Silent Earth, Dave Goulson
Silent Earth, Dave Goulson
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Silent Earth
Averting the Insect Apocalypse

Author: Dave Goulson

Narrator: Dave Goulson

Unabridged: 9 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/28/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival, and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making.
Drawing on thirty years of research, Goulson has written an accessible, fascinating, and important book that examines the evidence of an alarming drop in insect numbers around the world. “If we lose the insects, then everything is going to collapse,” he warned in a recent interview in the New York Times—beginning with humans’ food supply. The main cause of this decrease in insect populations is the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. Hence, Silent Earth’s nod to Rachel Carson’s classic Silent Spring which, when published in 1962, led to the global banning of DDT. This was a huge victory for science and ecological health at the time.Yet before long, new pesticides just as lethal as DDT were introduced, and today, humanity finds itself on the brink of a new crisis. What will happen when the bugs are all gone? Goulson explores the intrinsic connection between climate change, nature, wildlife, and the shrinking biodiversity and analyzes the harmful impact for the earth and its inhabitants.  Meanwhile we have all read stories about hive collapse syndrome affecting honeybee colonies and the tragic decline of monarch butterflies in North America, and more. But it is not too late to arrest this decline, and Silent Earth should be the clarion call. Smart, eye-opening, and essential, Silent Earth is a forceful call to action to save our world, and ultimately, ourselves.Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Dave Goulson

Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at University of Sussex. He has published more than 300 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and other insects. His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers, The Garden Jungle and A Sting in the Tale, which was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize and has been translated into fifteen languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a trustee of Pesticide Action Network, and an Ambassador for the UK Wildlife Trusts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sean Barrs on May 04, 2022

"We are committing ecocide on a biblical scale." The amount of truth in these words is devastatingly scary. They sound alarmist and dramatic, but they are completely true. We are destroying our home. We are decimating the populations of the creatures we share the planet with. We are push......more

Goodreads review by Doc on August 23, 2021

A thoroughly depressing tale of habitat loss, invasive species, foreign diseases, mixtures of pesticides, climate change, light pollution, and probably other man-made agents we have yet to recognise. Key learning for me is the need for systems thinking. We need to break out of our silos and build int......more

Goodreads review by Tanja on January 01, 2022

This is a lovely little book on how insects are disappearing. The studies, counter studies and facts. It’s not just one thing, it’s safe to say, but a combination of some or all of the following factors: * pesticides * habitat loss * climate change * parasites * invasive species * industrial farming A......more

Goodreads review by Ben on January 25, 2022

A book with a title referencing Rachel Carson's seminal Silent Spring is a bold undertaking. But it had to be done. Despite the growth in awareness that Carson provoked, the actual destruction of the environment never stopped. DDT may have been mostly phased out, but now we have neonicotinoid insect......more

Goodreads review by The Inquisitive Biologist on September 02, 2021

Silent Earth is an important book that warns of insect declines, but does the combination of patchy data and biblical phrases run the risk of disengaging people from a problem that deserves our urgent attention? See my full review at [URL not allowed]......more