Related MediaJan 12, 2021 13:15:53 IST
The world’s vital insect kingdom is “dying by a thousand cuts,” said the world’s leading insect repellent experts. Climate change, insects, weeds, light pollution, invasive species and changes in agriculture and land use cause the Earth to lose one percent to two percent of its insects each year, said David Wagner , University of Connecticut entomologist, lead author in the special pack. of 12 studies in Monday Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences written by 56 scientists from around the world.
The problem, sometimes called the apocalypse of insects, is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. And scientists say their pieces don’t exist yet, so they have a hard time grasping how big and complex they are that make the world conscious and do something.
Drier weather driven by climate change in the western U.S. means less milk for butterflies to eat, Wagner said. And changes in American agriculture are removing the plants and flowers they need for nectar.
Wagner said scientists need to find out if the rate of insect loss is greater than with other species. “There is some cause for further concern,” he said, “because they are a target of attack” by insects, weeds and light pollution.
University of Illinois co-author and entomologist May Berenbaum, winner of the National Medal of Science, said, “Insect repellents are similar to climate change 30 years ago because the methods for assessing rate, rate (loss) were difficult. ”
Making matters worse, in many cases, people hate insects, even if they pollinate the world’s food, vital to the food chain and getting rid of garbage, she said.
Insects are “really the clothes with which Mother Nature and the tree of life are built,” Wagner said.
Two well-known ones – honeybees and Monarch butterflies – show problems and insect decay, he said. Honey bees have been in serious decline due to disease, parasites, small insects, pests and lack of food.
Drier weather driven by climate change in the western U.S. means less milk for butterflies to eat, Wagner said. And changes in American agriculture are removing the plants and flowers they need for nectar.
“We are creating a large biological desert with the exception of soybeans and corn in a large area of the Midwest,” he said.
Monday ‘s scientific papers do not provide new data, but they do paint a big but incomplete picture of a problem starting to gain attention. Scientists have identified 1 million species of insects, and perhaps 4 million more are still available, Berenbaum said.
University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy, who was not part of the studies, said they clarify how the world “has spent the past 30 years spending billions of dollars finding new ways to kill insects and just a penny working to keep them. ”
“The good news, with the exception of climate change, is that people can do a lot to stop pest decline,” Tallamy said in an email. “This is a global problem with a community solution.”