The Vanishing Bees
The Vanishing Bees
Kimberly McNeilus
Jill Morstad
College Writing II
May 2, 2012
Bees are an intricate part of today’s society in the form helping to produce foods and also their contribution as insects play a valuable part in nature. There is a place, a southern village of Sichuan, China where bees no longer exist. Farmers meet every April with bamboo sticks and chicken feathers to begin pollination of their crops. This long and labor-intensive process the farmers endure is due to the lack of bees (Benjamin and McCallum, 11). Not only is this disappearance of the honeybees happening in China, but it is also being discovered all around the world.
There are more than 20,000 bee species known around the world, with the honeybee being the most common. These important bees are disappearing rapidly (Lynn Hermann, 2011). Honeybees are the most important pollinator on the planet. In North American, a third of fruits, nuts, and vegetables require pollination of the honeybee (Seeley, 3). The loss of our black-and-yellow pollinators would mean the serious decline of agricultural products, which directly threatens civilization’s food supply. Research has linked several factors to the rapid decline in honeybees; these factors included over use of chemically treated crops, the Colony Collapse Disorder, and environmental factors.
Albert Einstein is reputed to have said: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left” (Benjamin and McCallum, 7). He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet, which consists of a huge intertwined ecosystem. Each element plays a certain role that is dependent on many other components that work closely together (Higgins, 2007). Society, unfortunately, knows a very small amount about the importance of the honeybee. Ninety percent of commercial crops worldwide owe their existence to the honeybee pollination. (Benjamin and McCallum, 4). Their
Kimberly McNeilus
Jill Morstad
College Writing II
May 2, 2012
Bees are an intricate part of today’s society in the form helping to produce foods and also their contribution as insects play a valuable part in nature. There is a place, a southern village of Sichuan, China where bees no longer exist. Farmers meet every April with bamboo sticks and chicken feathers to begin pollination of their crops. This long and labor-intensive process the farmers endure is due to the lack of bees (Benjamin and McCallum, 11). Not only is this disappearance of the honeybees happening in China, but it is also being discovered all around the world.
There are more than 20,000 bee species known around the world, with the honeybee being the most common. These important bees are disappearing rapidly (Lynn Hermann, 2011). Honeybees are the most important pollinator on the planet. In North American, a third of fruits, nuts, and vegetables require pollination of the honeybee (Seeley, 3). The loss of our black-and-yellow pollinators would mean the serious decline of agricultural products, which directly threatens civilization’s food supply. Research has linked several factors to the rapid decline in honeybees; these factors included over use of chemically treated crops, the Colony Collapse Disorder, and environmental factors.
Albert Einstein is reputed to have said: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left” (Benjamin and McCallum, 7). He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet, which consists of a huge intertwined ecosystem. Each element plays a certain role that is dependent on many other components that work closely together (Higgins, 2007). Society, unfortunately, knows a very small amount about the importance of the honeybee. Ninety percent of commercial crops worldwide owe their existence to the honeybee pollination. (Benjamin and McCallum, 4). Their
References: yields. Conservation Biology 1998, 12, 8-17. Web. April 26, 2012 http://dspace.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10214/2411/2006%20Tang%20et%20al.%20Legislation.pdf?sequence=1 Amos, Brittany. “Death of the Bees. Genetically Modified Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America.” Global Research. 9 August, 2011. Web. 12 April, 2012. http://globalresearch.ca/ Web. April 26, 2012 http://www.beeman.ca/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/requimforthehoneybee.pdf Browning, Zach “Bee vanishing act baffles keepers”, BBC News, 27 February 2007. Web. April 26, 2012. Colony Collapse Disorder Preiminary Report, PennState Univeristy, January 2007. Web April 26, 2012. http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/FallDwindle Update0107.pdf Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America American National Research Council, Status of Pollinators in North America, 2006 Blog.targethealth.com, Target Health Global Inc. 23 March, 2007. Web. 12 April, 2012. Hermann, Lynn. “World bee decline signals ‘sixth more extinction’.” Future of the Media. 11 March 2011. Web. 12 April, 2012. http://www.digitaljournal.com/ Hubbell, Sue. A Book of Bees. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988. Print. Jacobsen, Rowan. “The Importance of Bees to Our Food Supply.” March, 2009. Web. 17 April 2012. http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/green_sustainable/the_importance_of_bees_to_our_food_supply Morgan, Rich, The Mysterious Disappearance of the Bumblebee. Jan 10th, 2011. Web April 26, 2012 http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/nature/news-plight-bumblebee Robinson, Gene. “Bees Quotes.” 29 May, 1947. Web 17 April 2012 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/bees.html