
We Need Insects More Than They Need Us - sohkamyung
http://nautil.us/issue/73/play/we-need-insects-more-than-they-need-us
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vages
Reading an interview that actually focuses on the interviewed was refreshing.
Question, response, question, response. Too many of the articles I've read
lately, especially the ones about insect decline, intersperse the dialogue
with distracting descriptions. Perhaps this is what you have to do when you
don't have as well-spoken a subject as Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson seems to be.

Most interesting thing I learned: Meal worms eat plastic.

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d--b
Especially since they don't need us at all...

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kartan
> Four billion years from now, the increase in the Earth's surface temperature
> will cause a runaway greenhouse effect, heating the surface enough to melt
> it. By that point, all life on the Earth will be extinct.

4 billion years from now they are going to need our planet colonizing
technology to get out. ;)

But, until then, they will be doing even better without us.

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cheerlessbog
In 4 billion years they may well have evolved intelligence and have their own
spacecraft.

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anamexis
Why stop there, they may have _become_ spacecraft.

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chrisco255
You're right, I'm pretty sure Zerglings are descended from insects.

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irjustin
To be fair, this can be said for pretty much anything that isn't domesticated.

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emn13
...and in general of most things that have been around longer, or are
biologically simpler (a non-perfect hint being plain size).

Huge organisms like humans built on the biological infrastructure available,
and are thus to some degree dependent on what came before them.

Having said that - people are now the evolutionary vehicle for memes, which
are far faster to evolve than lowly genes. It's quite plausible people would
not go extinct due to that adaptability even if global warming devastated the
planet beyond the worst current projections and the vast majority of insects
went extinct (at a realistic pace, not 'all invertebrates instantly'). But
"not going extinct" is a far cry from "comfortably thriving". Aiming for
survival seems like a bad idea to me.

Who cares if we absolutely _need_ (most) insects - we _definitely_ want them.

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agumonkey
I often think that if we had a way to speak to insects and animals, we'd be in
heaven. They can do so much.

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mkr-hn
They speak to us in their own way. Humans don't always listen.

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agumonkey
very true, the more modern, the less ready to listen we are

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inflatableDodo
_And when you come back here, tell me if the sun is your slave._

