Not an expert; I think a better question would be not “why aren’t we dying” but “what we can actually see if...”. We’re not dying on “this” scale due to very many reasons. Here’s just some thoughts I had, all “weak hypotheses”.
So, maybe:
1) we need better studies, and simply cannot say anything from “undifferentiated insect biomass” (seriously, what part of it was pollinators, what part—predators, etc?)
2) due to some weird thing, most of the effect is happening in the sea, not on land (how much organic matter is washed out now, and how it compares to 50 years before?)
3) it’s not extinction we should be looking out for, but rapid evolution of other organisms that are going to occupy the freed niches (since the one rule of biology says “it will be consumed” :); an especially interesting problem here is evolution of communities, not of species. Think drier plains & Artemisia, Atriplex, etc -based herbaceous layer instead of the usual “full-blooded Poaceae-Fabaceae seesaw”? Dunno when desertification will catch up, but if Ambrosia is going to be typical of the new coenoses, pollinators are gonna sell out.
Not an expert; I think a better question would be not “why aren’t we dying” but “what we can actually see if...”. We’re not dying on “this” scale due to very many reasons. Here’s just some thoughts I had, all “weak hypotheses”.
So, maybe:
1) we need better studies, and simply cannot say anything from “undifferentiated insect biomass” (seriously, what part of it was pollinators, what part—predators, etc?)
2) due to some weird thing, most of the effect is happening in the sea, not on land (how much organic matter is washed out now, and how it compares to 50 years before?)
3) it’s not extinction we should be looking out for, but rapid evolution of other organisms that are going to occupy the freed niches (since the one rule of biology says “it will be consumed” :); an especially interesting problem here is evolution of communities, not of species. Think drier plains & Artemisia, Atriplex, etc -based herbaceous layer instead of the usual “full-blooded Poaceae-Fabaceae seesaw”? Dunno when desertification will catch up, but if Ambrosia is going to be typical of the new coenoses, pollinators are gonna sell out.
(that’s just off the top of my head)