The Causes of Insect Decline and An Idea of What To Do About It
Today the decline of insect populations is well established, spelling trouble for life on the planet as we know it. Any loss of wildlife is a serious blow to the balance of Earth's ecosystems. The loss of an entire category of living things is absolutely devastating and should inspire us to tear down the systems that propel us toward a lifeless planet.
Industrial agriculture is no friend to insects. Diversity is reduced to monoculture and pesticides aim to kill whatever remains. Ironically, monoculture is vulnerable to insect infestations. With predators out of the way, some insects fair well – monoculture provides high concentrations of insect feed. Insecticides are the choice bandaid solution to worsen this ecological imbalance, but since insects reproduce rapidly, they can rapidly develop a resistance to insecticides. In response, industrial farmers demand deadlier concoctions in an endless feedback loop called the pesticide treadmill. The result is higher concentrations of harmful chemicals in water, soil, and food – killing us slowly too.1
Fears of disease and nuisance complaints have cities across Canada and the USA indiscriminately spraying insecticides to control mosquito populations, murdering the dragonflies, birds, and frogs that would otherwise feed on mosquitoes. Though it's possible to request being part of a buffer zone, it's not guaranteed that that request will be granted. If it is, there's nothing to stop the neighbours from spraying something else with the same outcome.
People put up horrible PFAS ridden sticky strips to catch flying insects and light zappers. Worms are in danger too, and part of the reason is a chemical that removes worm casts from lawns. Who would have thought that meant by death?
Cars have killed numerous insects over the years, though it's impossible to count how many insects have been squished by cars. When I was young, my mom would take me and my brothers to my grandparents' smallish southeastern Saskatchewan farm. The front window of the car was always so covered in bug guts that it was almost too dangerous to drive without cleaning it. That was 30 years ago. Not long ago we took a trip to where the farmstead used to be. The trees and bushes that provided refuge for wildlife have been cleared away, along with the lane where I would pick wildflowers with my Gran. The land has been fully converted to monoculture and the car had only dust from the gravel roads.
Artificial lights at night are described by scientist Johan Eklöf as a vacuum for insects.2 Insects have evolved to navigate by moonlight and stars. In search of the brightest points in the night sky, they are sucked into the tractor beams of artificial lights. Blinded, they become exhausted and die, though the insect response to lights at night are not all the same. Some studies suggest artificial light lengthens the feeding period for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes win again.
Earlier this summer I visited Halltorp, a nature reserve on Öland – Sweden's second largest island and home to 70% of Sweden's total biodiversity. Halltorp is a kind of sculpture garden of magnificent mature dead oaks. These oaks host stag beetle, hermit beetle, and the great capricorn beetle. The great capricorn is listed as a vulnerable species and Halltorp is the only known great capricorn habit in the nordic countries. If the dead oaks were removed, the beetles would become locally extinct.
The Great Capricorn beetle and its dependency on the Halltorp oaks are an example of the vulnerability species face under mounting anthropogenic pressures. Even the dead oaks of Halltorp will eventually decompose, a worrying realization for conservationists tasked with protecting the beetles. It would have have been much easier if the greater forests wasn't logged in the first place, but who thinks about beetles when planning to destroy a forest?
When developers destroy a place, they don't always do a plants and animals inventory that might halt the development. Environmental assessments are supposed to do that, but environmental assessments aren't immune to corruption or laziness. It can be extremely time consuming to locate rare species. I've heard stories of workers sent out to kill endangered species before the environmental assessment is to take place, ensuring that nothing is found.
It takes a long time for an oak to live and die a natural death. The ones at Halltorp might be 500 or 1000 years old. When bulldozers, chainsaws, and other implements of destruction clear the land, the work of thousands, maybe millions, of years is undone in a matter of minutes. Some are happy to see this happen. It's suits their idea of progress, but as space for insects declines, so does the liveability of the planet – which is really a problem for us humans.
Insects not only play an important role as pollinators, ensuring that plants reproduce and bare fruit, and help in the decomposition of organic matter into fertile soil, they are food for a variety of species, including other insects. The disappearance of insects will trigger a wider extinction event and humans (if we can survive it) will not be able to replicate the ecological functions insects play, which is why everyone should be concerned.
That said, I'm reluctant to put forward rational arguments for the protection of insects and other nonhumans. Our rationality is a human-centred rationality that is concerned with human utility. We need to accept that living things have an intrinsic value that exists independently of human rationality, utility, and judgement. We should have faith in the workings of the planet, and recognize that there is a genius embedded in the workings of ecosystems that is beyond human comprehension. Beyond what can be quantified with our limited scientific measures. We should be careful to do our best to not trigger mass extinction events, but it seems we – the people who care – are paralysed to do anything to stop the march of progress toward our most certain death.
So what can we do? The other day I listened to a long read on the Guardian entitled Solidarity and strategy: the forgotten lessons of truly effective protest by Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix, voiced by Rachel Handshaw. Clearly from the title, it's about effective ways of protesting, focusing on quality over quantity. Most recent protests have been bigger than ever, but they have failed to achieve the desired outcomes. In Germany this year, millions of people poured onto the streets to protest the rise of the far right political party, the AFD (Alternative for Germany), but the AFD seem to have more support than before. The status of women and girls is stagnating or declining, despite the massive global women's march following the 2017 USA presidential inauguration. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise despite years of Fridays For Future, Extinction Rebellion, and global strikes.
When I was involved with Fridays For Future, we had meetings that centred almost entirely around how we will get more people to the marches. There wasn't much discussion about what we could do to achieve a climate friendly society. If the topic came up, the response was that it shouldn't be our responsibility. The governments need to do their work and activists are here to remind governments of the crisis, the argument went. This was probably inspired by a younger Greta Thunberg's refrain that she is only a kid. She should be in school, not sitting at the parliament to bring attention to something that should be a top priority for every politician. That's not to say that every Fridays For Future or activist group is reluctant to do anything but demonstrate. Some have formulated citizen assemblies that get young voices involved in shaping urban policy toward greening. That's what happened in Münster, Germany anyway.
I'm not necessarily saying go forth and form citizen assemblies, but that a small group of dedicated people can make a greater difference than a large group chanting in unison for a few hours before heading back home to normal living, to paraphrase Margaret Mead. We were a group of dedicated people. We could have done something more effective than spend our time organizing a weekly or monthly march that was mostly ignored. Demonstrations should be used to bring people together for the purpose of building that community in which we can realize the change we see as necessary, to paraphrase Gandhi.
When I'm at a big demonstration, I notice people who come alone and leave alone. I don't know anything about them, but I imagine that they are somewhat socially isolated and seeking to be part of a community that creates the change they'd like to see. Maybe I'm just projecting. The organizers are busy in their roles and don't reach out to newcomers – that should change. Rather than a march, let's occupy a square a talk to one another about solutions that exist outside of begging the government to do their jobs. Let's decide together in person how we are going to create a truly ecological and social society.
If you are inclined to do something, make connections locally, share ideas, get organized, create action plans, and begin working toward change. Life on this planet depends on you. We can't allow the decline to reach any further. Once we lose a species to extinction, it's gone forever. The planet will take millions of years to recover.
A strong argument for organic farming comes from an understanding of the soil itself. Healthy soil depends on the microbes and other organisms that live within it. Pesticides kill all of these, making nutrient input dependent on the continuous application of synthetic fertilizers. Organic farming relies on living soil that can be built up, enriched, and store carbon.
Johan Eklöf gives a 45 minute presentation Why Light pollution threatens life with the Royal Institute. I recommend giving it a view, or check if your library has The End Of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard. I plan to write a review about The End Of Night and to read Eklöf’s book The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms that Sustain Life. I asumme there will be some overlap.