World Without Us: Death of Insects and the Third Great Tsunami

by Thomas Neuburger

I've written in the past about "twin tsunamis" approaching the U.S. and the world — the chaos caused by out-of-control climate change and the blossoming of pre-revolutionary America, the America that elected Trump and almost elected Sanders, into revolutionary America, the America fed up here with life under the predatory rule of the very very rich and the corporations they control.

But there's a third great tsunami as well, one related to the destruction of our habitat, the environment of the world we depend on for physical sustenance, and only partly the consequence of climate change itself.

Put simply, we're destroying our world. Or rather, remaking it so it's uninhabitable by ... us. This radical transformation takes many forms, from acidification of the ocean, which will alter for millions of years what kinds of species it supports, to destruction of our soil and food supply so that a single, politically powerful company can prosper.

We're also killing off the world's insects:

Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'

Exclusive: Insects could vanish within a century at current rate of decline, says global review

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

A world without insects, or dramatically stripped of them, is a world without us. This is the path we're on. This is the third tsunami, and like the others, its mist is wetting our faces as we speak.

This doesn't change the implications for the 2020 election, which I'll return to later, but it certainly adds to them.