If you can't stand the heat ... you're in trouble

It feels a little odd thinking about extreme heatwaves when excessive rainfall is grabbing immediate attention, but we need to. The effects of drought and heatwave on certain taxa such as Craneflies and Hoverflies is well known, but a recent paper looks at the impact of extreme heatwaves on butterflies. It's now clear that we will overshoot a 1.5C temperature rise, and probably 2C too, so what can we do to mitigate the most damaging effects of extreme heat before our grandchildren can start to think about reversing the devastating decline of insects? The proposed solutions in the paper are artificial slopes (butterfly banks) and more scrub. 

Heatwave predicts a shady future for insects: impacts of an extreme weather event on a chalk grassland in Bedfordshire, UK. (2024) Journal of Insect Conservation, 1-11. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-024-00556-5