We need more buzz

July 26, 2021 11:58 AM

The Biodiversity Crisis is as serious a threat to the survival of humanity as the climate crisis, but it gets less publicity these days. Maybe there is some hope?

We know that young people are taking action and changing the discourse, but are the so-called adults listening?
The EU seem to be doing the best they can, (not that impressive) but what about the countries that are in denial? Among them superpowers like the US, Russia and China, and big nations like the UK and Brazil.
This is something you can do something about as an individual! Plant an insect-friendly garden or flower box, or get your municipality or landlord to rewild a bit.

posted by mumimor (11 comments total)

Bee population steady in Dutch cities thanks to pollinator strategy

The enthusiastic volunteers, armed with a list depicting the most common bees at this time of the year, spent 30 minutes in their gardens recording their apian visitors. At the close of data submission on Sunday 18 April, more than 200,000 bees and hoverflies had been counted.

The results – for urban bees at least – were steady. Vincent Kalkman, entomologist at Naturalis, one of the organisations behind the census said: “An average of 18 to 20 bees and hoverflies were recorded in each garden during the count. These numbers have remained steady over the years, indicating that there is no strong decline in urban gardens.”

The census aims to collect five years’ of data before drawing definitive conclusions on bee population trends.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:33 PM on July 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

Toronto has just recently (a couple of weeks ago) made it OK for homeowners to keep a "natural garden" on the strip of land between the sidewalk and road in front of their house without getting a special permit for it (which was the old way it was allowed). I was doing it already so it's nice to know that I'm not going to get a letter from the city telling me to dig up all the herbs I had planted there.

We have these fields under the main power lines that go across the city and for the most part its just grass underneath them but at least one has been turned into a "meadoway". Even in the power fields near my house where it is all supposed to be grass there's clover and some other plants in there as well so there are some resources for pollinators and hopefully that'll increase over time so that we'll have proper corridors for them.

I guess with how much our cities are sprawling these urban efforts are increasingly important but isn't it in the agriculture sector where this will be won or lost? Urban land is less than 1% of Canada's area and cropland is over 50%. Anything the cities and people like me living in them do is a drop in the bucket.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:26 PM on July 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

The pollinator killers came to my door a few days ago, pitched me to spray, saying they were in the neighborhood. Gonna kill spiders, etc. I explained that I had seen hardly any pollinating insects this summer, and that was due to their efforts, selling a poisonous weed, feed, and pesticide combo. I saw one smaller bee today. The first in days. If I want cucumbers, I have to pollinate with a paintbrush.
posted by Oyéah at 5:17 PM on July 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

I live on a hill in Seattle. We don't spray.

I know when the neighbors have used pesticides and herbicides, because the moles dig out a bunch of holes in our front and backyards. The chemicals have run downhill and chased them down to where there is still food.

I wish there were serious laws about it. Our hill runs down into Puget Sound, as most hills in Seattle do. All that chemical shit just ends up in our drinking water, in addition to salting the earth.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:35 PM on July 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

The Biodiversity Crisis is as serious a threat caused by humanity as the climate crisis.
posted by Joan Rivers of Babylon at 6:24 PM on July 26, 2021 [3 favorites]

I guess with how much our cities are sprawling these urban efforts are increasingly important but isn't it in the agriculture sector where this will be won or lost? Urban land is less than 1% of Canada's area and cropland is over 50%. Anything the cities and people like me living in them do is a drop in the bucket.

There is a movement here (in Denmark) to get people in cities and suburbs to provide insect-friendly environments with the idea that in that way ordinary people can keep species alive while we also fight industrial agriculture politically. It has gained a huge following very rapidly, not only among individuals and families, but also in municipalities and big housing estates, and some conventional farmers who have begun to leave untreated borders along their fields. On the website they say that they became a formal organisation five years ago. It has a notable effect already. The numbers for this year aren't out yet, obviously, but it is plain to see the difference. Last year there was hardly an insect on people's windshields, now we are still not back to the old normal, but one definitely needs the sprinkler. It's a general topic of conversation how we are now welcoming all the creatures we once hated. So we can make a difference, if we work together.

That said, of course agriculture needs to change. And for that to happen, political action is needed. On the other hand, I've been quite surprised at how fast the farming organizations have pivoted after the new EU budget included funds to support greater biodiversity and less CO2 production from agriculture. When something is a political fact, even those who claimed change is impossible a year ago are now figuring out how to change. In a modern democracy, industrial farmers are a tiny minority and we should be able to vote them down. I know it doesn't work that way, but we should work for it to work.

It's a bit like with global warming: smart people have known about this for at least 40 years, and both warned the authorities and put out ideas. If you think about that, it's depressing. But on the other hand, there is some sort of momentum now, and the good thing about the past forty years of research is that we are not working from scratch.
posted by mumimor at 2:19 AM on July 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

I applaud those who embrace mankind's role as steward over nature. This is the only path forward for the biosphere.
posted by No Robots at 8:31 AM on July 27, 2021

I just drove back to Chicago from Oakville, Ontario, Canada. I also drove there earlier in the week. About 1000 miles round trip and mostly through farmland in sunny weather.

I didn't have to clean my windshield even though I filled up with gas twice.

When I was young you cleaned your windshield pretty much every time you filled up.
posted by srboisvert at 12:57 PM on July 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

I also recently traveled from the Rocky Mountains to the California Coast and back, and the realization that I rarely had to tidy up the windshield really struck me. Now I’m a little horrified to realize the ubiquity of my experience. Might start to explain why I’ve seen so many dead and inexplicably incautious birds lately in my hometown..
posted by GrandPunkRailroad at 9:56 PM on July 27, 2021

If you are in the U.S. and have a bit of yard or even a balcony, get yourself on Doug Tallamy's map of Homegrown National Park
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 5:45 AM on July 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

(Short intro podcast to Tallamy's work for the unfamiliar)
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 6:01 AM on July 28, 2021 [1 favorite]