What you need to know:
- Climate change is real and people need to act now.
- Insects are dying and this is affecting the whole ecosystem.
A study was recently published about the dramatic decline in flying insects, and was alarming to read. It is definitely happening in other parts of the world too. When I visit my home country, I have been wondering where the insects hovering above flowers, creeping down trees, and crawling on the Earth have gone? The faraway cry of insects filled the night and rejuvenated the atmosphere in the dark but now, we hardly hear them. The nights are met with eerie silence. The fluttering of beautiful butterflies and dragonflies has declined drastically, so has the joy of those children who used to chase them.
A flock of glow worms used to appear at night but now they don’t. Many wild flowers randomly and rampantly used to grow in different seasons, but now they are nowhere to be seen. The countryside flowers a feast to eyes are diminishing and this is leading to barren lands.
Everything is connected. Pollination takes place through insects. Since the carriers are not present, neither are the flowers. In turn, other animals like squirrel and other rodents who feed these insects.
In this modern life regardless of age, everyone sitting with a gadget would never give a thought to what is happening around them. These species that are going extinct are very important to the functioning of the ecosystem.
If insects are disappearing, and are not making food or pollinating flowers, there will come a time when we will run out of food too. We are all interconnected and play an important role in the food chain. This should be a wake-up call to anyone who cares for the planet. What government can do is to help the farmers with echo friendly farming techniques so that the materials they use are not a threat to society. What we can do is leave some space in our courtyard to plant some native flowers, which cater to these insects. The media is too focused on politics and the economy to take time out and report on the tragedy happening on Earth. By the portrayal of this loss, awareness needs to be created to fight the catastrophe. Flora and fauna bring the true life to the planet, we need to preserve it.
- The reader is a resident of Sharjah.
