Almost every lifeform on earth depends on insects in one way or another, but the number of insects across the world is drastically declining at the rate of about 6 percent annually. In Puerto Rico, the number of insects has dropped by over 600 percent, and the variety of species have dropped even more severely. Meanwhile, in Germany, their number has decreased by 75 percent with the number of different species falling over drastically over the last 25 years. Understanding why insects have disappeared can lead people to help protect them and the important role they play in the living web.
While the exact reason that insects are disappearing is location dependent, it would appear that the reasons are all tied to climate change. Insects are very dependent on temperatures which continue to climb in many locales. Many species also find it nearly impossible to contend with the number of insecticides that are used by industry and in farming. In other areas, deforestation and humans moving into natural surroundings have caused the decrease.
Professor Hans de Kroon with Radboud University in the Netherlands says that it was alarming enough to discover that just one type of insect was disappearing, but he added that it is even more disturbing to see that the overall number is in steep decline. Professor Dave Goulson with Sussex University says that “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”
Researchers say that if you wonder if their research is real, then look at your car windshield the next time that you embark on a long road trip. They say that you used to have to stop every hundred miles or so to wash the bug splats off your windshield, but you can now drive thousands of miles without needing to clean them off your windshield.
