Without insects, humanity is doomed.
A bold headline – and, unfortunately, 100% accurate. Insects are essential to our survival. Without them, we humans would face an existential threat. That’s because insects perform countless ecological keystone roles. They pollinate around 80 percent of all wild and cultivated plants. If they vanish, we’re looking at massive crop failures and the collapse of entire food chains. And no – we can’t tech our way out of this. Some estimates suggest that it would take only a few months before humans would begin to disappear from the planet as a consequence of insect decline. Countless animals and plant species would follow, and ecological balance as we know it would be gone.
Still not convinced? Let’s talk numbers. Insects also keep the economy going. Their pollination alone is worth hundreds of billions of euros each year. And they do all that for basically nothing. If we paid bees the German minimum wage, a single jar of honey would cost more than €100,000. So it’s probably a good thing arthropods haven’t discovered capitalism. But they don’t just pollinate – they also keep our soils fertile by decomposing organic waste and returning nutrients to the ground. That’s not only useful – it’s non-negotiable.
There are around 1.4 billion insects for every single human on Earth. So if you’re thinking, “How bad can it be if a few bugs go extinct?”, you’re way off. Numbers don’t protect us from biodiversity loss – and that’s the real issue. Scientists around the world are warning us that the dramatic decline in insect populations in recent decades has long since crossed the line of what’s recoverable. Pesticides, land sealing, industrial agriculture, and climate change are putting enormous pressure on these tiny creatures – everywhere.
Against this backdrop, the 7th “Tag der Insekten” took place on April 3, 2025, at the Umweltforum in Berlin. As always, it was hosted and organized by Dr. Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus, about whom (and whose story) we’ll be publishing a full article soon. We – Jörn, Patrick and Michi – took part in the event and came away with plenty of inspiring insights. As always, Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen stood out with a contribution that beautifully combined relevance, emotion, and clarity. Also outstanding were the presentations by Prof. Josef Settele – if you’re unfamiliar with his work, do yourself a favor and look him up. The documentary The Entrepreneur, the Village and the Artists, which we watched the night before, offered a compelling view of how even traditional, profit-driven business leaders can rethink their attitudes toward insects – and change.
The “Tag der Insekten” left us with a renewed sense of urgency – and hope. This fight is necessary, and we’re not in it alone. There are countless allies out there, working through initiatives and projects of all kinds. We need insects to survive – and if empathy for animals doesn’t do it for you, maybe the survival of humanity will.