People do not know how to survive without insects: Human Development Report 2022

Subject : Governance

Section: Indices

Biodiversity collapse and the extinction of more than a million plant and animal species, including insects, will lead to a world where humans will not know how to survive. This is according to the Human Development Report (HDR) 2021-22 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) September 8, 2022.
It added that humans did not know how to live in a world without an abundance of insects. “Without an abundance of insect pollinators, we face the mindboggling challenge of growing food and other agricultural products at scale,” the report read.
It noted that human societies and ecological systems influenced one another. But the speed at which human impact had risen because of the Anthropocene was unprecedented.
The 2017 book Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society says insects are important because of their diversity, ecological role and influence on agriculture, human health and natural resources.
Insects create the biological foundation for all terrestrial ecosystems. They cycle nutrients, pollinate plants, disperse seeds, maintain soil structure and fertility, control populations of other organisms and provide a major food source for other taxa.
But currently, all of them, from the introduction of chlorofluorocarbons to DDT and nuclear proliferation have been stacked on top of each other, interacting and amplifying in unpredictable ways.