The rate of insect extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.
Credit: Entomologisher Verein Krefeld
The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.
More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.
The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers […]
This situation is deeply troubling to me as I feel I am witness to the depopulation. I live in central NC and have observed for the last 5+ years a dramatic decrease in the flying insects and small birds, bats and lizards. My neighborhood is very wooded and early summer evenings used to have bats flying high in the trees, “lightening bugs”, bumble bees, dragon flies and bug noises. It seems as each summer passes there are less and less of all these. In walks in the woods with Zak the dog I see few to no insects on the flowering plants. Also seeing many fewer of the little black ants that have previously been so annoying during their kitchen invasions. I think this new generation of pesticides, intense new housing developments and erratic weather-very warm periods when it should be cold then intense cold periods when it should it warming are killing my dear friends.
I recommend a book by Charles Eisenstein, “Climate a New Story” that offers hopeful possibilities in an impossible situation if we humans can see past our perceived separation from the natural world.
I think all the ants and flies have moved here to my house. I cannot seem to get rid of them even in winter. I just squished an ant that was crawling on my medicine bottle this morning. I do believe that the story must be true, but not here at my place of residence in Pa.
Post Script: I do hope the pollinators do not disappear, because then we will all suffer because we would have an impossible task trying to pollinate our own plants. I could do it here in my gardens but that would not be enough to solve the crisis which would eventually wipe out our species as well as the insects in the long run.