The world’s vital insect kingdom is suffering “death by a thousand cuts,” the world’s leading insect experts said. Climate change, insecticides, herbicides, light pollution, invasive species, and changes in agriculture and land use are causing the Earth to likely lose 1% to 2% of its insects each year, David Wagner said. , an entomologist at the University of Connecticut, lead author of Monday’s special 12-study package at the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences written by 56 scientists from around the world.
The problem, sometimes called the insect apocalypse, is like a puzzle. And scientists say they don’t have all the pieces yet, so they have trouble grasping their enormity and complexity and getting the world to notice and do something.
Wagner said scientists need to find out if the rate of insect loss is higher than with other species. “There is some reason to worry more,” he added, “because they are the target of an attack” with insecticides, herbicides and light pollution.
University of Illinois co-author and entomologist May Berenbaum, winner of the National Medal of Science, said: “The decline in insects is comparable to climate change 30 years ago because the methods for assessing the extent and loss rate were difficult. ” “
It made things worse: in many cases, people hate insects, even though they pollinate the world’s food, they are crucial to the food chain and to eliminating waste, he said.
Insects “are absolutely the fabric through which mother nature and the tree of life are built,” Wagner said.
Two acquaintances – bees i Monarch butterflies – Better illustrate the problems and declines of insects, he said. Bees have experienced a dramatic decline due to disease, parasites, insecticides, herbicides and lack of food.
Gene J. Puskar / AP
The drier climate in the western United States, driven by climate change, means less algae to eat butterflies, Wagner said. And changes in American agriculture eliminate the weeds and flowers they need for nectar.
“We are creating a giant biological desert, except soybeans and corn in a giant area of the Midwest,” he said.
Last month, Trump administration officials announced On Tuesday the Monarch butterfly was a “candidate” for federal designation as an endangered species, but will not receive the designation for several years, as there are other priorities.
The number of bees has dropped from the “dangerously low” levels of less than 30,000 monarchs over the past two years, the zoo said. “The incredible migration of Western monarchs is a unique but fragile piece of North American natural history and is on the verge of collapse,” said Paige Howorth, director of conservation and conservation of invertebrates at the San Diego Zoo. Global.
Monday’s scientific papers do not provide new data, but show a large but incomplete picture of a problem that is beginning to draw attention. Scientists have identified a million species of insects, while there are probably still four million left to discover, Berenbaum said.
University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy, who was not part of the study, said they highlight how the world “has spent the last 30 years spending billions of dollars finding new ways to kill insects and simple pennies by working.” to preserve them. “
“The good news is that, with the exception of climate change, people can do a lot to reverse the decline in insects,” Tallamy said in an email. “This is a global problem with a basic solution.”
Sophie Lewis contributed to this report.