Insects are dying out and scientists and environmentalists are sounding the alarm. Our film team meets entomologists, farmers, scientists, chemical companies and politicians in a bid to lay bare the causes of insect mortality.
Insects aren’t really likeable. They sting, bite, transmit diseases and frighten children. But, on the other hand, they are also fascinating: 480 million years ago, insects were the first animals to learn to fly, and they took over the Earth. Even now, they are fundamental to life on Earth, and are at the beginning of the food chain on which all human beings are ultimately dependent.
But insect numbers worldwide are dropping, creating a rupture of the food chain. Environmentalists and scientists are now extremely worried. Landscape ecology professor Alexandra-Maria Klein from Freiburg, for example, has been researching the effects of human interventions in natural environments for decades and has launched an experiment in a fruit plantation on Lake Constance: What happens when insects disappear? An ominous silence is settling on places that were once humming and buzzing. Why are the insects dying? Author Christoph Würzburger takes a journey into the fascinating world of insects and meets entomologists, farmers, scientists, chemical companies and politicians in a search for the causes of insect mortality.
What is so-called “Flying Shame” and what’s the climate connection? –Bridget J., New York, NY
“Flying shame” is one of those memic terms that has sprung up recently to describe guilting people out of taking airplane trips given the massive carbon footprint of air travel. Some call it “The Greta Effect” in a nod to Swedish teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who swore off air travel given its disproportionate drag on her efforts to slash her own carbon footprint.
Of
course, Thunberg isn’t alone. In fact, the original concept of flying shame
(“Flygskam”) actually started in Sweden, where “flying is becoming the new
tobacco” in the words of Andy Rowell of the non-profit Oil Change International
(OCI). A recent survey by the World Wildlife Fund found that 23 percent of
Swedes have abstained from air travel in the past year to reduce their carbon
footprints—a jump of six percentage points from a year ago. Meanwhile, 18
percent of respondents opted to travel by train instead of airplane over the
course of the year.
“Flying shame” (or “Flygskam” in Swedish) describes guilting people out of taking airplane trips given the massive carbon footprint of air travel. Credit: Marina Hinic, Pexels.
And
the Swedes aren’t the only ones cutting back on flying. Other Europeans are
following suit, which makes sense given the excellent rail and ferry systems
transecting Europe as practical alternatives to flying. The concept has been
slower to catch on in the U.S. given greater distances and limited passenger
rail options.
Regardless,
air travel is growing by leaps and bounds overall worldwide. “The problem is
that, as the science demands we radically reduce carbon emissions, the number
of passenger aircraft is set to double by 2035,” worries OCI’s Rowell.
Meanwhile, each and every day the aviation industry consumes five million
barrels of oil. In 2017 alone, the backs of airplanes emitted 859 million tons
of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, burning jet fuel contributes roughly 2.5
percent of total carbon emissions worldwide. Analysts think this proportion
could rise to 22 percent by 2050 as other sectors clean up their acts quicker.
Meanwhile,
there are no truly green, practical alternatives to kerosene-based jet fuel on
the horizon. “Aircraft are becoming more fuel-efficient, but not quickly
enough to offset the huge demand in growth,” reports The Conversation.
“Electric planes remain decades away, weighed down by batteries that can’t
deliver nearly as much power per kilo as jet fuel.”
So
what’s to be done? Swear off flying, that’s what. Flight Free USA is a
grassroots campaign trying to get at least 100,000 Americans to commit to not
flying at all during the calendar year 2020 in order to send a “clear signal to
industry and politicians—and also to each other—that there are many who are
willing to change their lifestyles to protect the climate.”
Yet another
slice of the apple is called A Free Ride, an idea which assigns an escalating
flight tax depending on how many flights you take per year. One flight per year
would be free of tax, while 14 flights a year would cost a pretty penny in
taxes, with the proceeds going to offsetting the jet fuel with green energy
projects elsewhere.
It’s time for planetary-scale interventions to combat climate change — and environmentalist Tim Flannery thinks seaweed can help. In a bold talk, he shares the epic carbon-capturing potential of seaweed, explaining how oceangoing seaweed farms created on a massive scale could trap all the carbon we emit into the atmosphere. Learn more about this potentially planet-saving solution — and the work that’s still needed to get there.
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