We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty–densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska–and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused. Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls–sisters, eight and eleven–go missing. “Eight simple actions, most with immediate impact, that many people can undertake on their own, regardless of background, occupation, or geographic location.Spellbinding, moving–evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world–this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer. PNAS: Eight simple actions that individuals can take to save insects from global declines (January 12, 2021) But a new study of butterflies in the western United States has found that warmer fall weather may be taking as big, if not a bigger, toll.” Read the full study here. Scientists have often blamed habitat loss or pesticide use. “Earth is in the midst of an insect apocalypse, with thousands of species dwindling over the past several decades. Science: Butterflies are vanishing in the western U.S.-but not for the reasons scientists thought (March 4, 2021) Wilson has famously observed, the Earth would ‘regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed 10,000 years ago.” But “if insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.’ It is, therefore, shocking-and alarming-that in most places scientists have looked recently, they’ve found that insect numbers are falling.”

“If humans were to suddenly disappear, biologist Edward O. National Geographic: Where Have All The Insects Gone? (April 23, 2020) Matthew Forister - Insect ecologist at the University of Nevada, Reno David Wagner - Entomologist and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn Her new book is Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future She wrote a cover story for National Geographic’s May 2020 issue about worldwide insect decline.

Elizabeth Kolbert - Staff writer at the New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction.

And we ask: what does loss could mean for us, and what can we do about it?

Disappearing earth