The Insect Crisis

The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World

By: Oliver Milman

Narrated by: Liam Gerrard

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

From ants scurrying under leaf litter to bees able to fly higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, insects are everywhere. Three out of every four of our planet's known animal species are insects. In The Insect Crisis, Oliver Milman 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? And what can be done to stem the loss of the miniature empires that hold aloft life as we know it?

Milman explores this hidden emergency, arguing that its consequences could even rival climate change. He joins the scientists tracking the decline of insect populations across the globe, including the mountains of Mexico that host an epic, yet dwindling, migration of monarch butterflies; the verdant countryside of England that has been emptied of insect life; the gargantuan fields of US agriculture that have proved a killing ground for bees; and an offbeat experiment in Denmark that shows there aren't that many bugs splattering into your car windshield these days. These losses not only further tear at the tapestry of life on our degraded planet; they imperil everything we hold dear, from the food on our supermarket shelves to the medicines in our cabinets to the riot of nature that thrills and enlivens us.

©2022 Oliver Milman (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Great information

Look forward to listing to it again. So much information inside, Great job :) I recommend this book.

Everyone should read this book.

This book is an informative, important and interesting work. Well read by the presenter. Everyone should read (listen to) it and consider it’s message.

well written, well read, serious information

I've both read the book and listened to the audiobook. The information is written in a way that's easy to digest, and in that, is hard to swallow.
we really need to grasp the importance of all aspects of life on Earth.

Boring, when it could have been exhilarating!

There were enormously long description of fields and towns and buildings, and things that have nothing to do with insects. It seemed that this person liked very much to hear or read, or write their own voice. Yes, there is a crisis and yes, we need to address it but by the time you get through 10 hours and nine chapters, you don't really care any longer. I've seldom read anything that caused me to care less about something than I did when I begin. And this could have been very exhilarating, very interesting, and very necessary by combining all these nine chapters into one or two chapters.