Professor Art Shapiro joined Science Café at G St. Wunderbar to discuss the topic of his recent collaboration with New York Times Magazine, Insect Apocalypse. Shapiro clarified that the title may be a slight exaggeration, but the threat is real. However, in Shapiro’s personal observations an insect decline is happening, or as he put it, insect biomass is “dropping like a rock”.
At first glance, Shapiro may not look like your typical scientist. Instead of a pristine lab coat, Shapiro wore a worn out pair of converse, and dirt stained jeans, but his reputation for quick wit and extensive knowledge drew a full crowd. As is his brand, Shapiro opened his talk in a quirky anecdote discussing the beer selection at Wunderbar. Weighing in he said, “PBR is the official drink of my research group”.
Shapiro was featured in the New York Times Magazine’s piece because of his forty-seven years of butterfly data in the Sierras. The Shapiro transect is the longest running butterfly survey in the United States. Internationally, Shapiro comes second to the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, which surpasses Shapiro by a thin margin of four years. Shapiro identifies the over 159 species of butterflies as they migrate through the Sierras. In comparison, the UK only has 71 species.
According to Shapiro, there are two main problem concerning the Insect Apocalypse. Firstly, there is very little data to support this theory. Most of the supporting evidence is anecdotal. The second problem with tracking insects is that no one seems to care about them. Data for butterflies is data for insects, “butterflies are charismatic”.
In 2005, he counted over 15,000 painted ladies. Moderator for Science Café, Dr. Jared Shaw, amazed by the sheer number, asked Shapiro how counting that many butterflies was humanly possible. First, he counted how many butterflies cross a line in his field of vision in a certain time frame, then multiplies that by how long he observed the swarm.
Few scientists are as dedicated as Shapiro. When asked how about the role of citizen science, Shapiro was quick to say that in order to draw meaningful conclusions, he has a rigid set of protocols that he himself carries out. Long term studies rely on citizen scientists which have too many variables for Shapiro’s high standard and rigorous statistical analysis. However, Shapiro confronted his age saying, “I could drop dead at any moment”. Recently, Shapiro was forced to delegate some of his surveys in more challenging sites to a more spritely collaborator.
Halfway through the talk, the event switched to a question and answer conversation between the audience and Shapiro. An member of the audience asked “…are you impressed or not by the need to make sure there is milkweed along their journey” Milkweed is the only plant that monarch pupae consume. According to Save Our Monarchs, “the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live” is resulting in loss of habitat, milkweed, for the monarchs. Although unconventional, Shapiro used a long anecdote summarizing the plot of The Letter M to explain that planting milkweed, while a nice idea, is virtually ineffective. More likely, the decline in monarchs is a symptom of a greater problem.
Later, another audience member asked for his opinion on aluminum traces in trout. Shapiro responded thoughtfully, “the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said … if you don’t know anything about a subject, shut up”. He added, “So I will shut up! I wish more people that didn’t know anything would shut the hell up!”
Eager to share his knowledge, Shapiro offered to send supporting documents and slides to anyone interested in butterflies. In true Shapiro fashion, he also plugged his own book, “And if you’re really into butterflies, buy a copy of my field guide … if you buy it new I will get 31 cents in royalties. If you buy it on the secondary market I don’t get any royalties, but it will be a hell of a lot cheaper”