back to article UK butterfly numbers hit hard

Scientists are warning that another wet summer following two years of wash-outs could drive some UK butterfly species to extinction, the Telegraph reports. A survey by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, which began recording populations in 1976, showed that 12 species last year "suffered the worst summer on record". Overall …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Slow News Day?

    What the hell do butterflies have to do with IT?

  2. Simon
    IT Angle

    Butterflies?

    I'm sorry, but what operating system do you run butterflies on?

  3. Herbert Fruchtl
    Coat

    Climate Change

    I thought according to The Register there is no such thing?

    It's a rain coat...

  4. acfs
    Unhappy

    Trying really hard to see an IT angle to this...

    but failing.

  5. Loki
    IT Angle

    IT Angle?

    No really.... i can usually at a stretch see the IT angle, but even IT nerds are not usually interested in butterflies. Maybe i left my anorak at home....

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Impressive

    Got all the way to the third last paragraph before the climate change joker flew out of the box.

    Things change, if they didn't we wouldn't have crawled out of the ocean.

  7. Rob
    Go

    Another factor being...

    ... my cat, Ren, she's been decimating the population ever since she's been old enough to go outside.

    I've saved a few in my defence.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Extinction

    I think my cats also have something to do with the drop in butterfly numbers....

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Climate change my @rse....

    And yet again we see any study involving well, pretty much anything, having the obligatory Climate Change vilain dragged onstage.

    The last few summers have been typical summers of the sort I remember from the 60's. Just how is this supposed to be the cause of the butterfly holocaust alluded to? If the butterflies cant cope unless we have the hot dry summers we had for a (few) years, there must be something else causing it, right?

    But lets not actually do the hard work of working it out, lets just blame it on Climate Change (which is a nonsense statement anyway, the climate is always changing...), and get a few more pounds from our Greenie-worshipping government.

  10. Eric Werme

    I thought people wanted global warming to end!

    Oh lovely, after decades of people bemoaning global warming, the shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation a year and a half ago looks to have started a few decades of cooling and people are already bemoaning global cooling and longing for the good ol' days.

  11. Master Baker
    Thumb Down

    Poor butterflies

    I blame Labour.

    Just goes to show that this recession is hitting everyone. Butterflies are now unable to buy basic essentials such as raincoats and/or tiny umbrella's made of twigs and leaves. And, as most butterflies are now unemployed (yes Gordon - *your* fault) they are having to default on their mortgage payments and are thus being made homeless by the very insect banks bailed-out by us, the taxpayer! The tiny soup kitchens just cannot keep-up. Were it not for community-spirited ants and beetles the street-mortality rate would rocket.

    What a sad day for Britain. And what a reflection of this poo Labour government.

    Next they'll be getting tiny id-cards, which they'll have to keep in tiny wallets/purses and, due to the lack of pockets on a butterfly they are sure to loose them - resulting in an increased feeling of alienation which inturn will lead to more arrests and a spike of crime within the insect community as a whole. They know who the terrorists are - the spiders - so why don't they target them rather than install legislation which affects the honest, tax-paying insectiod? It's political correctness gone mad.

    Why oh why did we vote Labour?

  12. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Poor butterflies

    "Lol."

  13. RichardB
    Boffin

    On the upside they must be celebrating

    in Mongolia.

    After all, their butterflies caused so much damage over here over the years, they must be happy that our arsenal of climate changing killer butterflies has been depleted.

    Still, it only takes one to flap its wings and mongolia will disappear under the worst storms for a century or two.

    I blame the chinese myself, a secret butterfly extermination program has been running here right under the noses of the 'intelligence' services. Presumably just when they consider the time to be right they will set free their Doomsday Butterfly to wash us all into the ocean.

  14. Stu
    Stop

    Conservationism...

    ...is in itself a pointless venture. Darwin pointed out that entire species live & die as the environment alters, be it caused by man or not, whats the point of worrying about some butterfly species dying out when a whole new uber butterfly, better suited to wet climates, will have the opportunity to come along and live out their existence instead.

    Some people argue its because of mans major influences on the environment that causes extinction - again - so what! Species come and go all the time, caused by the rise and fall of other species around them, and the changing environment. Its the very definition of nature!

    I say sod the butterfly - take one or two in for their DNA signatures for study, then let em perish so that a newly adapted species will be allowed to flourish in its place.

    Frickin Hippies. Same goes for you twats who dont see the IT angle in this article - its as plain as the nose on my face - THERE ISN'T AN IT ANGLE! Get over it.

  15. Don Sinclair

    Great

    At least this year I won't need to spend fortunes on napalm and agent orange to keep the little blighters off my veg patch!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    I blame habitat loss

    what else could account for the bee population being stung, the butterflies flittering off, the frogs all croaking...

    I'm so ashamed.

    But really, i don't see the fallow fields and un-developed areas that used to be around when I were a mere lad.

  17. ian
    IT Angle

    IT == Insect Termination?

    That is all.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    I'll have the last laugh

    When all the butterflies and bees are dead and there's no pollination. No pollination = no flowering plants.

    When the seas are so acidic that the only things left in them are bacteria and jellyfish.

    When the sea levels rise and London turns into an open sewer (like it's not one already).

    Except we will probably all be dead by then and it'll be up to our children to somehow survive.

    (as for the IT angle, do you really think they keep thousands of records on paper, tards?)

  19. Andy Bright

    A real shame this

    I noticed my dog has a tendency to chase and kill butterflies. I just hadn't realised it had got this out of hand. Sorry.

  20. richard comont

    IT angle

    We store the records in databases and analyse them in R. There's your IT angle

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    IT..

    The climate changed because you have your servers working 24x7 and you consume too much energy.... SHUTDOWN all of them now!

  22. Anthony

    Re: Conservationism ...

    So I assume you believe biodiversity isn't very important either? I'm not sure Darwin would be on your side for that one ...

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