A plant bee. Approximately half of all insects have been lost since 1970 due to the heavy use of pesticides, which could spell disaster for all life on Earth, a new report suggests. Conservationists have called for action to be taken to halt the “unnoticed insect apocalypse” in order to prevent a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems.” Leading ecologists at the University of Sussex, who carried out the report for the Wildlife Trusts, revealed that 40 per cent of the one million known insect species are now nearing extinction.

First published in the November 13, 2019, 10:21 p.m. edition

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