yurayurateikokuさんの おぼえた日記 - 2023年12月16日(土)

Bird and Insects Cope With Climate Change (4)

Some scientists think electromagnetic radiation emitted by our smartphones affects bees and other insects. WiFi networks and smartphones may harm their immune systems and throw off their circadian clocks.
It’s increasingly obvious that the planetary ecosystem is breaking down and that there needs to be a global effort to half and reverse the destruction of the environment. But aren’t insects well-equipped to survive an ecocatastrophe? I mean, cockroaches made it through the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs when an asteroid hit the Earth, right?
Yes, indeed. When the big chunk of rock known as the Chicxulub impactor slammed into the Earth 66 million years ago, three-quarters of the plants and animals on Earth died. That included all dinosaurs-except for some species that were the ancestors of today’s birds. But cockroaches survived.
How is that possible, when so many bigger animals went extinct?
It turns out that cockroaches are well-designed to live through such a catastrophe. Their bodies are very flat, for example, which lets them hide practically anywhere. That may have helped them survive the Chicxulub impact. And unlike some insects that eat one specific plant, cockroaches are omnivorous scavengers.
The Earth is losing animals, birds, reptiles and other living things so fast that some scientists believe the planet has already entered a sixth mass extinction.
How do you define a mass extinction?

A friend is a present you give to yourself.