Insects

Insects 03

Habitat loss for the last two centuries has been huge for butterflies. But, hey, who gives a hoot about habitat? 2/3 of butterfly species will be gone by the end of this century, or sooner. That is a conservative estimate from a speech given at the International Botanical Congress. Those guys are botanists. What the heck do they know?

Peter Raven, President of the International Botanical Congress at its 16th worldwide conference, August 2, 1999 announced:
"We are predicting the extinction of about two-thirds of all bird, mammal, butterfly and plant species by the end of the next century, based on current trends." In other words, we humans are causing a mass extinction of species greater than the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This is a very big deal, folks - if loss of 2/3rds of these species doesn't qualify as a major ecological collapse, we don't know what does. This should be front-page, red banner headline news, but it's not. The UN and every country around the world should be calling for emergency conferences, but they're not.