Biological Desertification

 “The Insect Crisis – the Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World” by Oliver Milman, 2022

I consider this is a companion volume to “The Sixth Extinction” and “Dark Side of the Ocean.” (both sold at May Day…)  If your anecdotal experience has noted less bug splatter on your windshield and fewer fireflies, butterflies and bumble bees, well … you are not imagining things.  It has been dubbed ‘Insectageddon.’  It’s the same as the relatively empty woods everywhere.  It came to broad public attention in a 2017 Krefeld study of protected German forests that noted huge declines in bugs.   Another study of the Puerto Rican jungle came to even more dire numbers, along with a third from Australia and a fourth from Rothamsted, England.  They depicted a general 33-40% collapse in many insect species, a rate they claim is faster than any others. 

This is common knowledge for some, so aware individuals now plant wildflowers or native grasses, including milkweed, leave open edging on farm land, go organic, stop using insecticides, don’t mow - all to increase bug habitats.  Yet these individual efforts can’t turn the tide.

Insects function as food supplies for larger species like lizards and birds; as pollinators of the food we eat, especially vegetables, nuts and fruit; as breakers-down of manure, dead animals, rotting wood and plants, nourishing the soil; in combat with other insects - a vital link in a whole ecosystem.  A major study in 2016 pointed out that 75% of food is pollinated by insects.  They provide food for many birds and bats, whose numbers are now declining too.  Yet they are depicted in the mainstream as irritating pests and not as cuddly as apex predators like polar bears.  Milman likens their extinction as “worse than climate change.”  Choosing your poison doesn’t seem to be an effective strategy, but it’s his.

The cause of this coming collapse of the insect world are human and capitalist-linked, much like climate change.  This parallels other species’ declines among amphibians, birds and reptiles - along with the decimation of ocean denizens.  Toxic pesticides, destruction of habitat through farming, logging or building, water and air pollution, animal agriculture and global warming’s effects – drought and flooding - are the main causes, according to Milman.  The first notice of this was in 1936 by Edith Patch, the president of the Entomological Society of America, who decried pesticide use on fruit and vegetable crops.  Eating bugs has yet to become a main contributor, but some are now pushing that too, as, oddly, does Milman.

We’re talking about the valuable roles midges, flies, bumblebees, wasps, dung beetles, blowflies, ants, termites, butterflies, dragonflies, moths, grasshoppers, mayflies, water beetles, aphids, cicadas, crickets, lady bugs, caterpillars, mealworms and more play, as many insects are still unnamed and unknown.  Some, like cockroaches and mosquitos, might increase in number when other species die, as genetic diversity is also being lost.  This decline crosses all three insect 'empires' - aerial, ground-level and water-based.  

Like climate change, the conservative cry of ‘more studies’ contradict the general picture that has already emerged among insect specialists.  The argument Milman and others make is that ‘imperfect knowledge’ is how reality is perceived anyway, and that action has to be taken now.  As Marxists know, there is no such thing as 'perfect knowledge.' 

The book celebrates celebrity insects like honeybees and monarch butterflies, while closely investigating the toxic impact of pesticides, climate change, pollution and political inaction.  Like many scientists, Milman, a journalist, has no grasp of how capitalism or our fake democracy actually function. His lazy 'time scale' is since the start of industrialization, though the real crash was noted since the 1940s and 1950s, when many of the scientists were children. He speculates that food shortages and crashing wildlife populations will prompt tech fixes like drone bugs, a 'fix' entomologists laugh at.  He thinks younger generations will not notice the absence of so many species. He has suggestions against the biological deserts constructed by capital - rewilding, reducing livestock production and indoor farming - but no overall solutions except the general ones.  That is left to others.

A book every person interested in biology and the environment should read, including students.

P.S. - Alternet 5/6/22 story on missing insects:  https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/splatometer-study-flying-insect-populations/

P.P.S. - Guardian 5/6/22 story on missing birds:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/canaries-in-the-coalmine-loss-of-birds-signals-changing-planet

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive, using these terms:  “The Sixth Extinction” (Kolbert); “Seaspiracy,” “Grocery Activism,” “No Local,” “Planning Green Growth,” “The Avalanche of Plastic…” “Jurassic World,” “The Burning Case for a Green New Deal” and “This Changes Everything” (both by Klein); “Crying Wolf,” “Collapse” (Diamond); “A People’s Green New Deal,” “A Foodies Guide to Capitalism,” “What is the Matter With the Rural U.S.?” “When the Killings Done” (Boyle); “Against Doomsday Scenarios” (Foster). 

And I bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog

May 3, 2022