THE number of flying insects in Germany has plummeted 75 per cent in the past 25 years, according to a study that suggests we are approaching an “ecological Armageddon”.
The implications for humanity are profound, with insects providing an essential role for life on Earth as pollinators of plants and prey for larger animals.
Although it was known species such as bees and butterflies were declining, scientists were left shocked at the drop in numbers across nature reserves in Germany.
While no single cause was identified, the widespread destruction of wild areas for agriculture and the use of ALARMING: Insects taken a huge hit. have
pesticides are considered likely factors. Climate change was also cited as playing a potential role.
Dave Goulson, a professor at the University of Sussex and the study’s co-author, said: “Insects make up about two thirds of all life on Earth but there has been some kind of horrific decline. 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.”
Entomologists across Germany have compared the weight of insects caught in large traps to samples taken in 1989, with an average loss of 76 per cent recorded.
A UN report in March warned that pesticides, which were “aggressively promoted” by chemical industries, were found to have “catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole”.
The study into insect decline was published in the journal Plos One. – INM
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