Bugs in Disaster with Oliver Milman

Insects can seem to be everywhere, all at once—sometimes to an annoying degree. After all, three out of every four known animal species on Earth are insects. But these dazzlingly adept creatures—which pre-date the dinosaurs—are suffering a silent and hugely consequential crisis, with their numbers plummeting around the world.

What does it mean when the world’s pollinators crash at a time when the global demand for food is only increasing? What crucial roles do insects play to prop up ecosystems and food webs—and what happens when this status quo is threatened? Milman’s book, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World, outlines the ramifications of this loss and explores what’s causing all this to happen.

Oliver Milman is a British journalist who has reported on environmental issues for The Guardian for the past decade, both in Australia and, more recently, in the United States. Milman has extensively covered the climate emergency, documenting its impact upon the Arctic, the Great Barrier Reef, the Everglades, and numerous other places and communities, as well as the broader ecological depredations affecting wildlife and our shared natural world.

This talk took place on May 25, 2023, at 7:00 pm EDT.