In October 2019 a different group of German scientists published their findings from a study of insect populations in German forests and grasslands over 10 years from 2008 to 2017. The study’s results were deeply troubling. Grasslands fared worst, losing on average two-thirds of their arthropod biomass (the insects, spiders, woodlice and more). In woodlands, biomass dropped by 40%. Terrific [...] A thoughtful explanation of how the dramatic decline of insect species and numbers poses a dire threat to all life on earth." Old Blandfordians have seen the ghostly sheep which runs from Gas Works Corner into the old burial ground in Damory Street’.

The first three parts of the book develop this case, in a calm but impassioned way. They summarise why insects are crucial (and very cool), the current state of scientific research, and ethical and policy arguments succinctly and accessibly. All manner of threats to insect survival and diversity are covered, including city light pollution, herbicides, fungicides, invasive species and more. There was also a turf maze at Pimperne in Dorset, said to have been destroyed by the plough in 1730. John Aubrey, after whom the Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named, was educated at nearby Blandford school, of which he wrote in his diary in the 17th century (as interpreted by Ruth Scurr in her highly readable book John Aubrey, My Own Life), ‘I have found as much roguery at Blandford school as there is said to be at Newgate prison’. He also wrote in his diary that year, ‘Sometimes, on holy days or play days, we boys go to tread the maze at Pimperne, which is near Blandford.’

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This reader found the book literate, persuasive, sympathetic, and based both on sound science and on a willingness to grapple with the realities. Goulson is the best ambassador for small life that we have. That I came away feeling even more gloomy than before is not his fault. It is ours." Below: The top of sarsen stone 23, showing two tenons to secure lintels. The stone collapsed in 1964 and was re-erected by Professor Atkinson in 1964. Encased here in a protective cradle, ready for re-erection. Lady Antrobus observed the restorations at Stonehenge carried out in September 1901, resulting in an article she authored being published in the Saturday October 19th, 1901 edition of Country Life, in which she observed:

Insects are the key to so many processes, food chains and the natural working of the planet. We need them. As Rachel Carson so powerfully advocated in Silent Spring, the misuse of pesticides has a hugely hushed up negative effect on the environment. Dave Gouson builds on her argument here, capturing the importance of insects and how the continued use of chemicals and climate change effects wildlife. He describes how our behaviour is annihilating one of the most overlooked types of creatures on the planet: he rightfully suggests that we need to do better. In 1963, two years before I was born, Rachel Carson warned us in her book Silent Spring that we were doing terrible damage to our planet. She would weep to see how much worse it has become. Insect-rich wildlife habitats, such as hay meadows, marshes, heathland and tropical rainforests, have been bulldozed, burned or ploughed to destruction on a vast scale. The problems with pesticides and fertilisers, she highlighted, have become far more acute, with an estimated 3m tonnes of pesticides now going into the global environment every year. Some of these new pesticides are thousands of times more toxic to insects than any that existed in Carson’s day. Soils have been degraded, rivers choked with silt and polluted with chemicals. Climate change, a phenomenon unrecognised in her time, is now threatening to further ravage our planet. These changes have all happened in our lifetime, on our watch, and they continue to accelerate.Rev. W.K. Kendall recorded ‘A very curious form which the customary bonfire celebration on the Isle of Portland on the night of 5 November had taken. When the bonfire was lighted, the following custom was observed. A man taking up one of the children in his arms gave the signal, and then all the others followed him in single file round the fire, over which he leaped with the child in his arms. When the fire began to burn low, the children also jumped over it. The following doggerel was sung:- Given these huge gaps in our knowledge, are biblical phrases such as "insect apocalypse" justified? This has been much discussed and there are two contributions worth highlighting. Ed Yong wrote an excellent piece for The Atlantic in 2019, pointing out that headlines of total insect extinction in X years are absurd (Goulson also calls this "an unlikely claim" [p. 64]), and hits the nail on the head by reminding us that this question "goes beyond the fate of insects: How do we preserve our rapidly changing world when the unknowns are vast and the cost of inaction is potentially high?" Do we wait and gather more data, or, with the precautionary principle in mind, act now? Then, just this June, the British Ecological Society put up a panel debate on YouTube whose take-home message effectively was "be worried, but don't believe the hype". The Quiet Earth is a 1985 New Zealand post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Geoff Murphy and starring Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge and Peter Smith as three survivors of a cataclysmic disaster. It is loosely based on the 1981 science fiction novel of the same name by Craig Harrison. [2] [3] Other sources of inspiration have been suggested: the 1954 novel I Am Legend, Dawn of the Dead, and especially the 1959 film The World, the Flesh and the Devil, of which it has been called an unofficial remake. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Plot [ edit ] Below: Two photographs by Lady Antrobus of the great trilithon stone 56 before it was straightened in 1901. The upper image shows it leaning hard over onto bluestone 68, which can be seen here in the foreground to the right.

Overall, this is a very engaging book that discusses several important ideas. Whist I doubt it will make as many waves as its namesake Silent Spring, it certainly is no less brave in its scope and purpose. The Dorchester contributor has heard of a highly useful spell which will blister and burn your enemies — just throw a handful of salt on the fire in the morning, that is all!’. I imagine it’s easy enough to get people interested in bees, but harder for other, less cute and obviously useful insects to appeal? A meeting was held at Stonehenge with Sir Edmund Antrobus the owner of the monument in March 1901 (reported in the Times newspaper on 13 April 1901) to discuss the question of the best and wisest steps to be taken to ensure the safe-keeping and future preservation of the monument. The advice given by the representatives of the Society of Antiquaries, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments and the Wiltshire Archaeological society was: Tyson, Neil deGrasse (6 June 2014). " '2001' and beyond: Neil deGrasse Tyson names his top 10 sci-fi films". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 16 June 2015.An urgent and compelling new book from the bestselling author: his first major work of popular science and environmental activism - part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for change. Below: ‘Bluestone 69 of the the Bluestone Horseshoe being temporarily removed during work to re-erect trilithon stones 57 and 58.’– Historic England. It's remarkable that [insect] decline has gone largely unnoticed by non-specialists [...] Keep dreaming, Dave Goulson. We'll need more dreamers like you." Observations with a theodolite were made on June 25 of the position of the rising sun by Mr. Howard Payn of the Solar Physics Laboratory, S. Kensington.

Eye-opening, inspiring and riveting, Silent Earth is part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for a greener planet. It is a call to arms for profound change at every level – in government policy, agriculture, industry and in our own homes and gardens. Although time is running out, it is not yet too late for insect populations to recover. We may feel helpless in the face of many of the environmental issues that loom on our horizon, but Goulson shows us that we can all take simple steps to encourage insects and counter their destruction. I have published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and am author of Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation (2010, Oxford University Press) and A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape), a popular science book about bumblebees. A Buzz in the Meadow (Jonathon Cape) is due to be published in September 2014. Enlightening, urgent and funny, Goulson's book is a timely call for action. New Statesman, *Books of the Year*Silent Earth is simultaneously a love letter to insects and a battle paean for the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. It is a factual and scientific book, yet there is so much extraordinary within the invertebrate world that reading it feels like watching a parallel universe, one that is intimately entwined with our own, and at the same time strange and unknown. The approachability of Silent Earth is a great boon to those of us who are studying this alternate universe: the book clearly and uncompromisingly describes key issues we want the wider public to understand and appreciate. Yet it is also terrifying. This book is longer, more serious, a timely warning, and a wake up call about the catastrophic decline in the insect population world-wide. We hear a good deal about insects as pollinators, but how about insects as removers of dung, vegetable waste and dead bodies? Thus Part One is ‘Why Insects Matter’ - Part Two ‘Insect Declines’, Part Three the causes of these declines. Part Four is a chilling dystopian view of a world where biodiversity has crumbled away and human society has as a result collapsed. Part Five ‘What can we do?’ offers a series of actions, world scale, national, and immediate and personal, that could tip the balance away from disaster.