Ban Use Of Inorganic Chemicals Used In Local Agriculture

Forty perfect of all insect species alive - bees, butterflies, beetles, and moths - are rapidly dying out, and studies suggest they could all vanish within this century (Page)! Actions need be taken to revive some of the declining numbers of insects and other species. If not now, it might be too late. The crumbling of the insects, could mark the end of humanity.
To better understand the impact of insects, you should know that insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda, and of class Insecta the most diverse class in the kingdom. Insecta not only contains the most diverse chain of species, but arguably most the crucial (Wigglesworth). They are considered to be the foundation of all kingdoms. Insects play important roles in our ecosystem including, providing nutrition for billions of birds, reptiles and amphibians. Insects also recycle waste, and organic matter back into the soil. Maggots and flies, as gross as they are decompose dead material, like dead carcasses, and fecal droppings (Engel).
It’s unfortunate to see, because every insect plays a different and crucial role in the ecosystem. Insects, considered primary consumers, naturally provide nutrition for other species, such as: dragonflies, frogs, lizards and other amphibians. Without a majority of earth’s insects, many secondary consumers will begin to fall over time (Smith).
A study published in the journal of Biological Conservation states that forty percent of all insect species today, including pollinators, are in decline and could die out in the coming decades; meanwhile, a third of the species alive today have already made the endangered species list (Page).
Scientists aren’t talking just talking about honeybees. There have been 20,000 different species of bees discovered to pollinate, and only one of those is the common honeybee. Many other insects can pollinate, as well, including: flies, mosquitoes, moths, beetles, ants, and wasps. Scientist from the National Conservation Service claim, “there is approximately 200,000 different species of animals around the world that act as pollinators” (Nicholls). In addition, “nearly ninety percent of all crops, and flowering plants require pollinators for survival, and reproduction” (Murawski). Pollination is a simple process of a powdery substance derived from the male gametes of the a flower, then transferred via insects to the stigma on another flower. It is actually impossible for these flowers to spread their seeds and reproduce without pollinating insects. We can appreciate insects a bit more, when we realize that one in three bites of food you eat, exist only because of pollinating insects.
Unfortunately, David Hackenberg in 2006 reported a “ninety percent die-off rate among three thousand of his beehives.” U.S. National Agricultural Statistics show a decline in honeybee hives from about six million in 1947, to nearly two-and-a-half million in 2008, a sixty percent decline (Greenpeace). Sadly, the total of falling insects increase by two-and-a-half percent every year. This percentage shows insects could vanish completely within a hundred years (Carrington).
Insects are crucial because they provide many ecological services: bait for consumers, natural waste production, pest control, decomposition, and pollination. Humans, and other species simply could not exist without insects.
One major cause of the insect decline is the loss of natural habitat through contamination. According to University of California’s biologist Eric Mussen, a study found more than 150 different chemicals found in bee pollen and honey. Oddly enough, local and commercially-used pesticides are directly associated with ninety-percent of the pollinating bees dying off yearly (Greenpeace USA). The use of chemical pesticides contaminates, and harms local pollinators and other species through ingestion and contact, another example of human-caused impact.
In addition to pollutants, Dr. Stuart Campbell from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, states that plants exposed to high levels of nitrogen dioxide, a major component in smog, begins hyper-producing harmful chemicals in its leaves. Results from the study show that insects feeding on these leaves develop growth delays and abnormalities, which suggests high levels of air pollution may be causing negative effects on our herbivorous creatures (Science Daily).
Countering all of this, there is still the epidemic of diseases causing insects. Some mosquitoes, lice, fleas, flies and ticks run the risk of transmitting many diseases and carry dangerous viruses, bacteria, and parasites. The results are deadly: Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Lyme Disease, Plague, along with Malaria being the most dangerous and prevalent (Cantico). According to Nature News, the U.S government has approved a “killer mosquito” to aid in fighting malaria carried by the A. Albopictus Mosquito. “This is a non-chemical way of dealing with mosquitoes,” says David O’Brochta. “Other insects, including different species of mosquitoes, are not harmed by the practice,” says Stephen Dobson, founder of MosquitoMate. Explained by the Dobson, “over time, as more of the altered male mosquitoes are released and bred with the wild female mosquitoes. The population of A. Albopictus mosquitoes begins to dwindle.”
“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind,” said Sánchez-Bayo. Insect declining is an urgent, global crisis. They are very important and beneficial through pollination, waste disposal, decomposition, pest control, and are necessary for secondary consumers. Without many of these bugs, many other dependent species can die out. Insects, though diverse and in abundance now, are actually dying at an exponential rate, and can cause a dramatic domino effect. Regrettably, if action is not taken seriously, this global catastrophe marks the beginning of humanity ending.