Save the Bees

Rithika Bandla
Imagine a world where a third of our food was not being produced. If we’re not careful, this could become a reality. Since 1995, scientists and beekeepers have been reporting a steady decline in bees and diminishing bee colonies. The role of the bees is a vital part of various ecosystems, and with this rapid decrease in bee population, the environment will suffer if serious changes aren’t made.



Bees provide a very important yet under-appreciated service to ecosystems. The key service provided is performing 80% of all insect-mediated pollination, the process which aids in the production of 75% of our crops. A decline in the bee population would directly relate to the diminution of important, nutritious, fruits and vegetables used daily in our diets: fruits, nuts, and vegetables.


Geographically, bees are the most essential and effective pollinators. Several species of bees are suffering increasingly in a world that’s moving growing progressively dependent on bee pollination. In order to keep up with the advancements being made in agriculture, changes must be made. For example, the reduced use of bee-harming pesticides. Easy changes like this can be made to help fix/increase the bee population.


What other changes can be made to reduce this phenomenon?
Do you think we will be forced to find another method of pollination?
Do you think it’s fairly simple to end this decline but people are not willing to change at all?

Works Cited:



Comments

Anonymous said…
I think that ending the rapid decline in the bee population is very important to the productivity of agriculture. In addition, it is also a very simple fix. With the modern advancements in agricultural technology, it should not be hard to create conditions that are easier for bees to survive. Individuals can even help on their own by planting bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs at home.
January 13, 2019 at 11:12 AM
Anonymous said…
If we do not find alternatives quickly, I think we may have to resort to different methods of pollination due to the rapidly declining bee pollination. However, I think easy solutions exist such as buying local, raw honey and sharing solutions with your community to help spread awareness of how to save the bee population. I think people are the neglecting this issue because they feel it is not of importance and are not willing to put effort into simple lifestyle changes that can save thousands of bees.
January 13, 2019 at 2:01 PM
Anonymous said…
In terms of pollination, I think it is very scary to think about if bees ever even got close to being extinct, because, as you said, they play such a crucial role in providing food and nutrition for other animals as well as us. Hence, the food chain levels would slowly be affected upwards as producers are not kept alive by the bees’ pollination. I do not think anything can fully substitute bees’ jobs as pollinators. Humans have a tendency to keep their environment neat and trim for the most part, which is detrimental to bees because they need a natural, free-growing environment in order to perform their job and live. The population of bees is declining because their habitats are being used as space for grass that does not need pollinating, sidewalks, roads, buildings, etc. Therefore, in order to reduce this phenomenon, all people should welcome bees to their backyard by planting flowers and plants for them and by reducing the number of herbicides and pesticides they use.
January 13, 2019 at 2:46 PM
Anonymous said…
If we continue to develop with the disregard for other species, than this decline in bees will eventually lead to extinction. In many developed countries, the majority of people live their lives in regard to what makes them happy with a disregard for how their actions, and the actions of their government, impact the enviornment. It is not impossible for scientists to find a new way to create mass pollination without bees’ aid, especially since we are in the midst of an era of technological advancement, but this would be an extra reaction to a problem that can be solved with a simple regard for the enviornment. Therefore, in addition to the government restricting potent pesticides and the destruction of habitat, we must make small changes (such as planting flowers, minimizing littering, ect) to create an enviornment where bees can live.
January 13, 2019 at 6:37 PM
Anonymous said…
A world without a third of our food being produced would be disastrous, and it's something personally I'm not ready to see. It’s distressing to see how little humans as a whole value bees, and we seem to take them as just a disturbance. Bees are so necessary in terms of pollination but people seem to not appreciate that. What’s really messed up in this whole situation is that people tend to not ponder over issues like this— the declination of bees— until it’s reached a shocking stage where they are being affected directly. Society usually doesn’t care about what they have till they’ve lost it. I think awareness is one of the most important factors to change, and more education towards current environmental issues. If people’s mindsets don’t change then producing a change will be counterproductive. If the people of the world don’t change themselves then we may very well just be forced to find another method of pollination. It would be tragic to see something that could’ve been controlled in its early stages lead to us finding a newer method due to people’s ignorance.
January 13, 2019 at 8:39 PM
Anonymous said…
Like Mrs. Dixie always says, humans are great at creating problems and then figuring out how to screw up and cause another problem. I think humans will find a way to help save the bees at the expense of another plant or animal species. Since bees are so vital to the environment and their contribution is necessary, we will find a way to save the bees but I don’t think we will be able to do it safely. Another species will get hurt and a new problem will arise. I would like to think we can be forward thinking about this issue but realistically, I don’t think we will think this through throughly to fix the problem resulting in the endangerment of other species.
January 14, 2019 at 6:32 AM
Anonymous said…
I think bees are very under appreciated in our community. I believe that us humans should create easier ways to preserve bees with all our new technological advancements and theories. This will continue happening until we do something about it and by then it will be too late. I think some pesticides should be prohibited in order to help with the decline of the bees. This situation is very concerning and is something we should take more seriously.
January 14, 2019 at 10:38 AM
Anonymous said…
As the human population continues to grow, the increase of food production and consumption has obviously increased. In my personal opinion, the general public has not been informed much about the importance of insect pollination and should be in order to shift public opinion and create change. The increase of human consumption has not only caused a major decrease in bees, but has also harmed other insects that are vital to insect pollination. I believe a good solution would be to increase to size of bee hives and provide a better environment for existing bees to pollinate and reproduce. Although pesticides can be useful in protecting many of our crops, I believe that humans should limit the use of these chemicals in areas where many pollinating insects are found. If we can shift public opinion and provide solutions, I believe that we may be able to provide some benefit in the effort of preserving bees.
January 14, 2019 at 10:42 AM
Anonymous said…
I believe humans are actually a significant part of affecting the bees as the industrial agriculture which leads to eventual climate change destroying the bee’s habitat. It is also proven that the increasing usage of bee pesticides is leading to bee extinction, so I believe if humans could reduce their industrial agriculture and contribute the effort in to improving the environment for the bees such as preserving nature in variety of places, it would effectively help protect the bees from going extinct. As said in Rithika’s blog, bees play a crucial part not only in our environment but also in our daily lives therefore I think it is extremely important for us to consider fixing the ongoing problem with the decline of bee’s population. I also believe majority of people do not necessarily consider bees to be significant in our environment and food production which is one of the reasons why people are not willing to find the solution, but we should start spreading about this idea and allowing others to have the knowledge in the importance of the bees in order to our lives.
January 14, 2019 at 10:44 AM
Anonymous said…
I think bees need to be realized as an integral part of ecosystems and as a resource. Some changes that could be made to reduce this phenomenon are changing how we take honey from colonies. Maybe instead of taking honey directly from ecosystems and potentially killing bees in the process, create a sustainable process of extracting honey without harming bees in the process. Also, at some point we will be forced to change our methods. That is the basis of sustainability: changing methods to let future generations have a better life. Finally, this decline will be very hard to stop if people do not want to make a change. To make a change, we need to inform others of these facts.
January 14, 2019 at 10:49 AM
Anonymous said…
There are easy ways to save the bees, all it takes is a little personal initiative. You may not be able to start your own personal beehive, however, there are ways to support the bees through different methods. Buying locally made honey supports the local beekeepers who in turn care for the bees. If you are conscious of the bees and care for aesthetic, planting nectar-rich plants along road sides, balconies, and other public spaces provides bees with habitat and pollination opportunities that they might not otherwise receive in relatively urbanized areas. While caring for these flowers it is important to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers as they ultimately deter and even kill bees. Rather, organic compounds provide as a more pro- bee alternative to the synthetics ultimately helping the bees out. The entire action of saving the bees from extinction is a huge job however a collective effort is enough to prevent the bees’ declination from continuing.
January 14, 2019 at 10:49 AM
Anonymous said…
I feel like the under appreciation of bees and the general negligence of the human population towards them will come back to bite us. We need to set up “protection zones” of some sort in order to ensure that bees can continue to pollinate plants for us. Bees are indirectly one of the reasons why we breathe the oxygen that we do! If we don’t act fast, bee populations will continue to diminish and we will need to resort to other types of pollination, possibly with machines, or by hand. I would hate to see such an important organism critical to plants die out because of human negligence.
January 14, 2019 at 10:50 AM
Anonymous said…
I like how you give specific examples, such as crop yield, to demonstrate how bees influence the environment. When I think of the problems that humanity faces, I rarely thought of bees until now. I used to think that we could replicate their job just as well, but this article made me realize that instead we could just save them. Bees provide so much for our environment and I think you did a good job on that by touching on different aspects of the bees’ impact on nature.
January 14, 2019 at 11:40 AM
Anonymous said…
I think bees are a large part of our life, yet most of us choose not to care. I feel like this is the case for many aspects of our environment. I feel like raising awareness of this issue would be a good first step in making this phenomenon slow. However, many people in their busy lives are too caught up in themselves to have concern over environmental issues such as these. An emphasis needs to be made on how important bees are to everyone. We all enjoy fruits, plants, and the oxygen that plants supply. In a world where the population is growing and many people are starving, we should take action in trying to preserve our environment and our food sources, down to every last bee.
January 14, 2019 at 5:29 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 14, 2019 at 6:20 PM
Anonymous said…
I think an easy change that can be made to reduce the decline in bee population is simply spreading the word about this phenomenon and the catastrophic consequences of it. If more people knew about the causes and effects of this problem, I believe more people will take action against it. Once this happens, we won’t need to find other sources of pollination. In today’s world, many people don’t realize that there are seemingly small problems such as a decrease in bee population that can lead to detrimental changes in our world. We really only care about the here and now, and we don’t consider the future or how our actions affect the future. However, I think that once the word gets out about this problem, more and more people will begin to realize that we can either see the daunting reality come true, or that we can change the future and help solve this problem.
January 14, 2019 at 6:21 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree that bees are a vital part of our ecosystem. Because of this, we as a society need to take steps protect them in the future. While reducing the use of bee-harming pesticides is a good place to start, it is certainly not the only thing that can or should be done. I believe that there are steps that can be taken at the individual level. For example, instead of destroying inconvenient bee hives, we could call in professional beekeepers to relocated the hive to a location where it would thrive. On the same note, we should not be so quick to destroy a bee hive if the bees are not causing any harm. This useless destruction of bees' homes is a big cause in the diminishing bee population. While there are very simple steps for protecting the bees, I feel like people do not take the time to reflect on them. People are too quick to do what is most convenient that they are putting the bee in danger. Bees, playing an important role in agriculture, are in turn very important to us so we need to take steps, both big and small, to ensure their safety.
January 14, 2019 at 7:17 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree that bees are very much under appreciated even though they play a crucial role in our ecosystem. The rapid decrease in the bee population can be ended fairly simply but people just don’t realize that we are destroying the environment the bees need to pollinate. Using less harmful pesticides and fertilizers on plants and flowers could prevent bees from dying and could also helps with nutrients in the food we eat. We should be very cautious when harvesting for honey. Greedy farmers can harvest faster than when they were suppose to, ruining the homes of the bees. We can also preserve areas for bees to freely roam and pollinate without any distractions from humans. If we don’t do anything now, we will definitely be forced to find another method of pollution.
January 15, 2019 at 10:00 AM
Anonymous said…
It is quite a shame that the bee population is declining so rapidly. An amazing idea that was utilized to spread the word was by Honey Nut Cheerios a while back where they had made a website for bringing awareness for this issue. In that they also had a service send seeds to your house to plant and grow to be wildflowers in order for the bee population to have a place to pollinate. Despite that, not many people cared enough to check the website out or do anything else to fight against this catastrophe. Also “The Bee Movie” was another form of awareness that was quite popular for all ages to talk about what’s happening to bees. Still with both methods of awareness used, the catastrophe is still upon us. At this rate, we’ll definitely need to find other ways of pollination because face it, honey is used in everyday products as a binder, aromatic, or even by itself and it’ll be difficult to substitute those without some expensive repercussions.
January 15, 2019 at 12:09 PM
Anonymous said…
I think that it is important that we do know that even the part of the ecosystem we don’t pay much attention to make a difference, such as insects. Bees are important in pollinating and creating diverse plants. I think the problem is that most people don’t understand how important bees are and if we offer to bring more awareness there may be more prevalent changes. The bee harming pesticides have been been banned in farm fields which is one change that occurred but I think we should work to ban it in gardens and parks as well. Pollination artificially is very expensive and I think we must work to save our natural pollinators.
January 16, 2019 at 7:27 AM
Anonymous said…
I think that the little things like the insects, plants, and even the animals that help our ecosystem thrive are all under appreciated and should be look after more carefully. If we were able to keep bee life thriving, then it would keep plant life thriving, which would then lead to animal life thriving, which leads our lives thriving for years to come. It’s all a chain reaction that starts with the small things and ends with the bigger picture.
January 16, 2019 at 10:52 AM
Anonymous said…
The bee debacle has been a discussion since 1995, but not as widespread. Since the damage is being done mostly through technological and industrial advances in the farming industry, the common people are, unfortunately, less likely to give up the easy, quick money making process through those harmful fertilizers. Climate change has affected them as well, which is another fix that could be made if we turned society around to help contribute to the globe going green. However, people only see the greenbacks in their wallets instead of a future, greener world. In then end, I believe we will need to create a new way to pollinate and with the technology we currently have, it isn't impossible; it would just require commitment, time, and money from higher officials.
January 16, 2019 at 4:06 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 16, 2019 at 4:25 PM
Anonymous said…
This has really shown how even many small things, such as bees, play such a complex role in out environment. By better understanding these connections, and how these connections affect our large society, and environments in the whole world. By better preserving the bees, we can better understand how to preserve more parts of our habitat we used to take for granted, but understand now is extremely vital to the overall happiness and stability or the ecosystem. But, bees are a great place to start, as they place a very heavy impact on humans specifically. By solving this problem, we can better solve other anthropogenic problems around the globe.
January 16, 2019 at 4:30 PM
Anonymous said…
The problem is, bees have disappearing well before 1995. The cause is the most controversial environment topic: climate change. As temperature increases, the latitudinal ranges animals occupy shift north (or south) to compensate for the warmth. The northern and southern bound shift by the same amount, thus the population of these animals remain constant. However, bees are an exception. The northern bound does not shift up, while the southern bound does. Thus, the range the population of bees occupy decreases, and thus, the population decreases. So to save the bees, one must stop climate change, which is impossible given the political problems associated.
January 17, 2019 at 9:58 PM
Anonymous said…
I think that the issue of the declining bee population often gets overlooked by seemingly more important issues, such as climate change. However, looking the science behind the phenomenon, the declining bee population poses just as much as a threat to society as the other major issues. Bees play an extremely vital role in nature, and their decline would have extremely negative effects for humans. Moving forward, I think it is very important that we begin to use environmentally agricultural techniques and pesticides that have a limited negative affect on bees. Although this may slightly hurt agricultural productivity , it will serve as a nessessary step to help stabilize the bee population.
January 22, 2019 at 9:35 PM
Anonymous said…
Save the bees
January 23, 2019 at 10:43 AM
Anonymous said…
Spreading awareness of this issue is the best way to make a change. There are movements like “save the turtles” and “save the whales”, and now “save the bees” exists as well. If people could share the message and importance of it, then changes would certainly be made. I think that most people just don’t know that this problem exists or any ways to fix it.
January 23, 2019 at 2:24 PM
Anonymous said…

The impact if bees is highly underrated. The amount of damage that would be done if they became extinct would carry over into our day to day life. Bee preservation is much more important than it is given credit for and figuring out a way to pollinate on our own is nearly impossible. Pollination is an essential natural process that helps most plant life thrive. The list of environmental issues caused by humans continues to go grown, but we must not let the smaller issues go unrecognized. I think that of awareness is not spread along with the reality of how vital bees are, then their extinction will happen quickly and unnoticed. Laws, restrictions, and articles are what we need to help revive the bee population.
January 23, 2019 at 4:03 PM
Anonymous said…
Bees are an important part of our ecosystem, and if we don't do something soon, it will be a huge threat to not only humans but other species. Bees are a vital part of pollination, and we could all die off without them. I think something important that humans should do is to limit our use of chemicals and pesticides on plants, they can make gardens look better but it negatively affects nectar and pollination, in turn harming the bee. Bee lives can be easily saved, we just need to take time out of our day to help them, it will create a huge impact for us in the future. Buying raw honey could also help since its not treated with various chemicals.
January 23, 2019 at 7:59 PM
Anonymous said…
We don’t notice the importance of bees because they sting and no one wants anything to do with it. About one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees. Some changes we can make to reduce the loss of bees, is to put in more flowers and plants in gardens and reduce the amount of pesticides. I think we will continue to find new ways for pollination because of climate change. As the weather changes, the bees will either try to move to a different location or stay and attemp to adapt and some in that case might die. And yes this issue can be resolved easily, but we need to make others understand the importance of bees and their impact to our environment.
January 24, 2019 at 7:28 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the deal with airline food?

Image
Paula Cao You ever notice how airline food tastes like your dentist's waiting room floor? You have your little bowl of pasta, and it looks like they fished it out your sink drain. And you can't bring food onto the plane, so you're stuck with either hours of not eating the food or hours of wishing you hadn't eaten the food. And they spend half an hour pushing the little cart and blocking the aisle so you can't get to the bathroom, which strangely enough, smells exactly like what you just ate. But even worse than eating airline food (hard to believe) is the waste airline food generates. The last time I was on a plane, I had two meals. Everything was individually wrapped: the bread, the main course, two sides, even the Kit-Kat bar that was already in a wrapper. Everything came in these plastic containers. Seems like a ton of waste. Every tray of food brought onto the plane is thrown away, even if no one eats it (due to health concerns), which is quite wasteful....
Read more

What We Can Recycle

Image
Ryan Oh Recycling. An option that all of us can directly take that, supposedly, shouldn’t be very hard to do. I mean, so often we are told to recycle what we can, but of those times how many resulted in the recycling of un-recyclable items? Yes, recycling technology has been improved upon, and now we have a wider array of recyclable options, however there are still many items that are thought to be recyclable but are not. For example, plastic bags. Yes, these can be recycled it’s just how we recycle them. By gathering recyclables in plastic bags or recycling the baggies in general, we cause problems for recycling equipment resulting in jams, contamination of paper bales, and interference in compost facilities. What we can do to prevent plastic bags from becoming our demise is to give them to recycling programs that focus exclusively on them. Oftentimes, grocery stores offer plastic bag pick-up and drop-off programs. If you don’t have such a grocery store near you, keep a bag collec...
Read more

Land Pollution Is Not The Solution

Image
Rishit Podder Land Pollution We talk about water and air pollution all the time but land pollution as well as a big impact on the environment as it is continuously polluted and vulnerable. Land pollution simply means degradation of the earth’s surface as a result of human activities like mining, littering, deforestation, industrial, construction and agricultural activities. Land pollution can have a huge environmental impact in the form of air pollution and soil pollution which in turn can have an adverse effect on human health. There are many causes of land pollution, but the main concern is deforestation and soil erosion. Deforestation results in dry land which mean that it can never be fertile again. The problem with that is that the land will eventually become unstable for farming and other crops. In addition, the land will also become polluted by heavy metals such as lead and mercury. It is estimated that over 50 percent of all earth's surface water has been polluted b...
Read more