News Reporter: Climate Coach: A love letter to an unloved insect

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Climate Coach
Down-to-earth advice for life on our changing planet.

Video journalist Alice Li with a sphinx moth at Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve. (Stella Kalinina for The Washington Post)

By Michael J. Coren

Welcome. This week, electric garbage trucks and an off-the-shelf nuclear reactor. But first, a love letter to an unloved insect.

As humans drop off to sleep, the invisible world of moths comes to life. Across the planet, billions of the insects take flight on their nocturnal errands.

Few places host more species than California's Mojave Desert, a center of biodiversity for lepidoptera, the insect family encompassing roughly 180,000 known moth and butterfly species.

A sphinx moth at Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve in Yucca Valley, California. (Stella Kalinina for The Washington Post)

Each night in the desert, vast clouds of sphinx moths, some spanning the palm of your hand, speed between night-blooming flowers, sipping nectar. Ethmia, tiny black moths with spots shaped like musical notes, emerge from the dark like fairies. Thousands of geometrid moths, no bigger than your fingernail, slip by cloaked in desert hues from rusty reds to pale green.

This spring, I traveled deep into the Mojave Desert with a team from the California Academy of Sciences working to ensure the survival of lepidoptera. For two days, we beat bushes, placed traps and collected thousands of moths to see what lives there — and what can be saved.

Paul Johnson, a wildlife biologist, photographs some of the moths. (Stella Kalinina for The Washington Post)

Moths have inhabited our planet for at least 200 million years. But the conservation status of about 99 percent of moth species remains unknown.

Some, like sphinx moths, remain abundant. Many others are probably being pushed to the brink by development, land-use changes, pesticides and pollution, and rising temperatures. "It's not this unseen force," says David Wagner, an entomologist at the University of Connecticut. "It's humans."

Moth specimens collected overnight by the entomology team at the California Academy of Sciences. (Stella Kalinina for The Washington Post)

Over two nights in the desert, I discovered just how easy it is to fall in love with an unloved insect. And why "mothing" may be the best way to discover the miracle of biodiversity in your own backyard.

To learn more about the overlooked majesty of moths, click on the button below.

Click here to read the column

Who are the insects in your life? Write me at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.

Field Sample

When you reach the end of North America, you arrive at a place like Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Its fate may be decided this fall. Alaskans, the oil industry and Republican officials are battling environmentalists, many Democrats and wildlife scientists over whether to dig up the oil and gas that lies beneath the refuge.

A caribou rears after being harassed by birds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

The Post's Juliet Eilperin, Carolyn Van Houten and Alice Li hiked dozens of miles and navigated swarms of mosquitoes to report this story that will take you on an unforgettable journey to meet the people and animals of the wildest places on Earth.

Learning Curve

The real reason billion-dollar disasters like Hurricane Helene are growing more common? "Disasters are more expensive because there is more to destroy," writes Harry Stevens, our Climate Lab columnist.

Despite a popular dataset maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing a rising number of billion-dollar disasters, climate change isn't a clear culprit.

A statistically significant climate signal may take more time to emerge in studies of economic losses because extreme weather is quite rare.

"A lot of the things we see in the disaster losses are obscured because there's an overwhelming signal of more people in risky places, growing populations worldwide, more infrastructure, more assets, higher values," said Laurens Bouwer, an expert on the assessment of climate risks and a lead author on five reports by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. "This is the main signal. And that's where the science is at the moment."

Snapshot

Knox Petrucci and Alison Wisely were finalizing plans for their wedding in this beautiful corner of North Carolina.

Weeks before their wedding day, the young couple, along with 9-year-old Felix and 7-year-old Lucas, were killed by floodwaters while trying to evacuate as Helene swept through the state.

Now, on the day that Knox and Alison were supposed to be married, their families will gather for a funeral.

Alison Wisely and Knox Petrucci were finalizing plans for their wedding. They were trying to escape the storm with Wisely's two sons when a wave suddenly jumped the banks of the river. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Hurricane Helene's violent path through the Southeast this September killed at least 226 people across six states, the deadliest storm to strike the mainland United States in almost 20 years.

The people of Western North Carolina endured the greatest toll.

Here are their stories.

The Second Degree

After writing my column on how to turn any bike into an electric vehicle, some of you went for it. Oliver recently wrote with a complication: Some bike shops were hesitant to do the e-bike conversion.

While easy enough to do on your own, a bike shop is helpful if you lack the tools or want it done quickly. Bike shops objected that the bike fork on an older bike might fail with the added torque from the motor (or, in some cases, the businesses' insurance doesn't cover electric bikes).

So I asked Benjamin Mepsted of Swytch Bike, which designs conversion kits, what to do.

"The acceleration speed of the Swytch kit is not enough to put pressure on most forks," wrote Mepsted. "If a customer has a 30+ year old bike, or very thin/weak forks, we also offer a torque arm accessory which gives the customer a little bit more piece of mind."

You can also ask bike shops that specialize in e-bikes to guide you. Electrify Bike specializes in conversions and ships nationwide.

Many of you read, and challenged, The Post's recent decision not to endorse presidential candidates. Annie wrote me to say she canceled her subscription. "I wanted to thank you for your writing, and to let you know that I will miss it!" she wrote. "We need so much more quality reporting and action to protect and restore our climate. I hope to return one day as a subscriber if Bezos and Lewis grow a conscience."

I understand Annie's decision. I just wanted to share that the newsroom, which remains separate from the editorial section (and any decisions by the publisher and owner), is as committed as ever to our mission.

I'll quote my colleague Sarah Kaplan, who has been a leader in the newsroom's labor union and covers climate for The Post, about how we see our responsibility to every reader. "I can promise you the staff of The Washington Post remain committed to our work," she wrote. "To telling the truth with clarity and humanity. To keeping you informed, no matter the cost."

On the Climate Front

From The Post:

The Arctic ice is melting. A booming cruise industry is taking advantage — while it can.

Here are the surprising winners — and losers — of America's clean energy boom.

The new American Dream should be a townhouse.

Don't toss your pumpkin after Halloween. Do this instead.

From elsewhere:

America's first 100 percent electric garbage truck fleet arrives in Louisville, says Elektrek.

Grist says a proposed redesign of the recycling symbol could be deceptive — and illegal.

Princeton University researchers invented a nuclear-fusion reactor using mainly off-the-shelf components, reports IEEE.

As the climate warms, NPR finds mosquitoes are transmitting dengue fever in Los Angeles.

With summer now over the horizon, here's a last reminder of the season from Rebecca Vardiman of Near Clarendon, Texas, who snapped this photo of baby rabbits in her garden this May.

Send me your photos and stories at climatecoach@washpost.com