Are we headed for an eco-crisis?
to report “Insects may be the food of the future” (NST, March 31).
I am not so sure if this can become a reality given that study after study streaming in from countries across the world are showing dramatic declines in insect populations.
The figures released are truly alarming: In Germany, an 82 per cent drop reported in midsummer invertebrate populations across 63 nature reserves between 1990 and 2017; in the Puerto Rico rainforest, a 75 per cent reduction in the volume of insects between 1976 and 2013; and in the United Kingdom, a onethird fall in the honeybee population over the past 10 years. Across the United States, monarch butterfly and ladybird beetle numbers are at record lows.
In February, University of Sydney ’s Institute of Agriculture, discovered that “40 per cent of insect species will likely be in catastrophic decline within a century. In alpine New South Wales, there’s been a collapse in bogong moth populations, resulting in starving pygmy possums, which feed on them”.
It also stated that “while certain ‘beneficial’ insect populations (butterflies, grasshoppers, mayflies, dragonflies, ground beetles and fireflies) appear to be in unprecedented retreat, others considered pests and a risk to human health (tsetse flies, ticks and mosquitoes) are on the offensive again”.
So why the insect decimation? Are we headed for an eco-crisis?
Dr David Yeates, director of the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra, said: “The top culprit is likely to be wilderness loss — many insects feed off native plants, and the relentless spread of single-crop farmland and insecticides has shrivelled their range.
“Another culprit is global warming, which favours some insects over others. Cut out insects and you lose all the creatures that feed on them, including frogs, lizards and birds.
“Of course, a large proportion of the food we eat comes from plants pollinated by insects and they also clean up the environment.”
He summed up: “Waking up in a world without insects would be like waking up in a garbage dump.”
The crux of the issue appears to be centred around the indiscriminate use of pesticides and our nonchalant attitude towards climate change.