We all might think bees are pesky insects that ruin our fun in the summer. We run from them, kill them, and wish they never existed while we lay in the sun. However, many people forget the hidden process to how our food is made. Today, food is easily accessible everywhere. This makes it easy to forget how our food is made and where it comes from. Which is why bees are considered one of the most important species on our planet. Let me remind you that bees are pollinators. Pollinators have unique jobs. It involves the transfer of pollen and seeds from one flower to another; eventually fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross pollination aids over 30% of the worlds crops and 90% of wild plants. The bees job goes beyond what we imagine and without them the human population will be in danger. If the problem isn’t solved, we might be the ones to become extinct. Moreover, bees are slowly starting to disappear from the use of chemicals, climate change, and habitat loss. As more and more bee species start becoming endangered, the human population will soon start to suffer as the food industry will not be able to produce the proper amount of food due to the absence of pollination from the bee’s. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes too late and its up us, the human population, to terminate this problem.

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, "For the first time ever a bee species in the continental United States has been declared endangered” (Almasy). The species is known as the rusty patch bumble bee and their extinction is worrying many agencies. Particularly the US Fish and Wildlife Service, “The population of the bee has shrunk nearly 90% since the late 1990’s” (Almasy). Even though there are roughly 20,000 species of bees in the world, the news has raised an abundance amount of awareness. You might be asking yourself, “If there are over 20,000 bee species why is everyone panicking over one being endangered?” Well here’s why. Tom Melius, a Regional Director from Wildlife Service’s, says:

The rusty patch bumble bee is among a group of important pollinators, including the monarch butterfly, that is experiencing a serious decline in the United States. This is an important issue that must be addressed because although the pollinators are small, they’re job is a crucial part in the natural mechanism that sustains us and our world. Without them, our crops will require extensive labor and pollination by hand.

As mentioned earlier, the essential roles of the bees are to pollinate 35% of the worlds food. Their role of pollination is so important to our agriculture system. There is a wide variety of food that will be at risk if the bees continue to vanish. However, the future is not looking so bright according to Sarina Jepsen, a deputy chair of the international union for Conservation of Nature’s Bumblebee specialist group. She told CNN, “In December, about 25% of bumblebees in North America are at risk for extinction.” (Jepsen) Which is why we need to act as fast as we can to prevent the hazards from continuing to put the bee species in danger.

Before we go into what we can do stop the hazards from killing bee’s we need to further understand the risks of what would happen to life as we know it without bees. A video by Life Noggin explains that, “Approximately every third bite of food we eat exists because of honey bee pollination.” These foods include, apples, almonds, avocados, broccoli, and so much more. The reason plants won’t be able to produce these foods is because of pollination. Pollination occurs when a bee transfers pollen from the flowers anther. The anther is attached to male sex organ called the stamen which is attached to the stigma. The stigma is attached to the female organ called the pistil. When the bees are searching for nectar, the pollen grains stick to their fuzzy bodies. When they brush up against the stigma of another plant of the same species, the plant begins to create off spring. This produces seeds. Seeds that plant and develop into the fruit that we all consume and have in our homes. So, without bee’s we will no longer have that food. This leaves us with only the few crops that are pollinated by wind: corn, wheat, and oats. Yummy. But it doesn’t stop there. The loss of this food comes with another “loss of over 14 billion dollars in the United States alone” (Citation for Video) Who knew bees could contribute to our economy. Unfortunately, it continues. 40% of the worlds fiber will disappear because cotton plants must be pollinated. So, kiss all your clothes, bed sheets, jeans and underwear good bye. In conclusion, we need to start saving rather than killing the bees. I don’t know about you but I’d take getting stung by a bee over not having food or clothing any day.

Looking into the hazards affecting bees, degradation is a primary cause for their sudden deaths. Humans have impacted the earths landscape by destroying natural habitats to create new ones. This includes removing forests to build large buildings for offices and manufactures. Much of the United States natural habitats have been transformed into highways, complexes, homes, etc. Urbanization not only takes away the bee’s homes but makes it even harder for them to travel through the new obstacles we created. The changes in the land affect the pollinators and their target plants and changing their environment reduces the food source for the bees. An article about the threats to insect pollination adds that, “When large habitats are fragmented into small isolated patches, food sources become more scarce for resident animals. Populations may then decline to the point that they are no longer able to benefit plants” (Hendrix). Furthermore, fragmentation reduces the bee’s ability to mate and reproduce. An article by James H. Cane and Vincent J. Tepedino explain further:

Fragmentation can also reduce gene flow between populations, thus decreasing genetic diversity for certain bee species. By being isolated, it is harder for the bees to find a match to mate with, have enough nesting sites, and to eat the proper amount of food within a limited area.

To live, pollinators need untouched and undisturbed habitats. Habitat loss is a serious and selfish problem that not only drives the bee away from their home but makes it hard to start new ones. If the bees have no homes, they cannot perform normally which leads to colonies collapsing. 

Continuing on the hazards that is causing bees to die, many people are starting to blame insecticides called neonicotinoids for the devastating loss of millions of honey bees. Although these chemicals are only used in planting corn and some other crops, there is no way to stop the spreading of chemicals when it comes to bees. To pollinate flowers, these honey bees have no other way then to meet these chemicals. The result is mass amounts of dead honey bees since they all become infected once the chemical is brought into the bee hive. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that pesticides are a prime cause to the bee’s colonies collapsing:

Two widely used neonicotinoids (a class of insecticide) appear to harm honey bee colonies over the cold winters according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health. The study was replicated from a 2012 study by the same group and found a link that bees abandoned their hives in the winter and eventually died due to low doses of imidacloprid.

The bees literally go insane from the chemical and don’t know how to return back to their hives eventually leading to a sad death. It can best be compared to what we know Alzheimer’s as. If these crops, which are also a food supply for other insects, become full of things like GMO’S and pesticides, there’s also the possibility that other insects could also start dying off. To make everything work, the bees are necessary but now they are being killed with the chemicals that are being used to make more food. If these chemicals are killing off millions of bees, what makes it any better that humans are consuming these same products? If people do not stop using these harmful chemicals, whether they are for their crops or just to kill mosquitos in the summer, the fact is most of the plants and quality foods that we have today will no longer exist. If people do not stop using these harmful chemicals soon, there may not be a reason to even have these chemicals in a couple years.

On the lines of chemical use, pollution can play a large role in keeping them alive. Air pollution is an obstacle that gets in the way for keeping all living things healthy. It’s unhealthy for us, plants, animals, and insects. The pollution affects how the bees find the flowers. The pollution hampers with the scents that plants release making it a lot harder for bees to find them. A study that looks into how air pollution modifies floral scent trails by Quinn McFrederick, James Kathilankal, and Jose Fuentes put this to a test and found results that proved the air pollution does in fact hamper with the chemicals that attract bees:

The results indicate that the documented increases in air pollution lead to significant decrease in the concentrations that insects use to detect flowering plants. The persistence of the scent trail may have changed from kilometers during pre-industrial times to 200m during the more polluted conditions of present times. This results in pollinators needing to travel longer distances before detecting a scent trail that they can follow to the source of emissions.

The pollution from today’s society is a huge chemical problem for the proper tasks of bees and flowers. The study clearly showed the risks of what happens when the plants and bees are exposed to these pollutants. In order to prevent this from happening further our world needs to become more eco-friendly and smarter with how everyday tasks are completed. Pollution has a been a problem for a long time but not for this reason. It does more than affect the air, it affects the future of our existence.

In addition, less plants that need to be pollinated would lead to the lower numbers of honey bees in general. If they have nothing to pollinate from, the honey bees will eventually die off along with the plants, fruits, vegetables, and flowers as mentioned earlier. Which brings us to the last hazard that is causing bees to disappear right in front of us. Global warming is now causing flowers to bloom earlier or later than usual. Climate change shortens the growing season which affects the lives of the pollinators. For example, when honey bees come out of hibernation, the certain types of flowers that are essential to them for food, have already bloomed. The nectar from these plants keep the bees alive and help them function naturally. Although bee keepers have tried to come up with a substitute for the natural nectar, the effects of the substitute aren’t the same. You can’t successfully substitute a natural product from the world. But it goes beyond this. The bees are very serious to when it comes to laying eggs. In order for them to properly be laid, it needs to be 93 degrees according to an article by Nasa’s Earth Observatory. So, on a cold march night, the eggs can die because they would not be able to survive the unexpected change in weather. This results in starting over to create a totally new colony. Climate change is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed more than it is. The difference in climate affects the bees on different levels and is making their jobs to keep us alive much harder. It might be easy for us, as people, to adjust to the weather but not for the bees.

Even with all these hazards that are affecting the bees negatively, people believe that we can take our time when it comes to addressing the issue. An article online titled, “Believe It or Not, the Bees Are Doing Just Fine” released by the Washington post has a very misleading title. Although their information is correct, they aren’t addressing the real issue. The article discuses that the honey bee isn’t going extinct anytime soon. But after all, we would have never thought that some of the animals that became extinct recently would reach that point. The issue is that the bees are being abused by our selfish actions. People are only focusing on the product that bees are creating, rather than what they are pollinating. Many people are more worried about losing the honey from the bee rather than losing almost 30% of the food we eat. The article states, “The main effects of colony collapse disorder aren’t being felt by the bees themselves, but by the people who breed and manage them. Beekeeping is a business after all.” They only focus on the business aspect rather than the bigger picture that bees all over are dying because of the outside hazards we are producing.

In conclusion, the bees need our protection. Bees are an essential part of our agriculture and without we would lose 30% of the food we eat and 40% of the worlds fibers. We wouldn’t have fresh fruits or vegetables anymore. We wouldn’t have fresh cotton and underwear anymore. The situation is very serious and will affect humans worldwide. Moreover, bees are slowly starting to disappear from the use of chemicals, climate change, and habitat loss. As more and more bee species start becoming endangered, the human population will soon start to suffer as the food industry will not be able to produce the proper amount of food and crops due to the absence of pollination from the bee’s. It is time that we realize our actions have an enormous negative impact on the bees and if we don’t change or stop what we are doing the bees will slowly vanish before our eyes, and taking life as we know it with them.
