Silent Earth by Dave Goulson

 

We are big fans of Dave Goulson’s work

In previous Nature Notes we featured his last book, The Garden Jungle. Dave Goulson is a renowned entomologist and conservationist and Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. In this, his latest book, Silent Earth, Averting The Insect Apocalypse, Dave Goulson follows in the tradition of  Rachel Carson and her groundbreaking environmental classic, Silent Spring; he explains the importance of insects to our survival and how we need to act now to avert an imminent ecological disaster of our own making

This important book, draws on thirty years of research and examines the evidence of the alarming drop in insect numbers around the world. Without insects everything will collapse, beginning with humans’ food supply. The main cause of this decrease in the insect population is the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. As a result of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring published in 1962, DDT was banned across the world. This was a huge victory for science and ecological health at the time

However we now have pesticides just as lethal as DDT and we find ourselves on the brink of a new crisis. What will happen when the bugs are all gone? Goulson explores the intrinsic connection between climate change, nature, wildlife, and the shrinking biodiversity and analyses the harmful impact for the earth and its inhabitants

This is a call to action to save our world, and ultimately, ourselves