Outside In | Why the insect apocalypse should concern us all
About three-quarters of all crop types must be pollinated, mostly by insects threatened by climate change and habitat loss. The implications are clear
David Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex in Britain, warns: “Whether you call it an apocalypse, insectageddon or whatever, there is certainly a serious problem with our insect populations declining.”
In 2017, German researchers in Krefeld near Düsseldorf, poring over insect records back to 1905, reported that the insect population in one nature reserve was down 80 per cent from 1989. The Rothamsted Insect Survey reported a 33 per cent decline in larger moths caught in a light-trap network over the past 50 years.
In California’s Central Valley, 1.5 million beehives are ready to pollinate almond blossoms each spring. But the region is such a “toxic soup of pesticides”, according to the beekeepers, that they lose about a third of their bees every pollinating season.
