Pollinators Week
By Jordann Garlock
This week is National Pollinators Week. Though pollinators include birds, bats, and other animals, the most important pollinator species are bees. The problem with bees is that they are disappearing and a lot of people don’t realize that this is a big problem.
Since the late 1990s bees and honeybee populations have disappeared and continue to decline.
“Bees make more than honey – they are key to food production because they pollinate crops. Bumblebees, other wild bees, and insects like butterflies, wasps, and flies all provide valuable pollination services. A third of the food that we eat depends on pollinating insects: vegetables like zucchini, fruits like apricot, nuts like almonds, spices like coriander, edible oils like canola, and many more… In Europe alone, the growth of over 4,000 vegetables depends on the essential work of pollinators. But currently, more and more bees are dying. The bee decline affects mankind too. Our lives depend on theirs.” (https://sos-bees.org/)
There are many causes for the bees’ disappearance.
- Habitat loss: “The main threats facing pollinators are habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. As native vegetation is replaced by roadways, manicured lawns, crops and non-native gardens, pollinators lose the food and nesting sites that are necessary for their survival.
- Pesticides: “Pesticides include products, such as weed killers and insecticides, which are designed to prevent, destroy, repel or reduce pests such as insects, mice and other animals, weeds, fungi, bacteria and viruses. Pesticides are used in nearly every home, business, farm, school, hospital and park in the United States and are found almost everywhere in our environment.”
What needs to be done?
First of all, the public needs to be made aware of the seriousness of the issue. Even Hollywood has tried to spread the message in movies and documentaries. Two good examples are Vanishing of the Bees and Bee Movie.
Vanishing of the Bees is a documentary directed by Maryam Henein. The film investigates colony collapse disorder. Vanishing of the Bees follows commercial beekeepers David Hackenberg and Dave Mendes as they strive to keep their bees healthy and fulfill pollination contracts across the U.S. The film explores the struggles they face as the two friends plead their case on Capital Hill and travel across the Pacific Ocean in the quest to protect their honeybees.
“People don’t generally know what’s happening with the bees. There’s a lot of mystery and buzz around Vanishing of the Bees. People leave the theater feeling educated,” said Maryam Henein in an interview. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIhDeXlapY)
Although Bee Movie is meant to be a kid’s comedy, there are some heavy elements to the film. The film follows a bee named Barry B. Benson, who has just graduated bee school. Barry befriends a florist and hangs out with humans. He soon finds out that humans can easily get honey from the grocery store and decides to sue the human race for stealing the hard to make precious honey. Through this plot, the film educates a younger audience how important bees really are.
The website Wildlife Voices is another source for bee-related information. Paul Shannon, a beekeeper from Florida, speaks at length about the need to protect bees to maintain ecological balance and what can be done to achieve that.
The next step after educating people is having those people take action. You can take action with the Endangered Species Coalition by asking the EPA to join European nations in banning a class of pesticides that is especially deadly to bees. You also can stop using pesticides at home and promote ecological farming by learning where your food comes from.
Please Help Save the Bees and Other Pollinators By Learning As Much As You Can And Taking Action.
Remember your food depends on these little buzzing friends.
3 comments on “Take action for bees!”
i am very concerned about the bees and their entire future and we cannot afford to lose them i hope people in mexico and even in the united states and around the world and leave the bees and please keep hoping and praying that they will mutiply and increase and that bees will increase and double in numbers world wide and in mexico. the bees face an danger of extinction and if we do not do our very best to protect them in the near future we could lose them. i am deeply concerned the human race and food supply and all that good honey that they produce and so lets do all we can to protect the bees for they are our future. please send me an response via email and thanks so much for your support.
i really care about the bees and hope that people in every part of the planet will not kill them and that they will respect the bees and that the bees will double and mutiply and please work to do your part and please save the bees in the untied states and help create more bee sancurities and farms and work with local and national bee farmers to help them save and protect the bees and please email your congressman and senators about how important it is to take action on climate change and to save the bees. please send me an response via email and thanks so much for your support.
i am really concerned about the bees and how we all need to protect and preserve the honey bees and for future generation and while no one would blame an person for tying to protect themseleves from the mad hornets i do strongly support action on saving the bees and because if we lose the bees we could lose the food supply and we could go extinct and i would miss all that wonderful honey and fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and corn and what the bees polonate. please ask your congressman and senators to act on saving the bees and please send me an response via email and thanks so much for your support.