As Albert Einstein would say, ‘If bee’s were to disappear off the face of this earth, man would only have four years to live.’ So many people would give so little thought on how much a simple creature, like a honey bee, affects the world. If bee’s were extinct the flowers and plants would not get pollinated. Without pollination all the plants would end up dying. Some of the worlds animals live off of plants such as cows. They would slowly die off as there would be less and less food everyday leaving us without milk or beef. The animals, or humans that live off of meat would eventually die from starvation causing every living thing to become extinct. If humans didn’t die from starvation, we would end up killing ourselves by fighting over what little food was left.
Starting in 2006, the population of bumble bee’s started decreasing. No one could fiqure out why the numbers seemed to be dropping. 30% of bees disapear a year from honey bee colonies. Thats almost 1/3 of the population! Many of the worker bees die or disapear which with less worker bees, colonies become weaker and weaker. Soon they wont be able to function. In one winter 800,000 bees had died! Its a scary thought on how many bees are left.
An insecticide was being sprayed throughout towns. Many bee colonies were hit with this poisonios chemical. Hundred of thousands of bees were killed.
Scientists discvered that there was 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample of pollen. It was also identified that out of those 21 chemicals 8 of them had a high ris of infection by parasites. Bee’s that ate this pollen got infected as well.
It takes 60% of surviving colonies just to pollinate one california crop of almounds. With the market rate drastically dropping, farmers are at risk to have finacial difficulty. With the population growing lower and lower things could end up changing fast. Bee’s pollinate over 30 billion dollars worth in crops every year. We do not realize how much one creature can affect us. It is important to do things, for example farmers plant flowers so the bees have more places to feed. They play a huge part in food production, and if we don’t save them, we cant save ourselves.
The parasite thats affecting all the bees is called nosema ceranae. Certain pesticides are starting to get banned, which they all need to get banned everywhere, but U.S. regulators have decided that theres not enough evidence for a country wide ban.
The need for pollinated crops are increasing, but the numbers of bees available are decreasing majorly. Something has to get done.
