For those concerned about wild animals, such a quick rate of decline could give some reassurance (in addition to the theoretical arguments) that wild insect populations will be small in the long-run.
For those of us more active in other cause areas, could you clarify what you mean by this? Are you coming from an anti-natalist angle here, and is that the prevalent position in the wild animal community? What are the additional “theoretical arguments” for expecting small insect populations?
Thanks for posting this. I am grateful they published this report, and I hope that their explicit reframing in terms of existential risk will get the EA community’s attention.
The EA standpoint so far has been “lots of money is already being thrown at climate change, it’s mostly a question of policy now”. And that’s true. Good ideas are out there: fee-and-dividend carbon pricing, Project Drawdown, etc.; all it takes is political will. Unfortunately, in my experience, many EAs take this to mean that climate change is an issue they can’t help with.
It’s true that it is difficult finding out which policy approaches are effective and politically viable, and it’s also difficult to convince others that the climate needs urgent attention. Therefore, it seems to me that there is still much potential for EA organizations to give better advice to those of us who want to contribute not as donors or full-time researchers, but as citizens doing some “effective activism” in their spare time. If anyone can point me to work that has been or is being done in this direction, I would be grateful.