Insect populations are dropping even in remote places of the US that are away from human activity. The findings have led a research team to conclude that warmer seasons due to climate change are the main cause. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) focused on the number of insects present in a meadow in the Colorado mountains. They studied the density of flying insects. And the study covered 15 summer seasons between 2000 and 2024. They found that insect numbers declined by an average 66% per year. Over the 20-year study, that amounts to a 724% drop. The research team found that a warmer summer often led to fewer insects during the next year’s summer. That fact, they argue, points to rising temps as the cause of the falling numbers. The study was published in the journal Ecology. A major 2019 study found that more than 40% of insects face extinction. That study also pointed to climate change as a key factor. But it cited habitat loss as a threat to insects as well. The UNC left out causes other than climate change. It did so by counting insects only in a meadow untouched by humans. “It's quite remote," study author Keith Sockman told NPR. He's a UNC professor. But even in that setting, they observed a major decline in insect numbers. “That doesn't leave a lot of other options other than changing climate to explain this,” he said. Entomologist Jonathan Larson said Sockman’s findings reveal that humans are changing even parts of the world we don't visit. That's because climate change is driven largely by humans burning fossil fuels for energy. Larson was not a part of Sockman's study. “This makes me think of humans as like a really bad smell,” Larson told NPR. “It doesn't matter if the source is elsewhere, we kind of permeate everything.” Reflect: What changes in the environment or seasons have you noticed where you live?
