People have tried to estimate the amount of money that bees save the world with their pollinating powers and the estimate is in the trillions of dollars a year. The loss of bees is crucial as we are dependent on them for survival. Read and think:
1) What secondary impacts could this have?
2) What would a complete collapse of bees in Canada do to us?
3) What can we do to prevent the loss of bees?
4) Globally how significant of an issue is this?
This is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteUntil reading this article on honeybees, I had no idea how crucial their cross pollination was to a large amount of valuable agricultural products. If honeybees were to completely die off, there would obviously be no honey, but also that would run the risk of major food shortages. A very large amount of fruits and vegetables count on pollination from honeybees, and without it those crops won't grow correctly or healthy. If Canada were to go through a complete honeybee drop out, we would definitely be slightly short on fresh fruits and veggies and we would also begin to see flowers that need honeybees to cross pollinate begin to die off.
In order to prevent the loss of honeybees, we need to figure out how the colonies are contracting these viruses and parasitic mites that are causing them to die, then we have to figure out how to protect them from it. If we can successfully do that then the honeybees have a much greater chance of living through the winters with their limited food supply. If honeybees around the world were going extinct then this would be a significant world issue, but as of right now i don't believe it to be a big enough issue to be considered a world issue.
http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/pennsylvania/local-blog/the-importance-of-honeybees
Great post. Its amazing how important bees are and how much more they do than just make honey
DeleteI agree with you Ryerson. We need to figure out how these bee colonies are contracting these viruses and parasitic mites. It's surprising how such a tiny insect can cause such a problem if it goes extinct.
DeleteIt weird how we forget that the honey bees do so much for us as humans. I use to hate bees as a kid but growing up I learned about how crucial they are to our environment for a number of reasons. I hope scientists and environmentalists find a cure to this problem otherwise a small problem like this could turn into a worldwide issue.
DeleteGreat Post Ryerson!