, also had a significant impact, with higher levels of both attracting more insects.

Insect attraction to wind turbines: does colour play a role? by C. V. Long, J. A. Flint and P. A. Lepper

Mortality of bats at wind turbines links to nocturnal insect migration? by Jens Rydell, Lothar Bach, Marie-Jo Dubourg-Savage, Martin Green, Luísa Rodrigues and Anders Hedenström