The new generations may not even know, but older people will surely remember that up until some 20 years ago any car or road trip meant a windshield covered in dead insects, smashed by the impact.
However, nowadays that doesn’t happen often.
It may sound great news—after all, who doesn’t like to travel with a clean windshield?
But what does it really mean?
Doesn’t that tell you anything?
Scientists associate the dramatic decline in insect populations with industrial agricultural practices, especially habitat destruction and pesticide use. That decline, besides being a tragedy by itself, also affects the whole terrestrial ecosystems, such as the birds’, reptiles’ and amphibians’ diet, pollination, etc.
The collapse of the insect populations may be the fore token of the collapse of ecosystems.
