Ep. 139: The Disappearance of Insects with Oliver Milman

Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk

"We are going to be facing food shortages because there's less pollination and more people. We need to be able to grow food, and insects are the only ones that can do what they do."

Oliver Milman, environment reporter for Guardian US is here, sounding the alarm for what might surprise many: the demise of insect populations world wide. In many cases insect populations have plummeted by 50%, 75%, and even higher. Milman, who is here with his book The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World, dives into the torrent of recent evidence that suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable 400-million-year history. What is causing the collapse of the insect world? Why does this alarming decline pose such a threat to us? And what can be done to stem the loss of the miniature empires that hold aloft life as we know it?

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Oliver Milman is a British journalist and the environment correspondent at the Guardian. He lives in New York City.