Okay. Let me start by saying that I honestly never really liked bees (fear of being stung, not knowing if allergic), but I always knew they played an important role in the ecosystem, but the details of that role was always unknown to me, until I read this article. We rely on bees to pollinate 2/3 of our crops which is about 90% of most of the food in the world. That’s a serious dependence we have on bees. It has been reported that we’re losing on average 30% of all bee colonies in recent years, due to the insecticides that they’re spraying on the plants to keep away the insects which would cause harm to the crop. The good news is that a lot of major companies have taken notice and have been fighting against the use of the insecticides, I’m surprised to hear corporations taking part in these important events to help the environment. But also, we have known for some time how important bees are to the overall planet. Over 30,000 bee species are most important group of pollinators for farming and wild plants. Bee populations are declining due to a variety of factors, among them the above mentioned pesticide use, but also because of climate change. This study in Science Magazine looks at bees in North America and Europe over the last 110 years and how their populations are diminishing.
CITY TECH BLOG
The Dominican Republic Takes Part in the Paris Climate Change Agreement
The Dominican Republic, located in the Caribbean, is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its geographic location and heavy dependence on agriculture, fisheries, and tourism. The country is also prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, which are becoming more frequent and
Marcelle Bernard May 12, 2023
2 Responses
I found your article very interesting and quite comprehensive in how it lies out the importance of bees to the ecosystem. I have come across something similar about coral reefs and why most of them have declined or are declining in numbers over the past few decades. From their research, they find that human activity such as pollution and overfishing in the environment where parrotfish live cause their population to drop, adversely allowing algae to grow out of control. Algae impedes the growth of coral and this leads to destruction of the reefs if there are no parrotfish or urchins to feed on the algae. I’ll leave a link to the article here:http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/02/to-save-coral-reefs-start-with-parrotfish/
Thanks, Bukadiri, for providing this interesting piece of information.