Call it global warming, earth's six mass extinction, or a dangerous side effect of human activity, but the verdict couldn't be any clearer: insects are staring down extinction and they may be completely wiped off the planet within just 100 years.

And if you're thinking good riddance, you couldn't be more wrong. Because if insects go, nature itself will suffer from catastrophic collapse.

reuters

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According to a scientific paper published in the journal Biological Conservation, insects are fast disappearing from our planet and a lot of it is because of human activity-related causes.

As much as 40% of insect species are rapidly declining and over 30% of all insect population is endangered and facing extinction, the report claims.

The researchers who wrote the paper blame aggressive agriculture -- with use of deadly pesticide -- rapid urbanisation and climate change as major factors accelerating the death of all insects around the world.

40% of all insects are staring at extinction

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According to a report in The Guardian, the insect population is disappearing at a shocking eight times faster than mammals, birds and reptiles on earth, as the planet reportedly shifts into its sixth mass extinction cycle, thanks to human activity playing a huge catalyst.

This is the worrying part: according to scientific data, insect population around the world is falling at 2.5% per year, with a dangerous suggestion that if this trend isn't reverse quickly all insects could vanish within 100 years.

Reuters

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If insects keep disappearing at a rapid rate, what will birds, reptiles, fish and other smaller mammals eat to survive? "If this food source is taken away, all these animals starve to death," said Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney, Australia, who co-authored the paper on insect extinction with Kris Wyckhuys at the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.

Make no mistakes, if we don't act now to reverse the trend of rapid insect decline around the world, the entire planet's ecosystem will be damaged beyond repair. And it will have a huge impact on the survival of humans, too.