Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse

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Below: ‘Cuttings C41 and C42 across Segment 98 of the henge ditch. Two antlers found at the bottom of C42 (seen in this image) gave calibrated radiocarbon dates of 3340-2910 cal BC.’– Historic England. He wants to revamp the education system to make nature interesting and engaging and for children to understand the importance of it in our lives. The real tragedy is that often even the teachers fail to understand it too. They offer uninspiring lessons on matters they don’t know enough about and then move on to the next subject. Speaking from experience, my lessons in biology at school were awful: they did nothing to capture the brilliance of the natural world. Something different is needed, something to help young people realise that the earth and her creatures are finite. We need to see her directly to understand her. If Silent Earth contains a single incontestable message it is that nature – insects, flowers, plants, trees, birds and mammals, including our species – is a single system [...] This powerful book tells us that we need to act as if we understand this essential truth" Want het gaat niet goed met de insectenwereld. Hoe slecht het écht gaat, daar is soms discussie over. Niemand weet het echt, jammer genoeg. Er zijn niet genoeg cijfers van heel vroeger om mee te vergelijken. En een groot deel van de insectensoorten is nog niet eens ontdekt. Wat wil zeggen dat er soorten uitsterven vo

Stille aarde is een boek dat vooral opgepakt zal worden door lezers die affiniteit hebben met natuur en klimaatveranderingen. Goulson valt voor die groep deels in herhaling, maar hij geeft er wel zodanig een 'nieuwe' draai aan dat je geboeid verder blijft lezen. Ook door het boek op te splitsen in vijf onderdelen die significant van elkaar verschillen, raakt er geen sleur in. Met name deel vier, het toekomstbeeld, en deel vijf, wat kunnen we doen, zijn goede aanvullingen op de basisinformatie over de dreigingen rondom klimaat en de achteruitgang van de insecten. 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. To fence the circle in, enclosing as large an area as possible, so as not to interfere with the general view of Stonehenge. 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’.)Old Blandfordians have seen the ghostly sheep which runs from Gas Works Corner into the old burial ground in Damory Street’. Goulson heeft een missie: de wereld er van overtuigen dat het alarmerend slecht gaat met de insectenwereld én in één klap aantonen hoe wij daar zelf iets aan kunnen doen. Hij is hoogleraar biologie, geeft lezingen én schrijft boeken. Zijn laatste boek is Stille aarde, wederom een indrukwekkend boeiend boek. 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. Below: The top of sarsen stone 23, showing two tenons to secure lintels. The stone collapsed in 1964 and was re-erected by Professor Atkinson in 1964. Encased here in a protective cradle, ready for re-erection. We must transform our food system. Growing and transporting food so that we all have something to eat is the most fundamental of human activities. The way we do it has profound impacts on our own welfare, and on the environment, so it is surely worth investing in getting it right. There is an urgent need to overhaul the current system, which is failing us in multiple ways. We could have a vibrant farming sector, employing many more people, and focused on sustainable production of healthy food, looking after soil health and supporting biodiversity.

I dabbled over the years with all sorts of different insects, but then came to focus on bees – partly because they’re so clever. Bees do all sorts of amazing stuff that other insects tend not to do: they can navigate over huge distances, they can memorise and learn, they have really complicated social lives. 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.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: A thoroughly depressing tale of habitat loss, invasive species, foreign diseases, mixtures of pesticides, climate change, light pollution, and probably other man-made agents we have yet to recognise. A terrific book…A thoughtful explanation of how the dramatic decline of insect species and numbers poses a dire threat to all life on earth.” (Booklist, Starred Review) 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. Compelling, penetrating, devastating – Silent Earth is a wake-up call for the world. Dave Goulson matches science with eloquence and passion to spotlight the cataclysmic loss of insect life on our planet. Rachel Carson would be proud."

Thoughtful, frightening and yet hugely enjoyable... This book will make you think differently about our right of dominion over the planet Daily Telegraph

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The book’s greatest strength is its insistence that change is possible, and that everyone can make it happen in small and large ways. Goulson steps seamlessly between knowledgeable professor and impassioned environmentalist, and you can’t help but get on board.”— Sierra Magazine This reader found the book literate, persuasive, sympathetic, and based both on sound science and on a willingness to grapple with the realities. Goulson is the best ambassador for small life that we have. That I came away feeling even more gloomy than before is not his fault. It is ours."

A meeting was held at Stonehenge with Sir Edmund Antrobus the owner of the monument in March 1901 (reported in the Times newspaper on 13 April 1901) to discuss the question of the best and wisest steps to be taken to ensure the safe-keeping and future preservation of the monument. The advice given by the representatives of the Society of Antiquaries, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments and the Wiltshire Archaeological society was: The good news is that Goulson is wrong. The surveys and studies he’s conducted and relies upon are flawed and incomplete, to say the least. Fortunately, scientist Matthew Moran and his hand-selected team published a comprehensive study in 2020 that challenged Goulson’s conclusions. Moran’s approach took raw data spanning decades for various insects in North America. Guess what? They found no significant change in population... The Dorchester contributor has heard of a highly useful spell which will blister and burn your enemies — just throw a handful of salt on the fire in the morning, that is all!’. The Quiet Earth is a 1985 New Zealand post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Geoff Murphy and starring Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge and Peter Smith as three survivors of a cataclysmic disaster. It is loosely based on the 1981 science fiction novel of the same name by Craig Harrison. [2] [3] Other sources of inspiration have been suggested: the 1954 novel I Am Legend, Dawn of the Dead, and especially the 1959 film The World, the Flesh and the Devil, of which it has been called an unofficial remake. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Plot [ edit ]

Overall, this is a very engaging book that discusses several important ideas. Whist I doubt it will make as many waves as its namesake Silent Spring, it certainly is no less brave in its scope and purpose. Below: Bluestone 66, excavated in 1953. This spotted dolerite bluestone 66 is now a ground-level stump underneath the southern corner of fallen Stone 55b and can be seen here. The tongue on the face of the stone can be seen in this photograph. The late Mr Charles Warne, FSA in his Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866) states that on Bincombe Down there is a ‘Music Barrow’ of which the rustics say that if the ear be laid close to the apex at midday, the sweetest melody will be heard within’.