A Warning
Half of the one million animal and plant species on Earth facing extinction are insects, and their disappearance could be catastrophic for humankind, scientists have said in a "warning to humanity".
Insects pollinate a spectrum of plants, including many of those that humans rely on for food. They also are key players in other important jobs including breaking dead things down into the building blocks for new life, controlling weeds and providing raw materials for medicines. And they provide sustenance for a spectrum of other animals. The decline of butterflies, beetles, ants, bees, wasps, flies, crickets and dragonflies has consequences far beyond their own demise. A sharp drop in bird numbers across Europe and the United States, for example, has been linked to the collapse of insect populations decimated by pesticide use.
Scientists warn the insect world is facing a mass extinction event, only the sixth in the last half-billion years. In October 2017 a group of European researchers found that insect abundance (as measured by biomass) had declined by more than 75 percent within 63 protected areas in Germany—over the course of just 27 years. Worldwide, a 2014 summary of global declines in biodiversity and abundance estimated a 45 percent drop in the abundance of invertebrates, most of which are insects. And many individual species and species groups are declining or even being threatened with extinction, from bumblebees in Europe and the United States to fungus weevils in Africa.
The truth is that the situation is probably worse than studies have suggested. Scientists estimate the number of insect species at about 5.5 million, only a fifth of which have been identified and named. Because of that the number of threatened and extinct insect species is most probably significantly underestimated.
Twenty-five years ago conservation scientists issued a "Warning to Humanity" about the collapse of Nature. In 2017, they issued a second warning, signed by 15,000 scientists. The latest study, titled "Scientists' warning to humanity on insect extinctions", has been published in the journal Conservation Biology.
Are world leaders giving it any thought? I bet The Donald hasn’t, but he’s not the only one. The Entomological Society of America suggests that people maintain plant diversity in their gardens and leave "natural habitat, like leaf litter and dead wood". That’s all the encouragement I need….
A Warning
Half of the one million animal and plant species on Earth facing extinction are insects, and their disappearance could be catastrophic for humankind, scientists have said in a "warning to humanity".
Insects pollinate a spectrum of plants, including many of those that humans rely on for food. They also are key players in other important jobs including breaking dead things down into the building blocks for new life, controlling weeds and providing raw materials for medicines. And they provide sustenance for a spectrum of other animals. The decline of butterflies, beetles, ants, bees, wasps, flies, crickets and dragonflies has consequences far beyond their own demise. A sharp drop in bird numbers across Europe and the United States, for example, has been linked to the collapse of insect populations decimated by pesticide use.
Scientists warn the insect world is facing a mass extinction event, only the sixth in the last half-billion years. In October 2017 a group of European researchers found that insect abundance (as measured by biomass) had declined by more than 75 percent within 63 protected areas in Germany—over the course of just 27 years. Worldwide, a 2014 summary of global declines in biodiversity and abundance estimated a 45 percent drop in the abundance of invertebrates, most of which are insects. And many individual species and species groups are declining or even being threatened with extinction, from bumblebees in Europe and the United States to fungus weevils in Africa.
The truth is that the situation is probably worse than studies have suggested. Scientists estimate the number of insect species at about 5.5 million, only a fifth of which have been identified and named. Because of that the number of threatened and extinct insect species is most probably significantly underestimated.
Twenty-five years ago conservation scientists issued a "Warning to Humanity" about the collapse of Nature. In 2017, they issued a second warning, signed by 15,000 scientists. The latest study, titled "Scientists' warning to humanity on insect extinctions", has been published in the journal Conservation Biology.
Are world leaders giving it any thought? I bet The Donald hasn’t, but he’s not the only one. The Entomological Society of America suggests that people maintain plant diversity in their gardens and leave "natural habitat, like leaf litter and dead wood". That’s all the encouragement I need….