Climate Change Concerns: Stink bugs and thermometers are on the move

A headline in a recent news article, i.e., ‘Stink bug sizes up Ontario’, didn’t tell the full story. Though the story it did tell was disturbing enough on its own.

That “a voracious, invasive insect is closing in on Ontario crops and homes, having sucked its way through millions of dollars of produce in one American region last year alone” (Aug. 4, London Free Press) will get many people thinking about future food prices.

“Stink! They’ll be going up! And they’re already going up!” some will say, correct in their assumption.

Because stink bugs “slurp the juice out of fruit as it ripens on the tree, leaving ugly brown holes or dried-out scarred areas,” many shoppers will worry if they’ll ever again see bountiful displays of perfect fruit from around the globe, e.g., apples from China, on a daily basis.

I worry that growers will learn to air-brush their apples.


["Coming soon to an apple near you!": photo link]

That being said, the reason why stink bugs are on the move, from the USA to Ontario (Canada), was not discussed. It was hinted at by Hannah Fraser, provincial entomologist for Ontario’s Agriculture Minister, when she said she “doesn’t believe Canada’s relative cold will deter the stink bug’s advance.”

I feel, however, we deserve more than a hint to inform us why some of our main crops will be devastated (“tree fruits, berries and Southwestern Ontario’s largest cash crops, field corn and soybeans”), why food prices will rise continually, and why researchers are working overtime to find natural and pesticide solutions to a pest that has “no predators native to North America and is difficult to eradicate once it takes hold.”

Here’s what I think.

Climate change is causing average annual global temperatures to rise, winters are not as long or as severe - on average - as in even the recent past, and many pests that were once killed off in large numbers by winter’s cold are now surviving in droves and are on the move, seeking out fresh habitat and food sources.


[Temperature Graph compiled by Goddard Institute for Space Studies, of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)]

As you can see from the NASA graph, the last nine years have been nine of the ten hottest years on record, and with proper study, we would likely be able to track down the names and friendly attributes of dozens of other pests now on the move thanks to warmer temperatures. The emerald ash borer, now in the business of destroying the ash trees in my own city (London, Ontario), immediately springs to mind.

Knowing that researchers are now on the move to find a cure, many North Americans will sit back and let science and modern chemicals do the work. And that’s the wrong approach entirely.

I suggest, since food crops and trees are under attack because of our addiction to the culture of big (big house, big car, big closet, big lifestyle, big list of other big things), we move - as quickly as stink bugs and ash borers can crawl - toward the conservation of resources and the culture of small. A smaller lifestyle, including fewer sq. ft. in homes and closets, lower horse power in cars, etc., will slow the build up of carbon emissions and the migration of more than bugs and borers.

As well, if you’re finding your big lifestyle already boring into your wallet and getting too expensive, adopt the following financial principles:

reduce spending

pay down debt

save money for the tough times ahead.

With the threat of another recession hanging in the air like summer smog, you’ll be glad you did.

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