if you want to save the world start with the insects. 
When we were growing up, there were insects everywhere. When we drove our car headlights and windshield were spattered with insects. When we sat outside, the drone of gnats, mosquitoes, or crickets—depending where we were living at the time—were almost deafening. Sometimes they would drive us indoors. A nuisance? Evidently, for too many people. Now I never see a lawn covered with daisies nor native wildflowers in a suburban yard. Pesticides, over-population, NIMBY, industrial farming, ignorance of and distaste for the insect world have drastically reduced the insect population of our little planet. But they remain vital not just to the wildlife food chain, but to the biodiversity of our plants and trees as well, which means to us. Scientists may think they can monitor by killing more insects and trying to get more statistics—but all you have to do is look at the bumper on your car after driving on a summer evening to realize that a catastrophe is in the making. You don’t have to kill more insects to analyze what is killing them off. You need to have a welcoming, sympathetic, and enlightening conversation with them. Be still, and listen to what they are saying.