Pollinator Decline: World food supply at stake

[DigiTan]

I missed the Bee Movie this year, but one of the key messages given to the audience is the importance of bees in world ecosystem. Whether it's apples, tomatoes, or even coffee beans; their common ground is the bee. And even we have a basically unlimited/renewable supply in the western hemisphere, bees are disappearing and no one knows why.

Einstein once remarked that if the bee were wiped out, humans would only have 4 years to live. He wasn't a biologist, but as one of the greatest visionaries of our time his predictions definitely have meaning. Things aren't that dire yet. You can still buy honey, orange juice, fruit-flavored ice creams. But growers are having to hand-pollinate in certain farm corridors. Like a lot of things in nature, it's expected to be an exponential decline that's unnoticeable at the start, and alarming by the end.

* The Wiki Article

The reason I posted this is because I believe that this is one of many overlooked-but-critical problems our generation needs to be working to solve. I know as programmers, agriculture/entomology is a bit outside our canon. But some of the most remarkable discoveries were made by people that knew very little about the subject. So kind of look at this topic as kind of a brainstorming thread place to toss some ideas and possible solutions out there. Don't forget to mention it at home/work.

[King Harold]

disclaimer: even though I'm part biologist doesn't mean my brainstorming about biological subjects makes sense

not in any order:
* breed in captivity (greenhouses, where pollinators are already applied) and release by batches that are sufficiently large to be able to make a new colony
* human-free zones with flowers (unfortunately needs a lot of space, totally impossible in the netherlands, might be doable in the US though)
* re-introduce the killer bee (somewhat extreme measure)
* give up bees and hope that hoverflies and bumblebees will take over (not a chance, they're also affected by the decline)
* artificial incubators to speed up the production of new bees (rather expensive, ought to work though)
* move existing captive colonies into greenhouses during winter to keep them active

[tr1p1ea]

Ive seen various news reports about this subject and it sure is alarming. If bees disappear then the repercussions would of course be dire.

I love bees, i used to like just lying outside in spring watching them go to work.

[blueskies]

Bees bother me because they inhabit the bush next to where I park my car. Luckily I've been biking recently so it hasn't been a problem.

If they disappeared as pollinators, that would be pretty tragic.

[DigiTan]

Yeah, bees really got a bad rap the past 15 years with killer bees arriving. And I mean, they are venomous

* Getting bees on the endangered species list
* Alternative pesticides
* Breeding program (King Harold's Idea)

I'm betting the endangered species part would be a good gateway to our other ideas. So far, the Fish & Wildlife Service doesn't have any species of bees listed. A lot of these hives migrate into urban areas and get killed rather than removed like they might in rural parts.

There's also the pesticides. That could explain why completely different climates like UK, US and Canada are seeing the same declines. The bees depend on sensing chemicals so much, the poisons might be stopping them from foraging even it doesn't kill them directly. A ban on the worst poisons could do for bees what the DDT ban did for the bald eagle. Well, this whole thing's got me looking into volunteer research after I get a job.


Pretty good so far. Let's keep the ideas coming!

[King Harold]

* kill off those pesky mites that apparently kill many bees (kinda tricky, most ways to kill them would also kill the bees)
* if there's a beehive in (or near) a house, just move it (don't destroy it) (probably not terribly effective)

edit: 1337'th post