Perhaps the most problematic study of them all is the one that precipitated the insect apocalypse frenzy — a 2017 study co-authored by Goulson with 11 other scientists that compared insect populations in certain German nature reserves over the last quarter century. Its dramatic finding — that the biomass of flying insects had declined an astonishing 76 percent in 27 years — together with Goulson’s eager goosing of the press — generated the apocalyptic headlines he was clearly seeking.... Insects have been around for a very long time. Their ancestors evolved in the primordial ooze of the ocean floors, half a billion years ago. They make up the bulk of known species on our planet – ants alone outnumber humans by a million to one – so if we were to lose many of our insects, overall biodiversity would of course be significantly reduced. Moreover, given their diversity and abundance, it is inevitable that insects are intimately involved in all terrestrial and freshwater food chains and food webs. Caterpillars, aphids, caddisfly larvae and grasshoppers are herbivores, for instance, turning plant material into tasty insect protein that is far more easily digested by larger animals. Others, such as wasps, ground beetles and mantises, occupy the next level in the food chain, as predators of the herbivores. All of them are prey for a multitude of birds, bats, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals and fish, which would have little or nothing to eat if it weren’t for insects. In their turn, the top predators such as sparrowhawks, herons and osprey that prey on the insectivorous starlings, frogs, shrews or salmon would themselves go hungry without insects.

Jerome Franklin Shapiro (2002), Atomic bomb cinema: the apocalyptic imagination on film, p.79, ISBN 9780415936606, …it was remade, sans bomb, by a New Zealand filmmaker as The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985). As I was standing at my door, (a cottage at the foot of Church Hill) I saw a woman coming down the hill who was a witch or a hag. She saw me laugh at her. After I went to bed that night I felt a weight on my legs which gradually went upwards to my chest. I screamed and my son came in the room. As he opened the door, the lump fell off, and I distinctly heard the hag walk down the stairs and out of the door.’ (In connection with the above the Marnhill contributor suggests that it is interesting to compare the article in the Somerset Year Book for 1930 p41 ‘When people have the nightmare in that part of the country a common remark is that they have been ‘hag ridden’; they actually believe that a hag comes to them during sleep and sits on their chest, causing the miserable symptoms of nightmare’.) We have to learn to live as part of nature, not apart from it. And the first step is to start looking after the insects, the little creatures that make our shared world go round. Despite the current state of things, Goulson is optimistic that insect declines can be stabilized or reversed because they are generally good at reproducing—we just need to support them better.much of Goulson’s evidence is purely anecdotal — such as fewer bugs splattering on the windshields of European cars now compared to the past — and the few studies of global insect populations he does consider are deeply flawed or mischaracterized in his account. Drawing on thirty years of research, Goulson has written an accessible, fascinating, and important book that examines the evidence of an alarming drop in insect numbers around the world. “If we lose the insects, then everything is going to collapse,” he warned in a recent interview in the New York Times—beginning with humans’ food supply. The main cause of this decrease in insect populations is the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. Hence, Silent Earth’s nod to Rachel Carson’s classic Silent Spring which, when published in 1962, led to the global banning of DDT. This was a huge victory for science and ecological health at the time. The concluding sections of the book focus on the technical ways that we can stop destroying insect biodiversity - in our cities, and in agriculture. There are some good discussions of environmental policy (land sparing vs land land sharing, for example) and the way our current systems could be altered. There are many sensible suggestions that I and many others familiar with the problems all broadly agree with, and which taken together, would go a long way to solving the problems. However, the very UK focused nature of Goulson's examples and recommendations make it a bit laborious for people elsewhere. We have to extrapolate to which elements apply in our situation and try to work out if they apply directly, or perhaps with alteration. That's an understandable limitation I suppose. More problematic, I think is the slightly parochial sense in which his solutions mostly ignore issues of international trade, debt and development. It's impossible to solve our biodiversity or climate crises in one country; the legacy of colonialism and third world underdevelopment really needs to be considered more. Which brings me to the bigger problem. Perhaps some of his final recommendations could have been to find like-minded others and form a revolutionary cell, which can then go on to:

It's clear lunacy that pesticide/herbicide companies are largely left to self-govern and are not required to demonstrate their products' safety prior to them going to market. That the onus is on scientists to conduct decade long studies to prove harm before governments will act is bonkers. The scope of the damage that could be done is remarkable and possibly irreparable. That there is no unbiased resources for farmers to assist with deciding the required pesticide and fertilizer for their needs is ridiculous and essentially the companies with the best marketing win. I liked that he called out the UK government's hypocrisy for banning the use of some products but not the local production of those chemicals for export for use in poorer developing countries that have laxer regulations.

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Ik las De tuinjungle en werd daar enorm door gegrepen: door de hoeveelheid informatie in verband met wat er fout gaat én door de tips hoe we zelf aan de slag kunnen gaan om de catastrofe iets minder groot te laten worden. Stille aarde is eenzelfde soort boek. Het staat boordenvol weetjes die je met iedereen wil (moet) delen. Het is interessant, urgent, actueel, wetenschappelijk, filosofisch, angstaanjagend én vlot geschreven (belangrijk om al die informatie leesbaar te houden). Goulson heeft de gave om bergen informatie duidelijk, overzichtelijk voor ons samen te vatten, af en toe met humor. En die is broodnodig. People seem to forget that we are an integral part of the natural world and this planet. Ultimately, everything that we do will have an effect and repercussions much further down the line. This piece of art by Jim Vision and Louis Masai says it all really: Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Insects are not only important pollinators, but they assist in the development of healthy soils. Not only do they help to aerate soil, they are valuable decomposers of organic matter—participating in a process along with bacteria that help make nutrients more available to plants. As biological control agents, predatory insects such as Lady Bugs ( Coccinellidae spp.), Lacewings ( Chrysopidae spp.), Ground Beetles ( Carabidae spp.), Wasps ( Vespidae spp.), etc., can help us reduce the need for pesticides.

The American biologist Paul Ehrlich likened the loss of species from an ecological community to randomly popping out rivets from the wing of an aeroplane. Remove one or two and the plane will probably be fine. Remove 10, or 20 or 50, and at some point that we are entirely unable to predict, there will be a catastrophic failure, and the plane will fall from the sky. Insects are the rivets that keep ecosystems functioning. Dave Goulson at home in Sussex: ‘We will never know how many species went extinct before we could discover them.’ Photograph: Jeff Gilbert/Alamy William Barnes, the self-taught Dorset writer and poet, concisely described folklore in his ‘fore-say’ to Dorsetshire Folk-lore by John Symonds Udal as: ‘Folklore, taken in broad meaning, is a body of home-taught lore, received by the younger folk from elder ones in common life, and in the forms of knowledge or faith, or mindskills and handskills’. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Tyson, Neil deGrasse (6 June 2014). " '2001' and beyond: Neil deGrasse Tyson names his top 10 sci-fi films". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 16 June 2015.Yet before long, new pesticides just as lethal as DDT were introduced, and today, humanity finds itself on the brink of a new crisis. What will happen when the bugs are all gone? Goulson explores the intrinsic connection between climate change, nature, wildlife, and the shrinking biodiversity and analyzes the harmful impact for the earth and its inhabitants. There was also a turf maze at Pimperne in Dorset, said to have been destroyed by the plough in 1730. John Aubrey, after whom the Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named, was educated at nearby Blandford school, of which he wrote in his diary in the 17th century (as interpreted by Ruth Scurr in her highly readable book John Aubrey, My Own Life), ‘I have found as much roguery at Blandford school as there is said to be at Newgate prison’. He also wrote in his diary that year, ‘Sometimes, on holy days or play days, we boys go to tread the maze at Pimperne, which is near Blandford.’ Thoughtful, frightening and yet [a] hugely enjoyable book [...] This book will make you think differently about our right of dominion over the planet." This far, the book is a dire but essential intervention into public debate. Were it to end there, I would give it five stars, and everyone concerned should read this far at least. The remaining two parts of the book highlight what I think are two main limitations - one contextual and surmountable, the other profound and revealing of broader problems with the response to environmental problems.