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> How would one donate money to these specific people? ... Why don't we support that more? Insects and other arthropods are generally considered gross and anno
by jly 8y ago
> How would one donate money to these specific people? ... Why don't we support that more?
Insects and other arthropods are generally considered gross and annoying by most people. In many urban environments, less is usually considered better. Conservation efforts are a lot more attractive when they focus on big animals more like us.
There are some great organizations focusing on habitat restoring and arthropod conservation. Xerces in the US is one worthy of support to reach the kind of people doing this work -- https://xerces.org/ https://xerces.org/
- PavlovsCat 8y agoAnd then there's the effort put into making us even more squeamish. Kinda like you can't sell pointless cleaning products to people who aren't paranoid about "germs" etc. Yes, nobody wants insects in their home, but there's still a difference between that and finding them "gross" when they're outside doing their thing IMO. I wouldn't assume that our distance from insects is just a result of our "natural" being grossed out by them, it might also be the other way around. Probably a bit of both. I'm sure there's a lot baked in for good reason evolutionarily, insects do transmit diseases after all. But still, we also have a lot of great ways to deal with that without outright having to turn everything into a wasteland. Maggots and fruit flies and spiders are one thing, but if people are grossed out by a butterfly, the problem is with them. Yes, I also jump when a big fat spider crawls on me when I don't expect it, but other than that, it's a matter of practice and perspective. ("it's even more scared of you than you of it" and all that). If we can't grow up to even that level we're truly hopeless.