The Insect Crisis: Our Fragile Dependence on the Planet's Smallest Creatures

A  devastating examination of how collapsing insect populations worldwide  threaten everything from wild birds to the food on our plate.

From  ants scurrying under leaf litter to bees able to fly higher than Mount  Kilimanjaro, insects are everywhere. Three out of every four of our  planet’s known animal species are insects. In The Insect Crisis,  acclaimed journalist Oliver Milman dives into the torrent of recent  evidence that suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is  suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable  400-million-year history. What is causing the collapse of the insect  world?  Why does this alarming decline pose such a threat to us? And  what can be done to stem the loss of the miniature empires that hold  aloft life as we know it?

With  urgency and great clarity, Milman explores this hidden emergency,  arguing that its consequences could even rival climate change. He joins  the scientists tracking the decline of insect populations across the  globe, including the soaring mountains of Mexico that host an epic, yet  dwindling, migration of monarch butterflies; the verdant countryside of  England that has been emptied of insect life; the gargantuan fields of  U.S. agriculture that have proved a killing ground for bees; and an  offbeat experiment in Denmark that shows there aren’t that many bugs  splattering into your car windshield these days. These losses not only  further tear at the tapestry of life on our degraded planet; they  imperil everything we hold dear, from the food on our supermarket  shelves to the medicines in our cabinets to the riot of nature that  thrills and enlivens us. Even insects we may dread, including the hated  cockroach, or the stinging wasp, play crucial ecological roles, and  their decline would profoundly shape our own story.

By  connecting butterfly and bee, moth and beetle from across the globe,  the full scope of loss renders a portrait of a crisis that threatens to  upend the workings of our collective history. Part warning, part  celebration of the incredible variety of insects, The Insect Crisis is a wake-up call for us all.