For a systemic biological failure! In medicine, silence can be more alarming than sound. A patient who suddenly stops complaining or a monitor that stops working, for example, can indicate a system failure rather than a solution. A similar scenario occurs in ecology, and there too, silence is alarming
Around the world, insects are disappearing from large areas. This is not a modest decline or a simple geographical shift, but a rapid disappearance of beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes, bees, and entire functional groups. This phenomenon is not speculative or anecdotal; it is one of the most consistently documented biological trends of the past 50 years, and it remains under-reported. To illustrate: the total biomass of insects that have disappeared is comparable to the combined weight of all commercial aircraft worldwide, representing a huge ecological and economic loss, writes Dr. Joseph Varon.
For decades, insects have been treated as background noise—at best, a nuisance, at worst, pests. Their abundance was taken for granted, their resilience a given. We designed agricultural systems, urban environments, chemical interventions, and technological solutions based on the unspoken assumption that insects would always be there. They were too numerous to disappea
This assumption has proven wrong.
The data are not subtle.
One of the most cited early warnings came from a long-term German entomological study that tracked the biomass of flying insects in protected areas for nearly three decades. The result shocked even the researchers: a decline of more than 75% in the total biomass of flying insects between 1989 and 2016. ¹ These were not industrial areas or pesticide-saturated fields. They were nature reserves. However, in many regions, such as Africa and large parts of Asia, comprehensive, long-term insect monitoring is still lacking, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of the global decline of insects.
Subsequent studies confirmed that this was not an exception. A global review published in Biological Conservation concluded that approximately 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction, with declines accelerating in recent decades. ² Longitudinal data from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, North America, and East Asia tell the same story, with local variations but a consistent direction.³-⁶
The loss is not limited to rare or specialized species. Common insects—which once filled the air—are disappearing fastest. Entomologists now openly speak of “functional extinction,” a state in which species technically still exist but no longer fulfill their ecological role in significant numbers.⁷
The importance of this issue is often underestimated.
Insects are not optional.
Insects play a central role in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. They pollinate plants, recycle nutrients, regulate microbial populations, control pest species, and serve as a primary food source for numerous birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Insects are not peripheral, but form the structural foundation of these systems. The loss of these fundamental species could lead to the disappearance of familiar foods such as coffee, chocolate, apples, and almonds, which would directly impact daily diets.
About three-quarters of the world’s crop species depend at least partly on animal pollination, primarily insects. The economic value of insect pollination alone is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars annually. However, focusing solely on the economic aspects underestimates the problem. Without insects, the food system collapses not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. Nutrient diversity decreases. Resilience diminishes. Dependence on industrial inputs increases. A study published in PLoS One has shown that the decline in insect pollinators globally could lead to a reduction in the concentrations of key vitamins such as vitamin A and folate, representing a 40% decrease in nutrient density in certain crops. Ecological systems tend to collapse abruptly, rather than gradually, once critical thresholds are crossed.
The windshield phenomenon was a warning we ignored.
Long before peer-reviewed journals quantified insect losses, ordinary people noticed something strange: windshields remained clear. Anyone who regularly drove a car in the 1970s or 1980s would have noticed.
Oreden, recalls scraping insects off headlights and bumpers after short drives. That experience is now so rare that younger generations often find it hard to believe.
The so-called “windshield phenomenon” wasn’t just a matter of nostalgia; it was an informal but consistent observational indicator of the declining insect population.¹⁰ When millions of people independently notice the same biological absence, that observation deserves scientific attention. Yet it was often dismissed as anecdotal, unscientific, or irrelevant.
In medical education, trainees are taught not to ignore symptoms reported by patients simply because they are difficult to quantify. In ecological science, however, similar observational evidence was often ignored.
Mosquitoes, Misunderstood and Essential
Few insects are as universally loathed as mosquitoes. Their role as vectors of infectious diseases makes them easy targets for eradication campaigns, and their decline is often applauded. But ecosystems don’t allow for selective removals without consequences. Mosquito larvae are an important food source for fish and amphibians. Adult mosquitoes serve as food for birds, bats, reptiles, and other insects. Their disappearance has consequences for food webs that are poorly modeled and rarely discussed.¹¹
The belief that unwanted species can be selectively removed while maintaining ecosystem stability reflects a mechanistic fallacy, similar to the outdated medical idea that suppressing symptoms is equivalent to curing a disease.
Natural systems do not benefit from simplification; in fact, they are negatively affected by it.
This is not just “climate change.”
Climate variability undoubtedly affects insect populations, but it is scientifically insufficient to attribute the magnitude and rate of the current decline solely to climate change. The temporal pattern, taxonomic selectivity, and geographic clustering point to multiple interacting factors, many of which are anthropogenic and poorly regulated. The most important factors are:
Chronic exposure to pesticides, particularly systemic insecticides such as neonicotinoids, which remain in soil and water, harming non-target species.¹²
Herbicide-induced loss of flowering plants, eliminating food sources for pollinators.¹³
Mono-crop agriculture, where complex habitats are replaced by biological deserts.¹⁴
Soil degradation and microbial collapse, which undermine the life cycle of insects.¹⁵
Light pollution, which disrupts the navigation, mating, and feeding behavior of nocturnal insects.¹⁶
Urban sprawl and habitat fragmentation, which reduce genetic diversity and resilience.¹⁷
Each of these factors is a concern in its own right. Together, they form a cumulative biological burden that exceeds the adaptive capacity of ecosystems. Why this should concern not only ecologists, but physicians as well
As physicians, we are trained to recognize early warning signs of systemic failure. Just as an unexplained rise in C-reactive protein (CRP) can indicate an underlying inflammation or infection requiring urgent attention, the decline of insect populations is a critical red flag for ecological instability. Progressive weight loss, immune dysfunction, and unexplained anemia are not mere curiosities—they are red flags, comparable to these environmental indicators. The decline of insects is the ecological equivalent of these medical signals.
Human health is highly dependent on the health of the environment. Nutritional value, food security, patterns of infectious disease, and immune resilience all depend on intact ecosystems. A biologically depleted planet produces biologically vulnerable people. The rise in chronic diseases, metabolic disorders, and immune dysregulation cannot be separated from the ecological context in which humans now live. Physicians can observe these effects in patients presenting with increased allergic reactions, antibiotic resistance, and nutritional deficiencies. For example, a patient with recurrent respiratory infections might be linked to changes in pollen counts due to changing insect populations. Doctors can address these issues by considering ecological factors in their diagnosis and recommending preventive measures, such as dietary changes or promoting environmental stewardship.
Yet, medicine and public health continue to treat the environment as a backdrop rather than a guideline as fundamental infrastructure. To address this, integrating environmental health concepts into medical and public health curricula could have a transformative effect and promote understanding of the interconnectedness between ecological and human health. Medical institutions could also implement policies that prioritize environmental management, such as reducing waste and energy consumption in healthcare facilities. Stimulating research into the health impacts of ecological degradation within the medical community would further strengthen this integration. Such systems-level interventions would bridge the gap between medicine and ecology and ensure that physicians recognize and respond to environmental health issues as an integral part of their practice.
A Clinical Lens: When Ecology Becomes Medicine
From a physician’s perspective, the disappearance of insects should be interpreted as a population-level biomarker of environmental toxicity and physiological stress. In medicine, we recognize the failure of a sensitive system as an early warning sign. Insects fulfill this role in biology. Their short life cycle, high metabolic rate, and dependence on environmental factors make them extremely sensitive to chemical, electromagnetic, and nutritional disturbances, often long before humans show overt signs of illness. There is growing evidence that many of the same exposures involved in insect declines are linked to hormone disruption, immune dysregulation, neurodevelopmental disorders, and metabolic disorders in humans. Neonicotinics, for example, are designed to target insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, but homologous pathways also exist in mammals, including roles in neurodevelopment and autonomic regulation.²⁰ Chronic exposure to low doses does not lead to acute toxicity, but medicine has learned—often too late—that the absence of acute toxicity does not equate to safety.
The loss of pollinators also directly impacts the micronutrient density of the human diet. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes—important sources of folate, magnesium, polyphenols, and antioxidants—are disproportionately affected by pollination deficiencies.²¹ Nutritional deficiencies don’t lead to famine, but to chronic disease, weakened immune systems, impaired wound healing, and increased susceptibility to infection—symptoms that clinicians increasingly encounter but rarely trace back to the integrity of the food system.
Imagine a diabetic patient struggling with persistent, slow-healing ulcers. These wounds, resistant to conventional treatment, vividly illustrate the decline in micronutrients resulting from the loss of pollinators. Decreased levels of essential nutrients like vitamin C and zinc, crucial for collagen synthesis and immune function, illustrate how nutritional deficiencies manifest in practice.
Finally, the decline of insects reflects a broader biological pattern that clinicians readily recognize: systems pushed beyond their adaptive capacity do not fail linearly. They quietly compensate, until suddenly they don’t. Intensive care units are filled with patients who were “fine” until they weren’t. Ecosystems behave similarly.
For clinicians, ignoring the collapse of insect populations is like ignoring rising lactate levels in a patient who “seems stable.” The number itself is important, but what it represents is even more important.
Technology Will Not Save Us from Biology
There is a growing confidence—often unspoken—that technology will compensate for ecological losses. Artificial pollination. Synthetic food systems. Laboratory-developed substitutes for biological complexity. These ideas are appealing because they promise control.
But insects perform trillions of micro-interactions every day, at scales and in contexts that no centralized system can match. They have evolved over hundreds of millions of years and have continuously adapted to local conditions, without energy costs and without a maintenance budget.
Replacing this with machines is not innovation. It is an illusion. Caged Science and the Problem of Silence
One of the most troubling aspects of the insect population collapse is not the loss itself, but the lackluster response from institutions. Funding for entomology has declined. Long-term ecological monitoring is rare and receives little support. Chemical approvals are often based on short-term data.
Long-term toxicity testing, ignoring chronic, sublethal, and ecosystem-related effects.¹⁹
This mirrors patterns we also see in modern medicine: limited endpoints, short time horizons, and an overreliance on interventions disconnected from systems-level understanding.
When science becomes gripped by industrial timelines and regulatory complacency, early warning signs are reframed as “unproven” rather than urgently investigated.
What would restraint look like? This is not a call for panic, but rather a call for restraint and transparency.
We need:
Long-term, independent ecological monitoring
Environmental safety testing that evaluates chronic, cumulative, and synergistic effects
Reduction, not expansion, of the chemical burden on the environment
Agricultural practices that restore biodiversity rather than suppress it
Intellectual humility about what we do not yet understand
Progress that undermines its own biological basis is not true progress; it leads to the depletion of vital resources. Moreover, healthcare leaders hold a unique position of influence and responsibility. By leveraging their platforms and professional networks, they can advocate for stricter environmental monitoring and policy changes. This advocacy can include pushing for legislation that supports sustainable practices, investing in research that links environmental health to patient outcomes, and collaborating with public health and environmental organizations to implement meaningful change. As guardians of human health, healthcare leaders can emphasize the urgency of this ecological crisis and support initiatives that contribute to healthier ecosystems.
We must act now. By adopting a local habitat, no matter how small, each of us can contribute to the conservation of biological diversity. This is a call to collective stewardship, transforming warnings into concrete action. When individuals join in, the collective effort to preserve our environment is strengthened. This participatory hope can temper despair while maintaining the urgency of our cause.
Clinicians, in particular, play a crucial role in this effort. They can integrate ecological awareness into their practice by educating patients about the connection between the environment and human health. By advocating for healthier ecosystems and supporting local health and environmental initiatives, clinicians strengthen not only their patients but also their communities. Through these efforts, they emphasize the importance of ecological stewardship and ensure that both current and future generations maintain a healthy connection with their environment.
Insects don’t communicate through press releases, organize protests, or appear in financial reports. They simply disappear. By the time their absence becomes apparent through crop failures, nutritional deficiencies, ecosystem instability, and increased human disease, it is too late for effective measures.
This is a call to action for medical professionals. As first responders, physicians and healthcare providers play a crucial role in recognizing ecological warning signs and advocating for preventive measures. It is essential that medical professionals integrate environmental health assessments into their practice, strengthening the connection between ecological and human health. By taking action now, clinicians can help avert an ecological crisis and ensure a sustainable future for both the planet and human life.
Civilizations don’t just fall prey to war or economics. They fall when the living systems that sustain them are quietly dismantled.
This current lull shouldn’t be interpreted as stability.
It’s a warning. ©Dr. Joseph Varon.
Response.
I’m angry. No, I’m furious.
And while I cover wars, politics, health, and more! Of course, it affects me. I’m also an emotional human being. I’ve always been able to find a way to avoid being stifled. But this is so mean, so base, so cowardly, and inferior, that it deeply affects me. I’m talking about all the things that are slowly killing people. So slowly, so cowardly, and so mean that it barely bears a name and isn’t immediately noticeable.
Who’s to blame? The politicians who allow this to happen! This group of self-congratulatory bureaucrats without any sense of humanity and reality are killing humanity very slowly because the slowly dying human being is still very economically viable until and even after death have health values.
For the industry that makes people sick. Because the word “health” cannot be used here because it has no value, even remotely! Deliberately making people sick is even prohibited by law, and yet it’s allowed. That says a lot about law enforcement and their accomplices, the politicians. Politicians and their officials are merely informers of the industries that make a fortune from people. We are economic factors slowly being guided toward death.
This starts at birth! Even then, substances are injected into a baby that cause illness later in life and compromise the immune system. Then, for the rest of your life, you are offered food that isn’t natural food, but merely a variation that serves as filler. And this has several causes.
The politicians are too stupid, too cowardly, too uninterested to take steps to protect you from the companies that use agricultural poisons and fertilizers to slowly kill you. Slowly, because only then do you become a profit model. And doctors are too stupid to see that their method is ineffective and therefore a way to induce a slow, but oh-so-profitable, chronic death. I have to give doctors that credit; they have excellent chemical medications to delay death as long as possible. But these doctors don’t realize they’re drug dealers for the pharmaceutical industry! All for the greater glory of the industry, which makes billions from this.
Then I come to you, the citizens who allow all this. Who don’t realize it, who accept it. Who are even happy about it!
Hospitals, which also have a very good reputation because they are houses where diseases are bred, are like waiting rooms that are overcrowded. So busy, in fact, that for many, there are long waits or no room left. The remaining available places are systematically reduced by the clever politicians who have held sway over the past decades. And yet, they are re-elected time and again. Either by the people, or by a fraudulent computer system. Look at Robbycob Jetten, of DooD666. From a crippled party to victory. Suspicious in my eyes.
When you’re attacked, you’re allowed to defend yourself. That’s still a valid law. But what if you’re being slowly killed? Then this law doesn’t apply!
And yet, you’re allowed to defend yourself. Not by using violence. But, for example, to help farmers switch to organic farming and livestock farming. No longer buying factory-processed food. No longer buying soft drinks because you know they contain too many harmful chemicals. That’s how you kill the murderers without firing a shot! Let these companies bleed to death. You can still do it now; soon it will be too late and they’ll force you to buy this junk.
Unemployed people and welfare recipients can help farmers by weeding instead of protecting their crops with toxic chemicals! It’s wonderful to be outdoors, helping the community live differently. That’s community spirit! Slowly returning to nature. In the upcoming elections, we can also vote en masse for those parties that have shown they do stand up for the people, but are being threatened by the ruling politicians through lawsuits.
I’ll mention just two parties that qualify: Forum for Democracy and BVNL. If these two parties gain a majority in the House of Representatives, the Netherlands can once again have a healthy population! ~ Piki
Take back your own authority, don’t be afraid of all the negativity, don’t be discouraged. Think about all the things you can do to process what comes your way. Above all, detox, both physically and mentally, because: “We are all part of the universe, and consider all the thoughts you send out and receive.”