When you hear the words climate crisis you probably think of rather large animals, endangered species like elephants, rhinos.

You might think of extreme weather events like hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, all rather large and scale.

But in fact, one of the major protagonists in this broader story of climate systems breakdown

is rather small. I'm talking about insects, arthropods, the kinds of things

actually you can find in the cracks in your back garden. And yes, this is bigger than just bees potentially dying out and pollination.

It turns out that arthropods and insects are the backbone, the very oil which permits

the machine of our planet to keep ticking over.

It's also important to talk about them because actually it's somewhere we can make a

difference like I say. Actually, it's somewhere we can make a difference.

Like I say, these critters are in your back garden and your local park.

Perhaps the argument would go, you can make a change there rather than waiting for government to do its bit.

All in all, insects and their role in the climate crisis is under disgust, we barely talk about it enough and I'm not just talking

about bees and pollinators there's far more besides. So I'm very lucky today to be

joined by Dave Golsom. He is a biologist, a conservationist, he's also a writer

and one of the leading experts in the English speaking world on insects and their role in the climate crisis.

Dave Golson, welcome to Downstream.

Pleasure, nice to be here.

Well, I'm very happy you're here.

I have to say, I became acquainted with your works properly only over the last few months.

I've seen you here and there was a great write-up in the Financial Times about what's basically

going on with insects, which we're going to talk about today that's

the content of today's interview and then I looked at your interview your YouTube channel

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