Which animal is more important for maintaining the proper balance of earth’s ecosystems, humans or insects? Most people living in these modern times will not hesitate to claim that insects are more important than humans for the preservation of the natural environment. However, if humans were to suddenly disappear, the world would be facing many calamities. For example, nobody would be around to maintain nuclear power plants, which would eventually lead to a nuclear disaster. Natural gas plants would become unmanageable fire pits without humans around to operate these plants. Luckily for mother nature, after several decades of a complete human absence, the earth would begin to reclaim land that was once human property. Life for many other species would go on, even our pets may adapt to life in the wild. On the other hand, insects make up eighty percent of all life on earth, so losing them would be a major blow to all living organisms on the planet. There is also an estimated twenty one quadrillion individual spiders on earth, and their contribution to the ecosystems where they dwell is similar in importance to insects.
Plants and algae are at the very bottom of the food chain, and insects are one step above them. This makes insects very important to just about every other animal on the planet. Without insects, millions of fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds would perish, as insects make up a large part of their diets. Sixty percent of all birds rely on insects for sustenance. In addition to mass extinctions of animals, many forms of plant life would become unable to grow. This is because many insects aerate soil, allowing for vegetation growth. Termites, for example, aerate more soil than earthworms. Flies and dung beetles are also essential for recycling waste. Without these two insects, dead bodies and livestock manure would stack up into enormous piles. Experts believe that after a fifty year insect absence on earth, all life on land would end.
Do you think that humans could inadvertently destroy all forms of insect life by interfering with the world’s climate?
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