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‘Half-a-million insect species face extinction’
Why in news?
- Half of the one million animal and plant species on Earth facing extinction are insects, and their disappearance could be catastrophic for humankind, scientists have said in a “warning to humanity”.
More in news
- Study Published in Conservation Biology
- Details in the study:
(1) The disappearance of bugs that fly, crawl, burrow, jump and walk on water is part of a gathering mass extinction event, only the sixth in the last half-billion years.
(2) The last one was 66 million years ago, when an errant space rock wiped out land-based dinosaurs and most other life forms.
(3) This time we are to blame:
(a) Human activity is responsible for almost all insect population declines and extinctions.
(b) Main drivers are dwindling & degraded habitat, followed by pollutants, especially insecticides & invasive species.
(c) Over-exploitation: more than 2,000 species of insects are part of human diet & climate change are also taking a toll.
(4) The decline of butterflies, beetles, ants, bees, wasps, flies, crickets and dragonflies has consequences far beyond their own demise.
(5) With insect extinction, we lose much more than species.
(6) Many insect species are vital providers of services that are irreplaceable," including pollination, nutrient cycling and pest control.
Sources
The Hindu