Bees: important to earths survival or not What do you think when you think of bees? I think of honey, pollination, and soon, new life. According to Walt D. Osborne, “Bees are vital for the pollination of more than 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide, including almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, and strawberries,” (Osborne 9-11) but each year a large percent of hives have vanished due to many different factors such as stress. Most people would declare that the average honey bee is insufficiently important to the world because bees are pests to home owners everywhere, but bees are extremely important to earths’ survival than any other pollinator in the world; they help pollinate most of the world’s agriculture; yet in the recent years bee populations have plummeted rapidly. I am writing this paper to create awareness that the agricultural society ought to stop or lessen the spraying of pesticides/ insecticides on crops, unnatural diets and overcrowding in the hives. Bees are known throughout the world as dangerous threats and pests to humanity. Bees when left alone are very important to the growth of all the worlds’ crops and plants; they affect the growth of all the crops plant just as much as butterflies and other pollinators. Humans rely on bees for honey and pollination of plants, but what most agricultural workers don’t know is that they are working on the extinction of the common honey bee by doing simple things in their every day jobs on the farm. With the use of pesticides and other harmful things such as an unnatural diet and cramped living spaces, bees can go extinct and without a large group of pollinators our plants ... ... middle of paper ... ...auers, Sandy. "Mystery Killer Silencing Honeybees." Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA). Feb. 7 2007: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. Bleifuss, Joel. "A Deadly Disorder at the EPA." In These Times. Mar. 2013: p. 20. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. "Honeybees' Decline Stirs Concern." Commercial Appeal. 02 Dec. 2013: p. 1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. Levy, Sharon. "The Vanishing." OnEarth Vol. 28, No. 2. Summer 2006: 14-21. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. Osborne, Walt D. "Mysterious Honeybee Deaths Leave Sting on Agriculture." FDA Veterinarian. Vol. 22 No. 3 2007: 9-11. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. Thomas, Pat. "Give Bees a Chance." Ecologist (London, England) Vol. 37, No. 5. June 2007: 30-35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/476347
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "The Case For Contamination." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "The Case For Contamination." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
The studies will continue to prove that the use of pesticides are dangerous for people, places and pollinators all over the world. The Colony Collapse disorder should be a high priority for everyone. Hold the big corporations accountable such as Bayer for the damage their products create all for profit. They will find ways to keep pushing the use of pesticides that continue wrecking a bee’s immune system. “Neonicotinoids affect insect’s central nervous system in ways that are cumulative and irreversible” (Mercola par.4) Bayer’s good intentions to enhance the amount of crops needed to be produced, but the end result has detrimental consequences on the honey bee’s
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
US Enviromental Protection Agency. (2010, December 13). Retrieved January 20, 2011, from US EPA Human Health: http://cfpub.epa.gov/eroe/index.cfm?fuseaction=list.listByChapter&ch=49
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
Honey Bee Population Decline Daisy Childs 11-20-14 Professor Garcia ENG 1027. INTRODUCTION: Apis mellifera, commonly known as the honey bee, are solely responsible for pollinating one-third of the world’s crops, and they are in danger of dying off, according to the article “Natures Dying Migrant Worker,” written by Josephine Marcotty for the Star Tribune. This honey bee population decline poses a huge threat to our environment, farmers, and economy. It is assumed by BBC News writer Zoe Gough in her article,"Wild Honey Bees: Does Their Disappearance Matter?" that all of the wild honey bees in England and Wales are gone.
Miline, Ira Mark. Ed. "The Secret Life of Bees." Novels for Students. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Print.
The depopulation of bees could have a huge impact on the environment, which is reliant on the insects for pollination. If taken to the extreme, crops, fodder and therefore livestock could die off if there are no pollinating insects left. It would also have an impact on...
Pollinators are very important to the environment because many plant species rely on reproduction to be carried out by pollination1. Bees are dependent on plants for pollen and nectar and in return, are the most common pollinator of plant species and around 90 percent of plants require pollination by an animal7. Bees are used in farming, both for pollinating crops and for producing honey, and the estimated value of bees to the United Kingdom is £400 million per year9. Plants are the primary producers in many food webs and, as so many are dependent on pollination in order to reproduce, a decline in pollinators would have a detrimental effect to whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects. High declines in adult bee numbers in some colonies have been reported and this decline is known as colony collapse disorder6. These declines are higher than normal and can go unnoticed by bee keepers because the bees do not generally die in the nest so the decrease is not immediately obvious. The problem addressed in this paper will be the decline of bees and the effects this decline has on the environment. The solutions proposed for this problem are increasing research, managing farming and spreading awareness. It is important to conserve the bee populations before the problem of decreasing pollinator numbers becomes too great to fix.
Some researchers have said that pesticides and parasites have been to blame for the bees disappearing. Dr. Richard Gill and his team performed a study on this theory, the results were "nothing short of shocking". At the University of London, they found that two pesticides were to blame, after testing hundreds, Neonicotoid and Pyrethroid seem to be killing the bees. The study concluded that on their own, Neonicotoid and Pyrethroid are harmless to the bees, howe...
Honey bees are interesting and work very hard during their lifetime. Some say we owe our survival to the honey bee. They help pollinate everything from ornamental flowers to our food supply. They have become very efficient and effective at pollination unfortunately, honey bees face many dangers in their daily life to survive. They have to defend from predators in flight as well as in their hive, not to mention the wide use of pesticides. Honey bees also produce delicious honey that some use for medicinal purpose and human and animal food production. Honey bees are important to our society, from evolution through the pollination process. Unfortunately, the bees face many dangers, however, humans need them to help pollinate crops and assist
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.
Have you ever thought about our honey bees? Some people think they're a nuisance but these hardworking small insects make it possible for your favorite foods to reach your table. In the winter of 2006 a strange event happened with the honey bee hives across the country. Millions of bees vanished from their hives. The disappearing bees left billions of dollars of crops at risk and it threatened our food supply. So today I will be talking about The honey bee and answering the following questions: First,what is the honey bees purpose in life, secondly how we are harming them and thirdly how the honey bees help us in our daily lives and their importance.