We humans must save insects, a leading scientist has warned — if not for them, then for us.
“Insects are the glue in nature,” Prof. Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences said in an IPBES report earlier this month. Insects play a critical role in the food and water we rely on as human beings.
“And there is no doubt that both the [numbers] and diversity of insects are declining. At some stage the whole fabric unravels and then we will really see the consequences.”
Despite their abundance, insects are in trouble.
“Global data suggests that while we humans have doubled our population in the past 40 years, the number of insects has been reduced by almost half,” Sverdrup-Thygeson said. "These are dramatic figures.”
Researchers warn that falling lnsect populations hint at a “catastrophic” collapse of nature’s ecosystems. Studies show that numbers have plunged in the past 35 years.
“When you throw all the pesticides and climate change on top of that, it is not very cool to be an insect today,” Sverdrup-Thygeson said.