Will Insects Go Extinct & Take Us With Them? - Thom Hartmann

[Rhiannon12866]

More and more insect species are going extinct, but before you celebrate the end of bug bites you must understand, if insects go extinct, the crops we need to survive will not be pollinated, and we will run out of food. Is this the end of humanity?

[rampartc]

1. i am on my way to the garden right now

with the intention of putting the tomato hornworm on an endangered species list. with my boots.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I certainly hope that he's not the very last one!

[rampartc]

4. i only found 1

and he was on a scraggly cherry tomato that i was thinking of playing out anyway. he will grow into a rather spectacular hawk moth.

i don't know what the luna moths eat, but they usually show up around 4th of july. daytime i'm getting all three kinds of swallowtails and the frittalaries.

i generally do not use pesticide or herbicide, but i agree with hartmann, just a few years ago the azalias would be swarming with honey bees and bumble bees. this year, not so much.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. When we were kids, my brother and I saved caterpillars, put them in jars with leaves and watched them build cocoons

Most of them emerged as moths, but we also got a few butterflies.

[rampartc]

7. i did that as a kid, in a gallon pickle jar

covered with cheezecloth held on with a rubber band.

that is a great pre k (? i think very young anyway) project that i have not been able to replicate as an adult. i tend to leave the jars (which are now plastic milk gallons) in the sun a bit long. i imagine i am due some karma for that one.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I remember in first grade some kids brought in caterpillars like we had and one of got loose and I found it

I intended to save it and bring it home, put it in my desk, but the teacher found out and made me give it back.

[John1956PA]

3. "The Hellstrom Chronicle" (1971)

That movie was a pseudo-documentary designed to shock the audience as to the threat of insects destroying humanity. It seemed to be serious, but it was done for the sake of entertainment and giving the audience a harmless scare.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Looks like it's now the other way around, but we need each other

[Magoo48]

9. It's a great topic for light banter. Personally, I hope mosquitoes and fleas go first.

I remember times of the year when cleaning bugs off the windshield was a daily occurrence. Hummmm. Where have all the tiny beasties gone? I do miss the magnificent birds now missing due to lack of food. Pity that.

The light banter thing is the way we deal with so many things these days, existential things which hang over humanity like Damocles’ old sword.

Yeah well, I like to see what I’m breathing. Oh shit, look at the lawn; it’s time to ROUND UP those weeds again. Hey Pop, look at the crop duster. That’s so kool.

[Lulu KC]

10. I am pretty amazed

I've seen some faces when people mention "insect apocalypse"--they look like it means the insects are going to come and kill us. War on nature, baby. It's our species' thing.

[Magoo48]

11. Sadly, what you say is true. We appear intent on taking them all with us into dystopian wasteland.