And so what?
So maybe the climate is changing, I haven’t noticed it (but I’ve read about it). Plants grow in the spring, some flower, and winter comes in the temperate regions. On average, the beginning and ending a flowering plant’s lifecycle changes.
Some insects specialize in serving only one species, and some are slow to evolve, to change the timing of when their population emerges, looks for food, has sex, and goes away for a year. But if the timing of their plant changes (a climate dependent thing), the insect’s population, having fallen out of sync, declines. As a recent study estimates, 60% of plants and insects have been adversely affected. If the out of sync condition is too out of sync, the solution is simple: they go extinct.
So, what plants? Well, like the 84% of European crops that depend on the “free” services of bugs. Good thing I don’t live in Europe. I remember back in the 1960s when we travelled from California to Ohio (and back each year) to visit relatives who still hadn’t dispersed to the ends of the earth.
My older brother’s job was to clean the windshield off when we stopped so my dad could see to drive (except when we stopped at service stations, now called gas stations, back in the day when a smiling attendant would pump your 25 cent/gal gas, clean your windshield, and at least offer to check the oil and air the tires at no added cost).
But things are different now.
