Are we living through an insect extinction? | Foreign Correspondent

[Music] flying insects by definition get around along forests over fields and if they're lucky through its exercise but for decades people have had a nagging sense that insects are traveling well [Music] now some scientists suggest their numbers are crashing we could even be facing insect again so how bad is it and can it be stopped I'm in Germany on the trail of disappearing bugs now one of the reasons for the concerns has been dubbed the wind shield phenomenon people remembering that when they were kids and went on family drives across Europe or North America that the windshield would be literally covered with insects and these days it seems you can drive for days and never have to clean it we've been traveling in this beetle and haven't hit a single bug but how do you prove it well that would have meant people spending literally decades collecting and counting millions of insects to see if there really had been a drop and who would have the time or inclination to do that thank goodness for the germs [Music] I'm heading to the small Northwest town of Krefeld near the Dutch border it's home to a startling discovery that's rung alarm bells around the world [Music] the local entomology Society has been quietly collecting and sorting insects for more than a century so that's where you keep all your insects button yes this part of the rooms where the collections are start and Martin Salk started hanging out here when he was 13 he's now a PhD in entomology how many insects do you think you have altogether in this building we don't know the other numbers but we think for more than 80 millions 80 million insects in this building here yeah [Music] in 1989 he and some young colleagues decided to do something extraordinary they began collecting flying insects from 63 nature reserves and tracked the changing numbers for 30 years I am the metric standard lizard while deer hunt assumes a get miss out auscultation yard and into and under fertilization volatile [Music] it's taken extraordinary perseverance and obsessive attention to detail that's the tough doses to follow they've placed identical traps in identical locations year after year after year to the insects fly up to the top of the tent and get caught Nepal yeah this isthis is cheap and injecting the freaking orientation Oman Abaza positives from hello import okay one does is does fun conceived is a father okay I gather the higher the price hi boys yeah any God and yet marched in back so these are fine Russian each sample was brought back drained sorted and weighed in exactly the same way and in October 2017 they were able to report a stunning finding in the course of sixteen thousand nine hundred days of standardized sampling flying insect numbers had crashed by three quarters it was a drop of 75 percent during a timeline of 27 years that's shocking yes that's and it's shocking because a healthy environment depends on a healthy insect population they keep weeds in check dispose of dead animals pollinate plants and feed birds and frogs and other animals right up the food chain our very existence depends on creepy crawlies the clients and biodiversity are very serious thing and we should peel it yes so what's been killing so many insects the data ruled out changes to weather all vegetation the projects drone footage shows a more likely culprits [Music] the nature reserves are protected from land clearing and chemicals but they're surrounded by farmland that's enemy territory for bugs with huge stretches of monoculture absolutely no flowers and regular spraying of pesticides the farmland is inside of the daily flight activity of many of the species flying inside of these traps so could the problem just be modern farming what do you suspect is a big reason for this Martin sorg says speculation is not his department I do not suspect [Music] to meet people who do suspect he suggested we drive across the border to the Dutch city of Nijmegen [Music] for certain years researchers at Rudd Board University had also been noticing a big drop in wildlife numbers the Krefeld study confirmed their worst fears all of a sudden we had a percentage scientifically proven percentage of how much this whole bulk of insects was going down but how concerned should we be about that ecologist hunts to croon has little doubt that farming is responsible agriculture can have effects on the living conditions in the Nature Reserve and we know for example that very low levels of insecticides can already disrupt insect life and you know these traces have been found spreading around [Music] since World War two pesticides have been used to kill organisms that are bad for crops like cockroaches and grasshoppers [Music] [Applause] but what did their overuse is now threatening insects that are good for crops like bees farmers need pollinators to grow apples onions melons broccoli celery cabbage watermelon cucumber lemon carrot well you must realize that about 80% of our crops depends on insects for pollination 80% of the wild plant species as well a major part of the insects is being eaten by birds and by other animals being essential in the future so if we are losing all of that we're losing the sort of the ecological foundation of ourselves now some people have questioned the whole idea of an insect apocalypse because the study in creve has just looked at some reserves in Germany but it's also been going on across the border here in the Netherlands and I'm about to meet some other keen entomologists who've been counting insects they more laid back than the Krefeld crowd but their findings have been almost as stunning I'm looking for Paul until hello Paul Eric from Australia indication this is your crew Paul van vlink it has made some retirees or hobby collectors who meet just one evening a week personally [Music] [Applause] [Music] their technique is simple they set up a screen turn on a light collect the insects that turn up and send the results to run board University and it's all bad news all kind of insects are going down well how much of the numbers going down the moths about 60% beetles by about 70% and those figures are comparable with those in in clay film so the same cell is catastrophe that this kind of chaos or a test of me yes I think so here that's happening here also and they saw a study I saw a study this afternoon that in Denmark that was study published with vine screens and Counting hits in 20 years also they have also the same thing yeah so it's true that with screens there are less bugs hitting with yes oh and it's not just an urban myth it's really they'll be in our study also I think okay because you have farmers there too yeah the problem is we don't really know what's happening in Australia let alone most of the rest of the world new year's eve keeps repeating basanti they've been counting insects for more than 20 years but there just aren't enough projects like this internationally the world has grown rather complacent since the last warning of its sector getting nearly 60 years ago in 1962 a wildlife biologist Rachel Carson wrote a global bestseller called Silent Spring sounding the alarm on DDT unless we do bring these chemicals under better control we are certainly headed for disaster she exposed how the pesticide was wiping out insect populations and contaminating the food chain and she envisions silent Springs without birdsong in the morning or frog choruses at night these phrase dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to firms Gardens forests and homes non-selective chemicals that have the power to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in streams Rachel Carson's work led to a near global ban on DDT but since then other potent chemicals have taken its place regulators fear some of the new ones have grown way too lethal if there is a smoking gun some suspect it's a popular type of pesticide called neonicotinoids now in 2018 the EU brought in a near total ban across Europe but they're still in use in Australia and the Trump administration has overturned the ban to ensure their continued use in the US some scientists believe that's bad news for these these new eunuchs are usually broken down quite rapidly when they're out in the year but when they're in the soil or in the soil water or in service ones they can hang around for a long time probably a very low concentrations but these low concentrations really affect insect life so it's a very special class extremely poisonous for insects and there's more and more evidence that they are really affecting non-target insects species [Music] so what can be done to prevent a silent spring I'm heading down to southern Germany to see how an entire state is mobilizing [Music] Bavaria is usually thought of as the heartland of conservatism and that includes conserving nature it's part of the culture here to protect the forests and look after wildlife in the city this is a nest of roads but it would beggar his voice they spotted its nest dr. Norbert Schafer is president of the Bavarian bird Society he and his colleagues hit on the idea of a petition demanding insect protection and they focused on everyone's favorite insect calling their campaign save the bees it's of course not only about honeybees in fact honeybees are a minor part it's about insects is about biodiversity as a whole the idea captured the public's imagination the streets of the capital Munich was soon packed with campaigners dressed as bees braving freezing weather to encourage some of Bavaria's 9 million voters to come out inside now what happened next took everyone by surprise because 1.75 million people signed it it was the most popular petition here ever and the government soon promised to sign it into law environmentalists could hardly believe their success farmers could hardly believe what was about to hit them the new laws call for 13% of the state to be put aside as ecological zones and almost a third of farmland to become organic it is a target no one will be forced to go organic farmers cannot be forced to do things the government has to deliver most of the the legislation is really aimed at the government the government has to deliver certain targets and all the government has to put offers on the table so going 30% organic is a massive change isn't it I hope so I hope it will change our landscape it is a massive change but it is doable there is no doubt in other lenda in germany they are talking about 50% organic now so it is doable we know this it is affordable it's good for our environment and it's good for people it is of course a big change well yes and it's a change many many people in Bavaria warmth and this is why they signed up to the petition away from Munich farmers aren't so sanguine many like France Lena fear they'll be lumbered with the cost of going organic we caught up with him as he was spraying his wheat fields with nitrogen fertilizer he insists chemicals are essential to grow a productive crop here on ground remedies this is every plot seidman significance claim Schwartz post on the drones and yeah the ground candle does one the meatman discipline see the next octave Aachen shoots calm this is moogly and from owner pesticide in order plants and roots metal the tribe that yah merely communicates naturally Andhra for foreign home acaba green also contribute any plants and shoots man was so you know mitla Riley yeah oh really our dimension of the area only plant seeds metal only do know is this Nick maybe dizzy dizzy mention to any earn France Lena says if greenies in the city really want to help to change farming they have to do more than sign petitions they need to open their wallets he started a program for people to sponsor be friendly crops and get their name on a stick for it this is interesting farmers like France are now leasing their land for people in the city to sponsor growing flowers to help bees and other insects rather than what we have up cut off in order be rather than potatoes or something people have to pay or can pay farmers to grow flowers so instead of just signing a petition they actually give money as well okay an agouti Dave yeah good for our good for good for you melt good fidelity in the start [Music] other businesses are cashing in on the concerns German and Dutch hardware stores are now featuring bee friendly flowers and bee hotels but much more will be needed to help make farming more sustainable [Music] you see right here is that flowers rift I created in the landscape in the Dutch border country professor to croon and his team are also starting to tackle the problems of intensive land clearing they're working with farmers to plant wildflowers on the edges of their fields creating a network of bug friendly corridors between the nature reserves allowing insects to avoid the dangers of farmland should connect you know bigger nature reserves on that size would be nature with us on that side so these are like highways highways to ease yes exactly yeah monster croon says they're already seeing results not just for insects but for the birds and frogs that feed on them it's so much surprising if you can really get it there you have to help with a little bit but it's suddenly possible it's this landscape that makes me optimistic about the change that really can make [Music] some scientists are finding it harder to master optimism across the channel in the English counties Dave Coulson has been studying the Krefeld report with dismay he's professor of biology at Sussex University and he fears society is headed for the Silent Spring that Rachel Carson warned of it's it's like deja vu you know we're going round in circles here it's nuts the Chiefs or Wars happening all that time ago and we banned a whole bunch of pesticides as a result but then we introduced new ones to replace them many of which then eventually we banned so we introduced even more including the new in the cottonwoods and 20 years on into their use we're starting to realize that they too are harming the environment the whole system of having a way of farming which is entirely reliant on choking on bucket loads of chemicals is not sustainable we are going to wipe our insect life if we carry on this way but he's not giving up yet his back garden is a showcase of what individuals can do creating organic habitats for insects and letting nature take its course be friendly butterfly friendly bear nature friendly it isn't just about because it's about everything you know birds and everything else that makes up a kind of natural healthy ecosystem how do you do that they're too tidy gray don't mow all the time you know great lots of the right kinds of flowers there's a few bumblebees over here yeah so one of the reasons bees are struggling in the modern world is there are many flowers modern farm land is pretty flower free and it's a really nice thing that you can do in your own garden Lupin's brilliant lavenders lots of herbs things like marjoram and thyme and sage rosemary they're all really good for for bees and you can cook with them as well so yeah you know what's not to like one thing you won't find here is insecticide just don't is my advice I got a big garden that I somehow managed to produce lots of fruit and veg lots of pretty flowers and I didn't use any pesticides I haven't done for years and I'm not alone France recently banned pesticides for use in urban areas really completely the whole country so you know Paris from now on I bet you will is still look just as beautiful all the parks and everything they're not going to be overrun with dandelions and cockroaches I'm sure some cities did this years ago Toronto banned pesticides more than a decade ago and Toronto still standing we could get rid of pesticides completely from us it is and it would be good for bees and butterflies and good for people too [Music] an hour's drive away in the shadow of a nuclear power plant a band of eco volunteers he's showing the tide can be turned did you get your tea Chris and Nick mention you've got lead golf course you got your clubs led by entomologist Nicky Gammons they're on the trail of endangered bumblebees Dave just got a Brown banded bombas humorless there the other day so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that you see a few rare bees these guys are Pacific here to see rare bees so no pressure using their hunting ground is the Dungeness National Nature Reserve on the Strait of Dover for the past decade dr. Gammons has been monitoring bees for the bumblebee Conservation Trust if you just take the UK alone we have one in three of our bee species as actually classes Ralph threatened we've had two species go extinct in the UK and a further seven a rare impressions of just our bumblebees it's not just the wildlife that's disappearing but the wild land they once depended on over the last 60 70 years we've lost over 97 percent of our ancient wildflower meadows as well as counting bees dr. Gammons is planting bee friendly flowers and today there's an unexpected find a rare B she feared was gone for good yeah if you've got another pot Oh wonderful brilliant there we go this is one of the UK's rarest bumble bee species it's actually the third rarest bumble bee beautiful Queen really fresh it's called the Brown banded Carter beautiful this is an exciting moment for you yes yes it's really great and I'm really pleased that we found her hair it's been a very slow season this year the weather hasn't been very consistent we had some quite hot weather over the Easter period and then very cold again and we were concerned how that might affect the emergence as many of our Queens this discovery gives a little bit of hope definitely and when we've been looking at our analysis of our data from the last 10 years actually where we've given advice and where we've done actual improvement of the wild flowers some of these rare species have doubled in number and this is one of the first experiments has actually shown it and because we've had that continuation of 10 years we've been able to monitor them really well so it's lovely to see this species out and flying great what happens to an air well let it go okay [Music] the first challenge will be finding out how big the global problem is the groundbreaking study in Krefeld showed the potential scale of an apocalypse in Europe other continents are only starting to wake up to the danger [Music] citizen scientists across Europe they're helping to fill the gaps but it may take a global effort to avoid a Silent Spring [Music] you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 16,572

Keywords: foreign correspondent abc, foreign correspondent insects, insect extinction, insect armageddon, insect loss, where have all the bugs gone, bee extinction, insect documentary 2019, krefeld germany, silent spring, rachel carson, DDT, insectageddon, nature documentary, insect population collapse, insect population decline, Windshield phenomenon, dave goulson bees, bee decline, decline in insect population, abc news, foreign correspondent, bug splat, insect mortality

Id: OZ6rL4kMSSc

Length: 28min 38sec (1718 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019