Pleas for Help.

Entomology, the branch of zoology focusing on insects, is not a sexy area of research. As a consequence it has been relatively neglected. Yet, insects are vitally important for life.

Alarmingly, they are disappearing worldwide.

So neglected has been entomology that the credit for the first scientific confirmation of that disappearance can be attributed largely to Krefeld-based German amateur entomologists in a 2017 paper.

Australian scientists are attempting desperately to fill that gap. And it needs to be filled.

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Butterflies Australia website

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Zoos Victoria. State Wide Integrated Fauna and Flora Teams Moth Tracker.

Concerned Australians can contribute.

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This incoming summer promises to be a nightmare, with drought, bushfires, and likely new temperature records. Australian scientists wrote an open letter to Scott Morrison, asking for his intervention to fight the extinction crisis threatening Australian flora and fauna.

Let’s see what Morrison’s reply will be.

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Flying foxes are attempting to adapt to these fast-paced changes. They don’t seem to be too successful.

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Incidentally, they are important pollinators. Apparently, plants are not flowering as usual and flying foxes are trying to find food: another stress shock for all pollinators. And how long will it take until farmers start demanding a culling?

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Individual initiatives will not solve this problem. It requires collective action.

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But sometimes individuals can help. That is an example. Maybe you could as well?

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So, you agree that climate change is anthropogenic and implies an existential threat but you don’t approve of Extinction Rebellion. Perhaps you dislike their methods; you find that kind of protests distasteful, ineffectual, or even counterproductive. Or maybe what you dislike are the individuals who take part in that movement.

Well, there’s an easy solution. Come up with a better idea and put it in practice yourself. Do something beyond bitching, because that isn’t good enough. Put your ass on the line, as they are doing. Either that or fuck off. (I could say that to many, but right now I have you in mind, David Llewellyn-Smith).