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Lädt ... The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World (2022)von Oliver Milman
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Excerpt from longer article... Timely Take-Aways for Life-Long Learners: Insects Insects are critical to healthy ecology systems. Unfortunately, these essential creatures are sometimes overlooked and often maligned. From wasps and moths to bees and beetles, several new and upcoming books explore the world of entomology and the important role of these tiny creatures. These titles invite readers to even respect cockroaches and crickets. ... The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World Oliver Milman, Mar 2022, W.W. Norton Themes: Science, Life science, Nature, Entomology From bees to beetles, THE INSECT CRISIS explores the impact of collapsing insect populations around the world. Of particular note is the wide range of examples and situations used to provide evidence of the crisis. Take-aways: Educators will find the many examples useful in discussing the consequences of insect loss. ... Whether helping educators keep up-to-date in their subject-areas, promoting student reading in the content-areas, or simply encouraging nonfiction leisure reading, teacher librarians need to be aware of the best new titles across the curriculum and how to activate life-long learning. - Annette Lamb A truly fascinating read about the problems of insects that will mirror what many of the rest of us have noticed, at least if we're paying attention. The author details the decline of insects and the potential problems for all species as a result. He sandwiches scientific information with stories of what it was like when drivers used to have to stop to clean the insects off their windows before they could keep going. He has a good way with a phrase, and I found myself reading passages aloud to my husband. Definitely worth a look. nonfiction - science. Mass extinction event likely (pesticides, pollution, climate change) that will severely impact produce crop yields (especially those living in poorer countries) as well as the food chain (noticeable declines are already affecting birds that eat bugs), and the quality of the soil that bugs help us break down. I didn't find out exactly why I keep finding lost ladybugs on the beach (I'm guessing neurotoxins in pesticides), but reading this did make me realize how dramatically fewer bugs I am seeing these days-- I can think of plenty of anecdotal (but still astonishing) evidence just within my own experiences-- the number of fireflies has noticeably gone down in my lifetime (I only see them when I travel east, but I know there used to be a lot more), the number of butterflies in the neighborhood is a lot fewer than when I was a kid (despite having the same plants and the neighbors even planting butterfly bushes), even the number of bugstrikes on the windshield does seem to have decreased. This book compiles many of the hundreds of studies from all over the world that document the huge drops in population sizes among various insects--even allowing for gaps in the research and acknowledging the need for more research, none of it is looking positive. (It's also not heartening to learn that the big 6 pesticides companies have combined into a multinational big 3.) This needs to be made into a PBS/BBC special to reach a wider audience of people. We also need a responsive US Congress, but... well. Zeige 4 von 4 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Auszeichnungen
"A devastating exploration of how the collapse in insect populations around the world threatens everything from wild birds to the food on our plate. From the ants scurrying under leaf litter to the bees able to fly higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, insects are seemingly everywhere. Three out of four of the planet's known species are insects, but a torrent of recent evidence suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable 400-million-year history. Oliver Milman delves into why insect numbers are plummeting and outlines the dire consequences of losing the tiny empires that hold life aloft on Earth. Along the way, readers encounter a researcher who collects insect guts from the windshields of cars, the bees sent on long-haul truck journeys to prop up our food supply, and a desperate attempt to move trees up mountains to save an iconic butterfly. The mounting losses threaten to unpick the web of life we rely upon. Illuminating and inspiring, The Insect Crisis is a wake-up call for all of us"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)595.7Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Arthropoda Insects: Insecta, HexapodaKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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The only insects treated in detail are honeybees and monarch butterflies. The most interesting takeaway about bees was the way people's attempts to save them backfire: by introducing them into new areas where they can displace other pollinators vital to plants the bees don't visit; or by enabling the spread of bee diseases far and wide. Not surprisingly, humans come off as fecklessly clueless when it comes to side-effects of their virtuous eco-projects.
The best chapter in the book is the one on monarch butterflies. Their storied migrations, each thousand- or so miles of which involves multiple metamorphic life cycles (!) boggles the mind. The author does an exemplary job itemizing the environmental degradations that progressively disrupt the migration routes and that will likely annihilate this amazing species by mid-century. Yes, the book is depressing; it needs to be.
A much better book, in my opinion, is 2022's Silent Earth. by Dave Goulson, who, aside from being a fine writer and researcher, draws on decades of his own front-line entomological research in the U.K. and around the globe. ( )