Introduction: Life with Insects

Part 1: Why Insects Matter

Chapter 1: A Brief History of Insects
Chapter 2: The Importance of Insects
Chapter 3: The Wonders of Insects

Part 2: Decrease in Insects

Chapter 4: Evidence of Insect Decline
Chapter 5: Changing Reference Points

Part 3: Causes of Insect Decline

Chapter 6: Losing Your Home
Chapter 7: Toxic Land
Chapter 8 Weed Removal
Chapter 9: Green Desert
Chapter 10: Pandora's Box
Chapter 11 The Coming Storm
Chapter 12: The Sparkling Earth
Chapter 13 Invasion
Chapter 14: Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns
Chapter 15: Stabbed 1,000 Times and Died

Part 4 Where Are We Going?

Chapter 16: The Present as Seen from the Future

Part 5 What Can We Do?

Chapter 17: Talking about the Environment
Chapter 18: Greening the City
Chapter 19: The Future of Farming
Chapter 20: Nature Everywhere
Chapter 21: Action Advice for Everyone

Acknowledgements
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Translator's Note
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The extinction of insects, which has been covered up and ignored due to ignorance and hatred,
Silent Spring isn't over yet.

Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which warned of the harmful effects of pesticide use, humanity has been given yet another weapon to dominate and manipulate the environment.
Pesticides, often touted as harmless to humans, pollute lands around the world and drive wild grasses and insects to a silent death.
Weed-free and single-crop farms deprive insects of food sources.
The wide variety of pesticides and insect repellents on the shelves of supermarkets and marts allows us to kill insects we need and those we don't at will.
However, we usually cannot tell the difference between beneficial and harmful insects, and we do not want to know about them.
Of the approximately 4 million species of insects estimated to exist worldwide, only 1 million have been identified by humans, and research personnel are severely lacking.
Ignorance and hatred towards insects are destroying the Earth's environment, driving them to extinction.
The extinction of insects, which are at the bottom of the food chain, will ultimately pose a serious threat to human civilization as it will lead to the death of the animals that prey on them.
In "The Silent Earth," Dave Goulson argues that humans are using indifference as a weapon to destroy insect habitats, and calls for greater attention to insects.


New introduction at the end of each chapter
The strange and beautiful life cycle of insects

The biggest reason we are indifferent to the extinction of insects is because we do not know them.
The author introduces the strange and beautiful life cycle of insects at the end of each chapter so that readers can see insects beautifully.
Honey pot ants, which fill their bodies with honey to become food storage containers, and suicide bomber ants, which explode their bodies to attack intruders when they get older, are representative examples of altruistic behavior that sacrifices themselves to maintain the colony.
The story of leafcutter ants cultivating mushrooms and orchid wasps collecting orchid pollen despite the absence of nectar to attract females shows us a unique way of coexisting with plants that we had never known before.
Also, the story of the bombardier beetle, which shoots toxic benzoquinone from its rear end to scare off predators, the “femme fatale” firefly that mimics the blinking of other species to prey on males, and the emerald wasp, which injects poison into the brains of cockroaches before laying eggs so that the young ones eat them from the inside out, gives a glimpse into the gritty and thrilling survival methods of the insect world.


“Time is running out.”
The easiest ways to protect insects and human civilization

The movement to prevent insect extinction is the minimum we can do to save all of us from the environmental crisis.
As the author says, if we can prevent the extinction unfolding before our eyes, we can also prevent an even greater crisis.
In this book, Dave Goulson offers a list of actionable strategies at the individual household, local, and national levels of government.
Households can influence the food supply system by voting for parties that promote environmental policies and purchasing locally grown, seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Local governments can reduce mowing in flowerbeds and parks to encourage wildflowers to bloom, and create weekend farms to help rewild land altered by human hands.
The central government should provide ecology classes for children and teachers and share eco-friendly farming methods with farmers.
Additionally, we can reduce pesticide spraying and artificial lighting use to create an environment where diverse life can coexist, and we can hold those responsible for pollution accountable by introducing pesticide and fertilizer taxes.
Each action is something you can do immediately, but the impact will be enormous.
The author encourages readers to participate by directly providing various information necessary for these activities, such as websites and purchasing locations.


This book addresses the crisis facing insects and makes a powerful argument that humans are negatively impacting the environment and must take responsibility for it.
Humans are never the masters of nature, and must coexist with other beings as a part of nature.
This book, which uses scientific evidence to explain the rapid decline of insect populations and its causes, will allow readers to discover a previously unseen wondrous universe of insects and realize that they must act now to protect them.

A wonderful book… …thoughtfully explains how the rapid decline of insects poses a serious threat to all life on Earth.

― “Book List” Best Reviews