California's Monarch butterflies population has all but collapsed
Disappearing act: California’s monarch butterfliesBY EUGENE KO MARCH 15, 2019
Once home to millions of migrating monarch butterflies, the coast of California has recently seen significant drops in monarch butterfly populations. Monarch butterflies migrate great distances seasonally, traveling thousands of miles to nest along the West Coast. However, according to a study released by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the number of butterflies found in overwintering sites has decreased by 89 percent from the last year, going from 148,000 to only 30,000 butterflies. This marks an overall a 96 percent drop from the 1980s, where 10 million monarchs made the trip annually. Scientists are debating as to whether the butterflies have passed the point of no return, and if there is anything that can be done to help.
http://peninsulapress.com/2019/03/15/disappearing-act-californias-monarch-butterflies/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I have lived in OC since the 90s, and this made me remember how often I would see them back then.
Sad 
Last edited Fri Apr 5, 2019, 07:53 AM - Edit history (1)
for those paying attention for several years.
The Guardian, Feb 10, 2019. The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.
The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.
> “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature
