Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse

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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’.) Kane, Joe (2000), The Phantom of the Movies' videoscope, p.292, ISBN 9780812931495, Murphy's New Zealand–set reworking of The World, the Flesh and the Devil, replete with racial angle…

In 1872 John Udal makes first mention in Notes and Queries of the skull of Bettiscombe Manor. Dorset County Museum have written a comprehensive article on the legend of the skull here. Old Blandfordians have seen the ghostly sheep which runs from Gas Works Corner into the old burial ground in Damory Street’. When some of us think of insects, it is common for them to be thought of in a negative light. Some of our earliest childhood memories include being stung, bitten, or just plain scared by the sight of them. I can remember running screaming from an outhouse at a provincial park when I was about five years old. What was so scary? It was the sight of a Yellow Garden Spider ( Argiope aurantia) hanging in its web in the stall. Fortunately, the experience didn’t make me fear or dislike spiders and as a gardener I know how beneficial they are to have around. While some insects may deserve our scorn—such as invasive species such as the LDD moth ( Lymantria dispar dispar); Emerald Ash Borer ( Agrilus planipennis); Japanese Beetle ( Popillia japonica), etc., by and large, the majority of insects are harmless and beneficial. Not long ago, I saw a couple—perhaps grandparents, out for a walk with their grandson. One of them was urging the young boy to stomp on an ant on the pavement, calling out “Get it! Get it!” It was disheartening to see. It is experiences like this that call for a shift in our thinking about insects. And this is also a shared view of the author of this book--British entomologist Dave Goulson. Goulson’s work is primarily focused on Bumblebees and as the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in the UK, he is dedicated to reversing the decline of them. He is also known for his work that was instrumental in influencing the European Union’s decision to ban neonicotinoids in 2013. Goulson wrote this book in an effort to bring more public attention to the recent and rapid decline of global insect populations—which are critical for our planet’s survival. He also explores the chief causes of insect declines such as habitat fragmentation, industrial farming practices, pesticides, climate change, and non-native insect diseases and provides suggestions for readers that can help support insects—especially gardeners. As an city dweller with a very small yard, a lot of the action items the author lists aren't feasible for me which is unfortunate. His advice to seek out local conservation groups, however, is a goldmine. I had no idea there was so much going on in my area! That was encouraging to learn.Worldwide, although the bulk of insect species – the flies, beetles, grasshoppers, wasps, mayflies, froghoppers and so on – are not systematically monitored, we often have good data on population trends for birds that depend on insects for food, and these are mostly in decline. For example, populations of insectivorous birds that hunt their prey in the air (ie the flying insects that have decreased so much in biomass in Germany) have fallen by more than any other bird group in North America, by about 40% between 1966 and 2013. Bank swallows, common nighthawks (nightjars), chimney swifts and barn swallows have all fallen in numbers by more than 70% in the past 20 years. This book is longer, more serious, a timely warning, and a wake up call about the catastrophic decline in the insect population world-wide. We hear a good deal about insects as pollinators, but how about insects as removers of dung, vegetable waste and dead bodies? Thus Part One is ‘Why Insects Matter’ - Part Two ‘Insect Declines’, Part Three the causes of these declines. Part Four is a chilling dystopian view of a world where biodiversity has crumbled away and human society has as a result collapsed. Part Five ‘What can we do?’ offers a series of actions, world scale, national, and immediate and personal, that could tip the balance away from disaster. There was one unfortunate tendency noticeable in these chapters: Goulson's Further Reading section is not always complete – especially the pesticide chapter sometimes misses relevant studies discussed in the text (e.g. on p. 106 Goulson mentions a study by Sur & Stork that is not listed). And because he neither clearly references all of them, nor uses footnotes, it is not always immediately apparent what study he discusses. I am familiar with the argument that in books for a general audience you do not want to constantly interrupt the flow of your narrative with citations, which is why I prefer superscripts leading to numbered endnotes. Though most can be identified with some effort, readers should not have to repeat Goulson's research, especially on controversial topics where the data matters. But it won’t come as any surprise that Goulson isn’t an unbiased and impartial researcher. He’s a trustee for the Pesticide Action Network UK, an activist organization that strives to reduce the use of “hazardous” and “chemical” pest control. Worse, some circles consider Goulson a “scientist for hire.” In other words, his studies elicit the results his clients want. William Barnes gives a matrimonial oracle, ‘which consists of a girl going to bed on Midsummer Eve, putting her shoes at right angles to each other in the shape of a T, and saying :-

The most memorable spot near the village of Leigh is called the Miz-Maze. It is on high ground in an open field, and presents the appearance of a slightly raised flat mound, some places in diameter. In days too remote for our oldest inhabitants to recall, it was the meeting place of the holiday-makers of Leigh. As late as the year 1800 the maze existed, in the form of banks made to follow an intricate form. It is a pity that hardly a trace of all this now remains, as the situation is delightful as well as romantic. In the old days when the practice of witchcraft was fairly general, this spot was a noted gathering place of witches, and as it was remote from a high road or any big town or village, it was not an ill chosen locality for the purpose. Tradition has it that the last witch who was burned in England was arrested when attending a conference in the Miz-Maze here at Leigh.’ Insects are the most vivid expressions of the astounding fact of life in what may be a dead universe. Read this book, then look and wonder." Too many of the proposed solutions to the problems of insect decline rely on technology to solve our problems. But even if there was a way to pollinate without insects or clean the air without plants, would that be a world worth living in? I don't believe so. There are so many modern ills that are directly tied to modern humanity's disconnect from nature.It's frankly a manifesto for how to take care of the world's biodiversity that we're about to loose. Few people seem to realise how devastating this is, not only for human wellbeing – we need insects to pollinate our crops, recycle dung, leaves and corpses, keep the soil healthy, control pests, and much more – but for larger animals, such as birds, fish and frogs, which rely on insects for food. Wildflowers rely on them for pollination. As insects become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt, for it cannot function without them.

I have published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and am author of Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation (2010, Oxford University Press) and A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape), a popular science book about bumblebees. A Buzz in the Meadow (Jonathon Cape) is due to be published in September 2014. In October 1902, in correspondence with Thomas Hardy, Henry J. Moule, the first curator of the Dorset County Museum wrote: This was a passionate and thorough examination of the role insects play in the world and their continued overall decline and the ramifications of it. The author's love for this topic is evident in his narration of the audio-book and I loved the little snippet about a particular insect type that intrigues the author that ended each chapter. Silent Earth is a well-written and logically structured book, neatly divided into five parts and 21 chapters, none of which run on for too long. After four earlier books published with Jonathan Cape nothing less was to be expected. Goulson first gives you his reasons for why he thinks insects matter, which are a mixture of both instrumental and intrinsic values. He candidly admits that “ For me, the economic value of insects is just a tool with which to bash politicians over the head” (p. 37), while his reasons for caring about insects are primarily moral. Goulson then examines the evidence for insect declines, discusses potential causes, and outlines what can be done. His pen is sharp and he is not afraid to lash out in places, but I also found his writing infused with intellectual honesty and a willingness to consider criticism.

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This book gives a list of things that all of us can do to dampen the negative spiral. Grow our own food - even just a little bit of fresh green - mow our lawns less often, eat meat as a treat and not as an everyday occurrence and so on. Als mens is het soms moeilijk om je voor te stellen dat er al miljoenen jaren leven bestaat en dat er in die jaren heel veel veranderd is. Meestal gaan die veranderingen heel traag, maar soms gebeurt er iets waardoor het in één klap anders wordt. Toch was er nooit één diersoort verantwoordelijk voor een snelle veranderingen, die heel veel weerslag heeft op alle andere diersoorten. Dave Goulson neemt dit uitgangspunt, klimaatverandering en de problemen die de natuur heden ten dage ondervindt, en focust zich op hoe de insecten hier mee omgaan. Toch is het veel breder dan alleen maar insectenpraat en dat maakt Stille aarde uiterst interessant voor een grote doelgroep. Goulson is also concerned about the level of human awareness of the existence of the natural world. It is important to learn the names of plants and animals—otherwise they cease to exist. If they don’t exist, their importance can’t be recognized. Astonishingly, in 2007, some of the words eliminated from the Oxford Junior Dictionary included words such as acorn, fern, moss, clover, kingfisher, otter, among others. Absolutely. This is very different from a lot of these big environmental issues where people feel completely helpless. With climate change, if you walk rather than drive, you don’t notice the planet getting any better. But plant some flowers in your garden and you actually can see butterflies turning up. It may be tiny, but you’ve done something positive, and it’s worked. If we want to save the planet, start with what’s right under our noses.