In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental
classic Silent Spring,
an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the
importance of insects to our survival, and offers a clarion call to
avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making.
Drawing on thirty
years of research, Goulson has written an accessible, fascinating,
and important book that examines the evidence of an alarming drop in
insect numbers around the world. “If we lose the insects, then
everything is going to collapse,” he warned in a recent interview
in the New York Times—beginning with humans’ food supply. The
main cause of this decrease in insect populations is the
indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. Hence, Silent Earth’s
nod to Rachel Carson’s classic Silent Spring which, when
published in 1962, led to the global banning of DDT. This was a huge
victory for science and ecological health at the time.
Yet before long, new
pesticides just as lethal as DDT were introduced, and today, humanity
finds itself 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
analyzes the harmful impact for the earth and its inhabitants.
Meanwhile we have
all read stories about hive collapse syndrome affecting honeybee
colonies and the tragic decline of monarch butterflies in North
America, and more. But it is not too late to arrest this decline, and
Silent Earth should be the clarion call. Smart, eye-opening,
and essential, Silent Earth is a forceful call to action to
save our world, and ultimately, ourselves.
Silent Earth
includes approximately 20 black-and-white illustrations and charts
and graphs.