It is becoming increasingly clear that the small world of apparently tiny things is more important than we ever thought. Whether it’s the bacteria in our gut or all the tiny insects we barely see, they all play a vital role in our lives. These connections between the microscopic, and us, are a more recent scientific revelation slowly coming into our popular and collective consciousness. Like all discoveries, there is a lag between the findings and an easy popular language concerning the same. There has been an increasingly louder voice in the UK with both a new book published on insects and an upcoming documentary being completed. Both feature the well-known author and academic Professor Dave Goulson.
More recently, Goulson’s best-selling book, Silent Earth, extends on the ideas of Rachel Carson’s classic, Silent Spring. Professor Goulson is increasingly becoming known as ‘the Attenborough of Insects’ for highlighting this vital issue. This book tries to connect us with the vital importance of the tiny world of insects and how they are the building blocks of life. It starts with their evolution from their ancestors who lived in the ocean to their migration to land over half a billion years ago. At that time, there was very little on land, and their appearance was long before dinosaurs and humans roamed the planet. So, these creatures flying and crawling around were vital for the life forms that would evolve later, including us. If we put ourselves in the timeline, we would see how we could not survive without insects, as they were here long before us, providing a world to later support our survival.
There has been a dramatic decrease in insect populations in the past three decades. In Germany alone, seventy-five percent of all flying insects have disappeared, bringing forth a new wave of concern. It has become increasingly clear that insect habitat loss is the main driver for their disappearance and that urgent action is required.
Later this year, there will also be a new documentary film called Insect_O_Cide, covering insect declines by director Georgina Willis and narrated by Professor Goulson. Goulson carefully explains the importance of our small fellow cohabitants. Goulson further draws from his lifetime of research into insects. Much like his book, this timely film is an impassioned plea for us to change direction and think carefully about the place of insects in our world or face extinction. Our fate as a species is determined by what happens to them. They go, and we go.
We can no longer ignore the dramatic decline in insect biomass, which has far-reaching consequences. Throughout the documentary, Goulson clarifies how their habitat is under direct threat and that intensified farming, pesticides, and fertilizers have all been essential parts of the destruction of the ecosystem. On a final note, Goulson stresses that unless we change our behavioral patterns to find the value in these beings, their decline will also lead to the collapse of human civilization. After all, these small creatures are the building blocks of life on earth. To quote the words of E.O Wilson, “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.” Ignoring the small world would be to miss the big picture. We need to have a language that appreciates them and integrates them into our lives. Our life on the planet depends on it. And time for change is fast running out.
