Global Warming Means Nothing Compared To The Buzz Factor
The first thought that went through my mind when I first heard about beehives dying was the word pollinators.
Thats what bees do.
They pollinate plants.
But the really critical function they have performed for mankind is that they pollinate lots of food crops. When we had an agrarian society people appreciated bees more.
Hunter/gatherer societies only had a sweet treat when they discovered a beehive occasionally. Bees, of course exacted revenge on the invaders and rightly so.
Bees matter. They are in fact an essential part of food production.
If they dont pollinate crops there wont be food.
My grandparents had beehives in their cherry orchard. They had a farm with cattle and pigs and chickens. They raised much of the feed for their animals in a self-sustaining model for farming. They didnt buy a lot of stuff. They either grew things or made them.
And bees were part of the natural process.
The bees that lived comfortably in their cherry orchard had a nice variety of plants available to them on the farm. Bees need lots of plants including grass, and corn and apple trees and flowers and all the variety of big open fields of wild flowers and prairie grasses.
But huge factory farm fields look like a single crop desert to bees. Bees need variety and they dont need pesticides.
And miles of manicured lawns and golf courses and the chemicals that come with them are not only killing bees, they are also fouling waterways and oceans.
My vet in Atlanta told me not to let my dog drink water from the Chattahoochee. He said the water was so toxic from lawn chemicals it might kill my dog. And they dont do humans any good either, or bees.
Being ignorant about nature and food production is pretty dangerous for our society.
Albert Einstein said if the bees die, humans have about 4 years left.
He meant thats how much time we might last if all the crops bees pollinate fail.
Or we could get out there in the fields and orchards and pollinate crops by hand.
Yes, bees matter.
The threat of losing these hard working guys is really scary.
If we all starve to death in the next several years, we wont have to worry much about global warming, will we?
Our dirty little carbon footprints will be Gone With the Bees!