Abstract
Here we build on the manifesto ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, issued by the Alliance of World Scientists. As a group of conservation biologists deeply concerned about the decline of insect populations, we here review what we know about the drivers of insect extinctions, their consequences, and how extinctions can negatively impact humanity.We are causing insect extinctions by driving habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation, use of polluting and harmful substances, the spread of invasive species, global climate change, direct overexploitation, and co-extinction of species dependent on other species.With insect extinctions, we lose much more than species. We lose abundance and biomass of insects, diversity across space and time with consequent homogenization, large parts of the tree of life, unique ecological functions and traits, and fundamental parts of extensive networks of biotic interactions. Such losses lead to the decline of key ecosystem services on which humanity depends. From pollination and decomposition, to being resources for new medicines, habitat quality indication and many others, insects provide essential and irreplaceable services. We appeal for urgent action to close key knowledge gaps and curb insect extinctions. An investment in research programs that generate local, regional and global strategies that counter this trend is essential. Solutions are available and implementable, but urgent action is needed now to match our intentions.
Highlights
Insect extinctions, their drivers, and consequences have received increasing public attention in recent years
Media releases have caught the interest of the general public, and until recently, we were largely unaware that insects could be imperilled to such an extent, and that their loss would have consequences for our own well-being
We build on the manifesto World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists (1992) and reissued 25 years later by the Alliance of World Scientists (Ripple et al, 2017)
Summary
Their drivers, and consequences have received increasing public attention in recent years. In total at least one million species are facing extinction in the coming decades, half of them being insects (IPBES, 2019). It is their vast numbers, but the dependency of ecosystems and humanity on them, that makes the conservation of insect diversity critical for future generations. We build on the manifesto World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists (1992) and reissued 25 years later by the Alliance of World Scientists (Ripple et al, 2017). We end with an appeal for urgent action to decrease our knowledge deficits and curb insect extinctions
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