The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don’t need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change…. But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months.

Wilson is underscoring ecological dependence and humility: humans often imagine themselves as the planet’s central actors, yet our survival rests on vast, mostly unnoticed systems dominated by invertebrates. Invertebrates drive pollination, decomposition, soil formation, nutrient cycling, and the base of many food webs; remove them and agriculture, ecosystems, and ultimately human life-support systems collapse rapidly. The contrast—Earth continuing with “little change” without humans—functions as a rhetorical check on anthropocentrism and a conservation argument: protecting biodiversity is not sentimental but pragmatic. The quote also reflects Wilson’s broader theme that the “little things that run the world” are foundational to planetary stability.