The collapse of their population vermin The planet is so big it’s scary to think about the consequences humanity could experience in a few decades if the situation continues the same way. The so-called ‘Insect Apocalypse’ has devastating and cascading consequences until it reaches humans.. a book called Quiet planet. Consequences of an insect-free worldWritten by Dave Goulson, a biologist at the University of Sussex (UK), (The Review) gives the keys to the situation. The result is a truly alarming picture.
The products we feed depend on insects. According to repeated scientific studies, 70% of these crops are pollinated by bees, and without them (clearly in decline) humanity could find itself in serious trouble.. But not only bees pollinate. All insects and other animals that do this are in decline. According to recent research, 40% of insects on the planet are threatened and may go extinct in the coming years.
But as the book Silent Planet shows, in some parts of the planet the situation is worse. It is estimated that 50% of the insects may have already disappeared before we move further in Europe.and that would only happen in half a century.
In fact, the situation can already be seen by everyone without the need to resort to any investigation. The number of insects hitting the windshield of the car, which can be seen in the ditches on the roads or in the light of street lamps, is considerably less than it was just thirty or forty years ago.
Will we have to hand pollinate plants to feed ourselves? The picture that Dave Goulson paints in his work opens the eyes of many skeptics because even studies that offer more moderate results are truly alarming.
Mosquitoes and aphids are just one of those that will increase
Since fruit trees or plants are not pollinators, they not only stop production, but also grasslands would suffocate under the tons of manure accumulated by the disappearance of insects and flies that rotted them.. As their food sources were depleted, large numbers of bird species would perish, and with it another series of ecological disturbances would begin. The only insects climate change favors will be mosquitoes with the diseases they transmit, as well as aphids.Not having the long-vanished pressure of their predators like ladybugs or earwigs, they would devour the few fruits and vegetables that could be produced.
As a bumblebee expert and author of several outreach studies, Goulson travels the state of various insect groups and certain species to send an alarm signal. After Rachel Carson’s legendary book ‘Silent Spring’, which inspired the title of her work, Goulson believes pesticides are still the great enemy of most invertebrates today. As Carson did in the 1960s when denouncing the devastation of DDT on human health, Goulson now concludes that although certain substances have been banned, the reality remains the same. Others keep ruining the bugs we need.
The expansion of industrial agriculture and animal husbandry with the urbanization of natural areasare other reasons explaining this decline. Climate change and the resulting increased storms, floods and droughts will increase the threats to insects, but some species may thrive in this way, but with even more negative consequences for the entire ecosystem and for humans.
Goulson includes a set of actions for: revive insect populationscauses them to cease to be stigmatized in society, which often ignores their true significance.
The message conveyed by the book need for reduction global, i.e. to reduce excessive food consumption, to reduce the volume of industrial livestock and agriculture, to re-naturalize the land they occupy, to eliminate pesticides and fertilizers…
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