Since 1989 the total mass of insects in Germany has fallen by 80%. And it's not just in Germany — this is an example of a widespread tendency.

I think the writer is obtuse about extinction. Concern about extinction is not a matter of "fetishizing" the last few individuals of the species. The species is different from its members, and the loss of a species is different from the death of any number of members of that species.

If a given species of frog has a million members, the death of a specific hundred of them would not concern me much. If those hundred were the only ones left, their death would still not concern me much; but it would mean the extinction of the species, and I would consider that a real loss.

An 80% decrease in insect biomass is a big ecological change, and I think we had better find out soon what we did to cause it.

The troll has appointed a Republican voter suppression activist to run a phony "investigation" of nonexistent individual "voting fraud". This is meant to provide an excuse for more voter suppression.

It is clear what the troll's plan is. The Republicans know they can't win an honest election, so they plan to steal the 2018 election even more than they stole the 2016 election. The reports of the "investigation" will be a bunch of lies, and nearly all Republicans will pretend they are true, as an excuse for more voter suppression.

UN urges Pakistan to "incorporate into its legislation a specific definition of torture."

Senator Sanders has introduced a bill to promote worker-owned cooperatives.

Government-organized private loans keep worthless for-profit colleges going.

The companies that make the loans treat the borrowers terribly.