A book appeared around 60 years ago that had unexpectedly strong consequences: “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. Carson showed how the insecticide DDT accumulated in the food chain and poisoned all living things that fed directly or indirectly on insects, including humans. What gave weight to her voice was her image of a world where birds no longer sing in spring. Carson was attacked as a fanatic and a communist – but it was ultimately thanks to her that DDT is now banned in most countries.
The British biologist and conservationist Dave Goulson refers to this book when he calls his own “Silent Earth”. He also describes the catastrophe that is taking place in the present, in the hope that it can still be averted. “Averting the Insect Apocalypse” is the English subtitle, which, in good Anglo-Saxon tradition, combines coolness with intensity. Unfortunately, in German, this becomes “Why we have to save the insects”. But the German version has the advantage of highlighting the weak points of this plea.
One senses that one cannot avoid the dry tables and analyses
First there is the “we”. The first person plural seems to be unavoidable today wherever ecological problems are concerned. It suggests general commitment by expressly including everyone, but at the same time remains so vague that nobody needs to feel addressed personally. And then the two verbs “to save” and “must”, especially when combined, are characterized by a moral mandate that is rather detrimental to reflection.
Yes, sure, there are half a million kilometers of roadsides in the UK and you could plant strips of flowers around them all. But what use is this splendor to the insects if car exhaust fumes are wafting across this narrow strip from the right and the concentrated poison from the adjacent fields from the left? Anything that aims at the particular proves to be insufficient. Nothing wrong with what Goulson advises, from growing bee-friendly plants in your own garden to buying from organic farmers and training elementary school teachers. But all in all it does not measure up to the dimensions of the phenomenon.
Dave Goulson: Dumb Earth. Why we need to save the insects. Translated from the English by Sabine Hübner. Hanser, Munich 2022. 368 pages, 25 euros.
At the same time, he knows exactly what is at stake. the Krefeld study from 2017, which revealed that over the past few decades, the total amount of insects has declined by more than three quarters, even in the protected areas, he knows and knows that this is just the tip of the global iceberg. His expertise, developed over decades, proves itself when he speaks of the effects of insecticides (especially neonicotinoids), herbicides (especially glyphosate) and artificial fertilization. They cause damage for themselves and much more in their hundreds of times escalating interaction. Honey bees with a weakened immune system are not only attacked by the varroa mite, they also lose their sense of direction and can no longer find their way back to their home hive.
In these sections, which have to do with the products of agrochemicals, the reading is most intense, so on the one hand very informative, on the other hand quite exhausting. The work is in danger of migrating from non-fiction to reference. And yet the reader feels that he cannot avoid these dry tables and analyzes because they contain the real clues to what is happening at present.
Agricultural corporations make false claims in glossy brochures
Goulson suspects, with good reason, that companies like Monsanto give their products, substances like imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, names that no one can remember in order to discourage public debate from the outset. Carson got through because, in her case, things boiled down to a simple formula. Golden early days of ecology! Something like that wouldn’t work today.
Since then, the chemical-biological industry has not only developed more and more complex technologies, university research has also expanded and specialized to such an extent that often even scientists can no longer find a common language among themselves – let alone that the public can gain an overview. In this environment, the large agricultural corporations carry out and promote their own research. In their glossy brochures, they claim that 100 percent of a given herbicide is absorbed by the plants it protects, even though independent research shows that 95 percent of it ends up in the soil, air and water.
In his desperate efforts, Goulson tends to lose sight of the structures of the world and society in which this is happening. He writes: “Everyone must take action: the general public, agriculture, the food trade and other sectors”. That sounds as if stopping the insect die-off is just a matter of concentrated goodwill. But the farmers do not spread the harmful substances on their fields because they are greedy ignoramuses, but because they are fighting for their very survival.
One cannot lament the destruction of nature without looking at capitalism
And for the food trade, any measure that costs money would probably destroy the one to two percent profit margin on which it lives. Many cannot change their behavior under the current conditions without risking their demise. Anyone who laments the destruction of nature must bear this in mind, the nature of the seamless, global system, capitalism. As nice as a roadside strip of flowers might be, it’s not going to change the whole thing from the ground up.
The most striking passage in Goulson’s book is where he sketches a picture of the world in the medium-near future. Such post-apocalyptic scenarios usually serve as a foil for the heroic deeds of a violent individualism. But Goulson speaks of his young son, an old man with aching joints, on night watch in the garden, an antediluvian rifle in his lap to protect his vegetables. Everything is broken now, people are risking their lives for a few potatoes. There is a rustling in the bushes, he grabs the gun – there it is a hedgehog, sniffing through the hedge in search of snails and insects. A hedgehog! He hasn’t seen anything like it in 50 years. Yes, if one day capitalism has eaten itself up, then there could even be hedgehogs again, with all the other misery.