Damian Carrington: Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
The analysis, published
in the journal Biological Conservation, says intensive agriculture is the
main driver of the declines, particularly the heavy
use of pesticides. Urbanisation and climate change are also significant
factors.
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 of nutrients.
Insect population
collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto
Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The
researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a
peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth
major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.
“Unless we change our
ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction
in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the
planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”.. read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature
