Everything you ever wanted to know about insects and their brutal drop in numbers darkly spelled out in an in-depth Guardian article by biologist Dave Goulson.
Some juicy titbits for lazy mofos:
“Estimates vary and are imprecise, but it seems likely that insects have declined in abundance by 75% or more since I was five years old.” (he was born in 1965)
“Approximately three-quarters of the crop types we grow also require pollination by insects, and if the bulk of plant species could no longer set seed and died out, then every community on land would be profoundly altered and impoverished, given that plants are the basis of every food chain.”
“In total, the ecosystem services provided by insects are estimated to be worth at least $57bn a year in the US alone, although this is a pretty meaningless calculation since, as EO Wilson once said, without insects “the environment would collapse into chaos” and billions would starve.”
In the UK: “Butterflies of the “wider countryside” – common species found in farmland, gardens and so on, such as meadow browns and peacocks – fell in abundance by 46% between 1976 and 2017.”
One of the reasons bird numbers are in decline is that lots of birds feast on—wait for it—insects. e.g,: “In England, populations of the spotted flycatcher fell by 93% between 1967 and 2016.”
Other UK bird examples: “Other once-common insectivores have suffered similarly, including the grey partridge (-92%), nightingale (-93%) and cuckoo (-77%). The red-backed shrike, a specialist predator of large insects, went extinct in the UK in the 1990s.”
What to do?
“We must transform our food system. Growing and transporting food so that we all have something to eat is the most fundamental of human activities. The way we do it has profound impacts on our own welfare, and on the environment, so it is surely worth investing in getting it right. There is an urgent need to overhaul the current system, which is failing us in multiple ways. We could have a vibrant farming sector, employing many more people, and focused on sustainable production of healthy food, looking after soil health and supporting biodiversity.”
“We need to green our urban areas. Imagine green cities filled with trees, vegetable gardens, ponds and wild flowers squeezed into every available space – in our gardens, city parks, allotments, cemeteries, on road verges, railway cuttings and roundabouts – and all free from pesticides.”
“Government organisations responsible for wildlife conservation, such as Natural England, should be properly funded, yet have seen huge budget cuts in recent years. Monitoring schemes and research into understanding the causes of insect declines must also be properly government-funded.”
It’s not like there’s a shortage of solutions or anything. Just the will to get kickin’.
Political, societal, and individual.
[Cover photo: A leafcutter bee in Hertfordshire. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy]