Pollinator Decline: World food supply at stake
Posted: Mon 12 May, 2008 5:05 am
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.
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.