老司机传媒

Bees are fascinating creatures. Putting aside the urban legend popularized by a certain animated movie about bees that scientists don’t understand how bees are able to fly (popular enough where there are ), if one just puts into their favorite search engine “bee facts,” there is no shortage of actually true facts. Several of my favorites are that the types of flowers that bees gather nectar from can of the honey they produce; or that will always be female, while unfertilized eggs will always be male; or perhaps most importantly, that scientists have discovered, given the opportunity and a stress-free environment, with miniature toy balls for their own enjoyment. Yet—and you should have seen this coming, based on who the author of this article is—bee populations have been on the decline. So, why are these flying hairy syringe raisins dying off, why should we care, and what is being done about it?

To begin with, why are bee populations on the decline? As it turns out—and you should have also seen this coming—the answer is humans. But what is it exactly that humans are doing to cause this decrease in bee populations, especially since this is a global issue? The first and most notable cause is the overuse of pesticides in farming. Essentially, while farmers use pesticides in order to protect crops from some insects—such as locusts or certain beetles that can damage plants—many of these pesticides are not only harmful for those pests, but can also hurt bees. When bees collect pollen from plants that either have been sprayed with pesticides that are harmful for bees, or whose soil has had pesticides applied, can be done to the bee hives. that bees not only reproduce less when a hive is exposed to pesticides, but they also have worse memory and are physically weaker. In turn, it is harder for them to find food, and they have less energy to perform necessary tasks. The hive becomes more susceptible to weather and disease.

Another reason that bee populations have been declining is due to habitat loss. As cities and suburban centers expand, areas where bees previously would have been able to live and forage for food are displaced, so there is less space for large complex ecosystems that bees can live in and contribute to. However, not only do wild bees pollinate natural spaces, but often wild bees pollinate crops. In fact, more than of all of the world’s crop production is improved by the pollination from bees and other pollinators like birds and bats. While some of this is from domesticated bees that farmers bring in intentionally to pollinate, wild bees either contribute more than domesticated bees, or significantly help beyond domesticated bees. Another indirect effect through which expanding human influence has impacted bees is by . As the climate warms and weather becomes more sporadic and extreme, the warmer weather negatively affects the bees by disrupting the seasonal cycles that the colonies rely on. Additionally, the more extreme weather makes flowering , leading to the bees’ life cycles being out of sync with those of the plants.

So, why should we care about decreasing bee populations? As I mentioned before, more than a third of all of the world’s crops either depend on or have improved performance from bees and other similar pollinators. Even if a plant doesn’t need bees to pollinate them in order to produce a crop, they will often have a higher yield if they are pollinated by bees. Looking beyond crops for human consumption, wild bees play important roles in their respective ecosystems, pollinating all kinds of plants, from flowers to trees to bushes, helping them to flower and fruit. This helps produce fruit to feed other animals, as well as simply making more seeds so the plants can spread and survive and spread into future generations. To paint a picture of how much of a risk we are facing, one out of every six bee species have , which is to say, that there are areas where they normally would live where they have completely disappeared. Furthermore, more than 40 percent of bee species are vulnerable to extinction. This reduction in bee diversity is problematic because there are many plant species that are only primarily pollinated by specific bees, so if that one bee species disappears from that region, that can lead to entire ecosystems suffering. When an ecosystem does not have a rich biodiversity, , which can negatively impact human health nearby, air quality, and further increase climate change.

We should note that bees are not the only species that are suffering, and whose disappearance is harming ecosystems around the world, but rather they are just one example of a larger problem. Currently, almost are threatened with extinction, which, if uncorrected, could have immense impacts on the ecosystems where the species live. If these ecosystems suffer, the health of the planet will be damaged as well, which would impact everyone around the world.

So, what has been done to help bee populations endure? In Europe, to address the pesticide problem, one particular type of pesticide which has been found to be particularly harmful to bees has been banned: neonicotinoids. Other countries, including Canada, have also restricted the use of . However, as is the American way, the US has done little to restrict their deployment despite immense evidence of their harm to the environment. Recently, in June of this year, the Environmental Protection Agency has to begin to regulate these pesticides. Specifically, they have begun discussions with other government bodies to decide what should be done, but they estimate that no finalized decisions will be released until 2024. In the meantime, these pesticides, which the EPA found in their own research likely adversely affect between 67 and 79 percent of species, and between 56 and 83 percent of critical habitats, depending on which particular pesticide one uses, will still be able to be used freely by farmers.

Thinking more towards the future, what needs to be done? First of all, working to fight climate change and reducing the global temperature will help stabilize weather and seasonal patterns, which can itself help the bee populations, and also having cleaner air will help bees to be more healthy. Beyond that, reducing the expansion of suburban and agricultural areas into natural habitats to reduce destruction of their ecosystems is essential. But those are societal problems that require societal solutions, which will only take place by government regulation and activism. It turns out there are actually some things that , from planting native flowers and plants in gardens, which are usually preferred by local bee species, to reducing pesticide use, and checking the pesticides that one does use to make sure that they aren’t harmful to pollinators. But it is important to remember that in the process of saving these bees, we are not only helping other species to survive, helping the planet, and improving crop yields to further help improve and provide for humanity; but we are also helping to provide future generations the satisfaction of watching bees with , and enjoying the subtle and yet sophisticated art of photoshopping bees to wear top hats. (Look it up, “bees in top hats,” it is worth the time).