BBC reporting

[Ratel]

So the BBC are being told by Environmentalists that a hot June is killing fish in the rivers and there are no insects about. Where do they find these idiots? I suppose it is true and it's nothing to do with sewage and chemicals being discharged neat from sewage works into the water.
Insects? Well obviously they very rarely visit the rural areas. Give them a day with me or any other keeper amongst the midges, cleggs and other annoying insects and see how they speak about insects then. The only good thing is there are so many about that they will fatten the partridge chicks so they make better meals for the avian brigade.
What rubbish they feed us with.

 

[devon deer stalker]

I am a fishing guide in Devon, I fish spate rivers straight off Dartmoor.
I have been doing this a long, long time, and I have noticed a reduction in aquatic insect life over the years, as to the cause I'm not qualified to say.
I have heard that dogs in and out of rivers and the flea chemicals on the skin can reduce insect life, I can't believe that though as they must surely be very diluted.
We are in drought conditions, the Salmon and Sea Trout (those that have managed to make it up stream) are struggling in the low water/oxygen conditions, what doesn't help is miles of our local river Teign is owned by the National/Woodland trust, they have created a 'playground' and ruined the peace and tranquillity that used to exist.
The long slow pools that were a haven for migratory fish have become swimming pools for large lard arsed holidaymakers!

 

[Bowland blades]

I am a fishing guide in Devon, I fish spate rivers straight off Dartmoor.
I have been doing this a long, long time, and I have noticed a reduction in aquatic insect life over the years, as to the cause I'm not qualified to say.
I have heard that dogs in and out of rivers and the flea chemicals on the skin can reduce insect life, I can't believe that though as they must surely be very diluted.
We are in drought conditions, the Salmon and Sea Trout (those that have managed to make it up stream) are struggling in the low water/oxygen conditions, what doesn't help is miles of our local river Teign is owned by the National/Woodland trust, they have created a 'playground' and ruined the peace and tranquillity that used to exist.
The long slow pools that were a haven for migratory fish have become swimming pools for large lard arsed holidaymakers!

Ex- river keeper myself .The issue in England i found is the EA ! Scotland aint doing so bad but then they kept river boards and bailiffs. EA play for the same employers that do a great deal of the damage .

 

[JockStalk]

We’ve been coming out of a glacial period for the last 15,000 years. If you want to know why the climate is changing perhaps consult a geologist looking at millennia rather than a ‘climatologist’ looking at a few hundred years worth of data.

FFS, with a billion pounds a year they get the weather forecast right 55% of the time.

If they just said ’tomorrows weather will be the same as todays’ they’d get it right 50% of the time.

 

[devon deer stalker]

Ex- river keeper myself .The issue in England i found is the EA ! Scotland aint doing so bad but then they kept river boards and bailiffs. EA play for the same employers that do a great deal of the damage .

Don't even get me started on the EA, and the Westcountry Rivers Trust are a PITA

 

[Bowland blades]

We’ve been coming out of a glacial period for the last 15,000 years. If you want to know why the climate is changing perhaps consult a geologist looking at millennia rather than a ‘climatologist’ looking at a few hundred years worth of data.

FFS, with a billion pounds a year they get the weather forecast right 55% of the time.

If they just said ’tomorrows weather will be the same as todays’ they’d get it right 50% of the time.

Very short term weather forecasts are pretty good today but then so is phoning a mate a good few miles upwind LOL

 

[markj1]

So from what you are all saying, the damage is very real, and it is almost certainly man-made... be it via global warming or just mindless destruction of wildlife habitat.

 

[JockStalk]

So from what you are all saying, the damage is very real, and it is almost certainly man-made... be it via global warming or just mindless destruction of wildlife habitat.

Not what I said. interglacial period warming, as has happened thousands of cycles before and will no doubt happen again.

 

[markj1]

Not what I said. interglacial period warming, as has happened thousands of cycles before and will no doubt happen again.

Aplogies. Corrected version below:

So from what some of you saying, the damage is very real, and it is almost certainly man-made... be it via global warming or just mindless destruction of wildlife habitat.

 

[markj1]

Also, regarding Global Warming, I think it's a bit if a Red Herring, given than humans have dramatically changed the planet already... from the extinct Dodo, to the importation of rats from India to London... the list is endless. Every time we build a motorway or a railway or a bridge or a dam or a power station we create a small catastrophe in the local habitat. I am not anti-progress, far from it, just highlighting that fact that human enterprise almost always comes at a cost as it involves unsettling ecological balances that have existed for centuries or millennias or even longer.

 

[JockStalk]

Also, regarding Global Warming, I think it's a bit if a Red Herring, given than humans have dramatically changed the planet already... from the extinct Dodo, to the importation of rats from India to London... the list is endless. Every time we build a motorway or a railway or a bridge or a dam or a power station we create a small catastrophe in the local habitat. I am not anti-progress, far from it, just highlighting that fact that human enterprise almost always comes at a cost as it involves unsettling ecological balances that have existed for centuries or millennias or even longer.

If I know anything about ecology it’s that nothing is in balance. It’s an highly dynamic world. Events always create winners or losers who will capitalise or weaken, over or under reproduce accordingly. Mutations that exist without merit in a population suddenly become the sweet-spot outcompeting formula.

Otherwise, how do you explain Biden.

 

[Klenchblaize]

The record breaking hot June and predominantly dry Spring has most certainly negatively impacted aquatic wildlife. Pollution of rivers will be compounded due to dilution ratios.

K

 

[markj1]

...Otherwise, how do you explain Biden.

In a word? Trump. Biden didn't win... Trump lost.

 

[JockStalk]

In a word? Trump. Biden didn't win... Trump lost.

QED

 

[Franchi Matt]

BBC better off asking Mr Tumble.

 

[Jon P]

There are definitely less insects now then in the late 1970’s / early 80’s

I can remember getting sent out as a kid to clean the insects of my fathers Ford Capri windscreen, you could not put your finger between them there were that many on there after a motorway run.

Hardly any on my vehicle now in comparison.

 

[Ade8mm]

There are definitely less insects now then in the late 1970’s / early 80’s

I can remember getting sent out as a kid to clean the insects of my fathers Ford Capri windscreen, you could not put your finger between them there were that many on there after a motorway run.

Hardly any on my vehicle now in comparison.

Prob more to do with the increase of agri- insecticides and
sewage-laden rivers over the last 60 years than a few warm summers

 

[Jon P]

Prob more to do with the increase of agri- insecticides and
sewage-laden rivers over the last 60 years than a few warm summers

Very possible, I don’t know the reason, but something is causing the loss of insect numbers. I have not signed up the whole global warming catastrophe bandwagon.

 

[JockStalk]

There are definitely less insects now then in the late 1970’s / early 80’s

I can remember getting sent out as a kid to clean the insects of my fathers Ford Capri windscreen, you could not put your finger between them there were that many on there after a motorway run.

Hardly any on my vehicle now in comparison.

Aerodynamics?

 

[Jon P]

Aerodynamics?

I drive a Ford Ranger now so a more vertical windshield then the old sporty capri , don’t even get many bugs stuck to front grill on the Ranger. Definitely less bugs about, I do a fair bit of motorway driving too.