Insects are dying at an alarming rate

By Christopher Giacobbe
November 20, 2018

Rainforest such as these could die completely without insects. Picture provided by Pexels.com

When given the news that insects are dying at alarming rate most people would rejoice.

The idea of fewer mosquitoes during the summer and no more spiders in your bedroom is a reality that most people would be pleased to live in.

Not in this case.

This time though, the reason that there won’t be as many insects around is going to be man made.

Climate change. Everyone is familiar with the term by now. Due to the fact that insects can’t regulate their internal heat; the increase in temperature around the globe is impacting these creatures hard. Most insects have adapted to the temperatures they evolved in and they survive very poorly outside of their element.

According to a new report on a study started in the 1970s in the past 35 years since 2014 there has been a forty-five percent drop in bees and beetles all over Europe. In fact overall in German nature preserves there was a seventy-six percent loss of flying insects.

This isn’t just isolated to Europe either. This is happening all over the world and Americans are being affected just as much as Europeans.

Most people don’t think about moths or butterflies as being vital to pollination but they are a close second to bees when it comes to pollination. Picture provided by Pexels.com

In the Americas where the most common insects are moths, butterflies, grasshoppers and spiders are far less abundant than they were 40 years ago. The amount of invertebrates has dropped 60-fold. Which is insane as these are insects that would be near impossible to exterminate if humanity was trying. Though much to the surprise of the scientists this happened under the noses of almost all of humanity without humans even trying.

This affects everyone. In the food chain next to grass insects are among the lowest of the food chain.

This is a vital food supply for most all birds, lizards, and some insect-eating frogs. Similar to the study measuring insect populations in the forests of the Americas; there was also a study done on the anole population, a family of lizard.

Without bees pollinating flowers would go extinct as well as many fruits if not all. Picture provided by Pexels.com

This population has dropped by nearly 30 percent and some species of anole have disappeared altogether, having gone extinct unbeknownst to any researchers.

To no one’s surprise, the population of insectivores, animals that only exclusively eat insects, have plummeted. With no sign in climate change stopping or even slowing down. The world could be in crisis.

The world’s food supply relies on insects, and it is in great jeopardy due to the fact that insects pollinate the plants that provide humans with food as well as the animals eaten by humans with food. As thirty-five percent of all crops are extremely dependent on bees, wasps and other animals in danger of going extinct to pollinate them. If these animals were to go extinct the Earth could potentially see the collapse of the planets rainforests. This damage would be irreversible and potentially the end of life on earth. That’s how much the world relies on these tiny 6 legged creatures.

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Christopher Giacobbe

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