Insects. Remember them? Those pesky little wasps buzzing around your glass of Pimms on a summer picnic? The scrapings from your windscreen after a long drive through the summer countryside? Don’t tell us you don’t know someone who didn’t used to curse them. Like most emotional reactions, this one was wrong too. Without them, the very ecological chains that support us could collapse. Permanently. Sooner than you imagine. Because all those naughty farmers with their pesticides, and all those naughty oil companies with their global warming, are going to do in our six-legged chums. Forever.
A little background for starters. writing in the Financial Times, called Where have all the Insects Gone? Manuela Saragosa provides an excellent short summary for the busy reader.[1] If you want to dig a little deeper, a leading entomologist recommends The Insect Crisis by Oliver Milman [2] as a jumping-off point. And us? We want to tease out one aspect which we think illustrates this crisis very nicely.
Everyone loves chocolate. Not quite so many will have names like Ceratopongidae, Forcipomyia and Euprojoannisia tripping off their tongues. But if they like chocolate, they should. For these are the tiny midges, the only living things , which can pollinate the Cacao plant, which as avid readers will recall is called Theobroma cacao, and so produce the world’s supply of chocolate. Which is not only a source of comfort and reassurance to multitudes, it is also worth $421 billion according to commercial experts MarkNtel. Is this really going to happen? Well according to the Natural History Museum[4] the crop is just about hanging on this year. But the midges are reeling from loss of habitat, mainly due to global warming, so don’t just cross your fingers. And finally, to any fool who blusters we can’t afford to do anything about climate change, let this figure be their warning. ,
[1]https://www.ft.com/content/e7403c08-b50e-4b16-861f-fe27d7b16060
[2]https://olivermilman.com/the-insect-crisis/
#insects #world economy #chocolate #global warming #climate change
Learning, Science and Society 