The Guardian reports today a bold plan proposed to avert the insect dieoff.
Reported not long ago, but ages if you consider the mire of the never-ending news cycle, insect populations have died off to a nightmarish degree.
In the United States, scientists recently found the population of monarch butterflies fell by 90 percent in the last 20 years, a loss of 900 million individuals; the rusty-patched bumblebee, which once lived in 28 states, dropped by 87 percent over the same period.
When the investigators began planning the study in 2016, they weren’t sure if anyone would sign up. But by the time the nets were ready, a paper by an obscure German entomological society had brought the problem of insect decline into sharp focus. The German study found that, measured simply by weight, the overall abundance of flying insects in German nature reserves had decreased by 75 percent over just 27 years. If you looked at midsummer population peaks, the drop was 82 percent.
Later reports came up with an alarming number: 40% of insect species have declined and a third are endangered, according to the first worldwide scientific review, published in February 2019.
As reported in the Guardian today, a plan of action has been compiled by scientists. The plan includes the usual points, sensible and reasonable. Things like ending a reliance on industrial/synthetic fertilizers for ones that are able to do the same job with less of a poisonous impact on the surrounding natural environment, reducing noise/light pollution that disrupts the circadian rhythms of insects (and other lifeforms).
Germany recently announced a €100m plan for insect protection and conservation. This is good news, and hopefully signals a push to take this problem seriously. But, as with climate change, the facts have been clear and written down for some time. It's never the facts themselves, being known, that push governments to change. Instead, its action of the people, social movements that drive home their political agendas, that's what causes change. Without millions of people advocating for change, those comfy in their public offices will continue to accept campaign donations from corporate lobbyists.
Frankly, things don't look good. Whereas the roadmap for insect protection calls for immediate bold action on rewilding an dconservation programs, Trump has done exactly the opposite.
It feels like we're trapped by sociopaths on a suicide train. Society as a whole would benefit from a regulated agricultural system of production, one that doesn't deplete the nutrients in our soils and ensures enough food production without excess waste. Bees pollinate some 3/4 of ours food crops. Insects are absolutely vital to all ecosystems. Without them, well. Star Trek or Mad Max? Which do you want?