Kendra Pierre-Louis. (2018). The Bugs Are Coming, and They’ll Want More of Our Food. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/climate/insects-eating-more-crops.html on 2018-11-17
Since global temperatures have risen, the uproar in insect reproduction and infestation of farmer crops have become a problem. According to the article, a degree Celsius increase above global historical average, the amount of wheat, corn, and rice lost is about 10 to 25 percent. Although beneficial insects that can suppress pests and maintain an acceptable amount of damage, higher temperatures are overall bad for crops. When higher temperatures do occur, crops are more likely to dry of thirst. For areas that aren’t heated teeming with crops, a remedy could be injecting pesticides, however it may only be a band aid. The real issue of greenhouse gas emissions needs to be tended to, not creating “a million Band-Aids,” states the author.
The severity of a larger issue has become a façade through addressing pests. Climate change, although seemingly unrelated to pests has become an issue trickled down to the fundamental aspects of environmental science. An idea mentioned in a previous chapter was agriculture being with worst mistake in history. Having an abundance of crops compacted together and readily accessible for pests to indulge on does not help the farmer nor the community. It forces the use of dangerous pesticides for acres of fields. At the end of the day, it’s not really the pests at fault — it’s humans — as we are mass producing heat.
Super interesting connection to make between a warming climate and increased pest problems on the farm. Makes total sense… I like how you connected it back to that first Jerod Diamond article we read too. What do you think- would polyculture farming be more resilient to the coming pests? Or do we continue with monoculture?
Really interesting read, I didn’t know that bugs could be such a problem for agriculture. Is it possible for tools such as CRISPR to assist in preventing bugs from getting to crops? With all the recent developements in that field it must be a possiblity?
This is an interesting perspective on global warming. I was unaware of the effect the insects played a part in climate change, and while it is not the pests fault they do have an impact.
This point is very interesting as it brings a new perspective to the warming climate. I would have not guess that climate change would affect the uproar of insects. Do you think that there are other aspect, besides climate change, that are causing a large increase in insects?
The point about “a million bandaids” is very intriging to me. People are coming up with solutions that help on the surface level, but are not an appropriate long term solution.