My family spent Christmas out at the farm house that we grew up in. It was a typical hot summers night like many we've experienced there over the years. But I noticed something different this time - there were no insects. No flies. No beetles. No mosquitoes. No midges. None of the other weird and wonderful bugs that I don't even know how to classify.
We had the lights on. On a warm night in the middle of summer this would usually attract an enormous variety of flying critters from miles around. They'd crash against the window and swirl around the light globes once they found a way inside. Christmas beetles so thick they almost blacked out the the screen door. This year... nothing.
And I think about the insectivorous birds that are (were?) always around and my heart sinks. The beautiful blue wrens who boldly hop and flittter around the garden. The welcome swallows darting and weaving around the varandah posts. What will they be eating? Can they survive?
Hopefully this lack of insects is just a temporary result of the drought - El Nino is biting hard. But it's been dry before and I don't ever remember there being no insects. I don't have data on that though.. just an impression that things are not right with the world.
There's actually a great word for this: Solastagia. It describes the melancholia or psychological distress caused by observed environmental changes. And it's obviously exacerbated by a sense of powerlessness or lack of control over the unfolding events.
My wifes grandfather is 93. He's never been what you'd call an environmentalist, but he has recently been asking questions. Maybe he's looking back on his life and memories. Why don't you see that type of bird around here anymore? Why don't they catch that type of fish anymore? Why haven't I seen that animal since I was a kid?
My wife explains the basics of biodiversity loss as best she can. But we don't mention that we're inside the Holocene extinction event. He's already depressed enough.
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