Environment Reporter Oliver Milman on Our World’s ‘Insect Crisis’

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Three out of four of the planet’s known animal species are insects, and their populations are crashing as a result of climate change, habitat loss, pesticides and pollution. And the ecosystem-wide effects of all of these losses could be deadly for humanity: globally, one-third of our food is pollinated by bees, flies, butterflies, moths and beetles. We’ll talk with Oliver Milman about his new book, “The Insect Crisis” — and how we can protect what he calls “the miniature empires that hold life aloft on our raucous, plastic-strewn, beautiful planet.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.6	... From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Rachel Myro in for Mina Kim.
0:47.6	If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things
0:52.4	worth reading or do things worth the writing.
0:54.9	That's Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers, and the subject of filmmaker
0:59.6	Ken Burns' latest documentary series for PBS. He'll tell us about it right after we learn
1:05.6	why humans are wiping out insects. A planet-wide disaster so stupid, it may kill us off first. In his new book,
1:13.3	The Insect Crisis, Oliver Millman details how insect populations are crashing because of pesticides,
1:19.9	climate change, and habitat loss. Stay with us for a couple of great conversations.
1:39.2	Welcome to Forum. I'm Rachel Myro in for Mina Kim. You like to eat, don't you? Blueberries,
1:45.9	ice cream, chocolate. Californians who've been paying attention know that bees are an essential pollinator for our food supply, but we may not be quite so clear on the fact that bees are
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