Comment by sltkr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sltkr | Hacker News Reader

Interestingly, Quillette published an article last week, suggesting that the concerns about the insect crisis are overblown:

https://quillette.com/2021/07/25/the-insect-apocalypse-that-...

They cite many decent sources that seem to corroborate this, though none as respectable as Nature.

What's interesting about the Nature news article is that it very carefully avoids making any definite claims of what is going to happen if things stay the same. The author points out that pollinators are important to the ecosystem (true, of course) and that they're "under threat", which seems intended to imply that the stability of the ecosystem itself is under threat. But no explicit claims about the impact of on the ecosystem at large are actually made in the article.

As a layman, I'm not sure what to make of this. At this stage, it seems like these studies are mostly of interest to researchers, and there is no real need for the general public to worry about "A World Without Bees", yet that's probably going to be the popular interpretation anyway.

The Quillette itself has quite the reputation of being an untrustworthy source. The article may be well cited, but I'd caution anyone reading this to think critically and do your own research (on the topic and The Quillette).

The Media Bias Chart puts Quillette at about the same level of reliability as FiveThirtyEight. A bit higher than CNN. A bit lower than The Atlantic.

https://www.adfontesmedia.com/

How did you determine that Quillette is an untrustworthy source? If you want to convince people, you have to give arguments, not just make statements of facts without anything to back them up.

Personally I don't consider Quillette a source of unbiased truth. Articles are typically written by a single author that has biases of their own, and the quality of argumentation and reputability of references cited varies greatly. Despite that, I feel like it's useful to read about counterpoints to popular narratives. This helps separate out the beliefs that people agree on and the ones that are in dispute.

For example, on the topic of insect extinction, it seems like both sides agree that:

  - Habitat destruction reduces the prevalence of pollinators in human maintained land.
  - No species of bee is at risk of going extinct.

It's telling that my comment was downvoted without any comment explaining what was wrong or bad about it. That confirms to me that people want to believe certain narratives in spite of available evidence, and it shows why alternative media like Quillette are absolutely crucial to allow unbiased people to inform themselves on both sides of the issues before forming a conclusion.

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