The Role of the Tiniest Creatures on This Earth
Somehow this didn’t post on January 5th, 2026, so here it is!
Writing about the Creation story means that there are unlimited topics to cover. Today, the topic is insects. “Oh, no!” I can just hear some of you readers groaning as you read this! And yet, each of the species of insects also has an important purpose, just like the other major groups of Earth dwellers: humans, animals and plants. I know that for me, and I am sure for others, insects are just thought of as pests to be avoided, certainly we do not want to be bitten by them! But, let’s look at how an entomologist, Eric R. Eaton, sees them.
1. “Insects are essential to our planet’s health and survival, providing ecosystem services that are crucial for maintaining the balance of nature. They sustain birds, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and aquatic life, as well as pollinators and pest-controllers. Without insects, there would be devastating food shortages and unpleasant things happening on our planet.
2. Insects drive the production of essential seeds, fruits and vegetables via pollination and are necessary decomposers of organic matter. Without insects, our lives would be vastly different. They pollinate many of our fruits, flowers, and vegetables, maintaining healthy soil, recycling nutrients, and pollinating flowers and crops.
3. The balance of nature depends on the activities of parasites and predators, most of which are species of insects. From pollination, nutrient cycling, and pest control insects make our world a better place by maintaining balance in nature. They clean up dung, dead plants, and animal bodies, returning them to the soil as nutrient-rich organic matter.”[1]
This is all new to me; I just learned what value they are to us in research for this blog series. The same is true for the plants and animals until I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer a couple of years ago about how the Native Americans live in reciprocity with the world, taking care of the plants and animals just as the plants and animals sustain them. I had no idea before how essential all the living things are beyond just knowing that they exist on this earth and are very interesting to me. Now I see more the wholeness of life here on earth and how interdependent we all are on this incredibly interdependent system of life here on Earth designed by God. No wonder, He rejoiced when the creation was done: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” [Genesis 1:31)
Life was designed to be sustained in every way we—the plants and animals and insects and humans—need. It is time that we humans take a good, close look at what we are doing to undo the glory of God’s creation and rein in the substances and business practices that are destroying all the good that God created, especially the coal and gas usage, plastics, and pesticides across the world. We also need to take much greater care in deforestation as the impact on animals is horrendous: loss of “shelter, nesting sites, and refuge for countless species.”[2]
God created each of the plants and animals and insects for a specific purpose, and then He gave human beings dominion over the Earth[Genesis 1:26-28]. The plants and animals and insects are all limited by the purpose that God implanted in them, but with humans, from the Garden of Eden on, we have been loath to follow God’s dictates about these other contributors to our lives here on Earth. And now, we see the results of our just using the Earth for our own purposes and denying the other, non-human needs and contributions. Nor have we realized how disastrous our abuses of the other occupants of this earth could be.
So now we are facing Global Warming and there is little indication in our country now or in many others that the governments and residents really want to tackle this huge problem which has created across the world so many fires and floods and worse hurricanes than usual and much more. The deserts this summer were unbearable because of the rising heat. Our current president just ignores the consequences, because he really doesn’t care about the earth, only about his wealthy friends and the companies producing oil and gas and coal and what would help them and what they could contribute to his own wealth.
We must realize that we are killing off this planet by abusing it with deforestation, pollutants and plastics that are poisonous to our earth and to many species, the consequences of so much coal and gas and oil use across the Earth, and more. Bing.com, a search engine created by Microsoft, reports:
“The Earth is currently facing a climate crisis that is making it increasingly uninhabitable. Current projections suggest that if humanity continues to ignore climate change, pollu-tion, and environmental degradation, the planet could become almost entirely uninhabi-table by 2050. The average global temperature has already risen by 1.1°C since pre-industrial times, and if greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, the global temperature could rise by 3°C or more by 2050. This would make large parts of the planet uninhabitable due to extreme heat, especially in regions like the Middle East and S. Asia. Additionally, climate change would lead to a decline in food production, water scarcity, and the extinction of many animal and plant species.” [3]
We humans must wake up to the damage we are causing to the ability of the earth to support the animals and plants and insects that not only make this planet their home, but that also support all the life on this planet, including us human beings who were given dominion by God over all that exists here on Earth. It is time that we all woke up to our role in climate change and how we can change our destruction of the planet into a healthy way of living for us all.
[1] https://blog.entomologist.net/why-do-we-need-insects-in-our-world.html#google_vignette
[2] https://biologyinsights.com/deforestations-impact-on-animals-and-ecosystems/
[3] https://www.bing.com/search?FORM=ARPSEC&PC=ARPL&PTAG=1319&q=at%20the%20rate%20we%27re%20abusing%20our%20planet%2C%20when%20will%20it%20truly%20become%20unlivable%3F