Oddbean

I posted about the book I'm reading last night, it's really a wonderful imaginative, beautiful book on #insects + focuses on very familiar European species. This bit really made me 🤯 though. Apparently a few years ago Sweden set aside a billion Swedish kroner to completely map all the Swedish flora and fauna in the #SvenskArtprojekt After examining 1% of collected samples, the scientists had recorded over 1000 species new to Sweden, of which 700 were new to science https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/111173210560937350 https://fediscience.org/system/media_attachments/files/111/177/557/318/228/688/original/88f358885e0ca6a9.jpg

Sadly author Morten D. D. Hansen suggests that while we can probably "save the bees" (he means wild + solitary bees, not Apis mellifera), we probably can't save all Danish butterflies whose numbers have plunged 75% in 30 years; depredations of agriculture leading to fragmented habitat, nitrogen pollution wiping out heathland species and then the final death blow of the #ClimateChange fuelled drought of the terrible summer of 2018. We fight on. #Biodiversity #BiodiversityCrisis