[jeffreyH (OP)]

Studies appear to show a worrying decline in many insect species. Is this a far more existential threat than any change in climate?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/animals/2019/02/why-insect-populations-are-plummeting-and-why-it-matters

[evan_au]

I heard an interview with a researcher working in the Puerto Rico rainforest, who estimated that insect biomass had declined by 2.5% per year.

Over 30 years, that is a dramatic reduction in insect population, with corresponding reductions in insectivores.

The impact on plants may take longer to see, since the lack of pollinators will prevent new seeds from forming, which may not be obvious until the old plants start dying, with nothing to replace them. If a plant is an annual, it would disappear in just a few years after its specialist pollinator goes extinct.

The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other, for the simple reason that there are nearly 300,000 species of beetle known

[evan_au]

Listen (12 minutes): https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/disappearing-insects-could-trigger-ecological-calamity/

[jeffreyH (OP)]

Unless the habits and lifestyles of 7 billion people can be changed very quickly I think it's curtains for us. Looking at the nonsense schoolyard political games currently being played out I think our fate is sealed