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"Save the bees!"

You've heard this call to action before, but what's the buzz really about? Turns out, bees are incredibly important in nature and in human food production.

According to an EarthDay.Org report, there are more than 20,000 distinct bee species worldwide. In the U.S., there are native bees (more than 4,000 species) and commercially managed bees (mostly imported European honeybees). Both are vital for different reasons. The former are wild and keep our forests and meadow ecosystems functioning; the latter are managed by big agriculture to pollinate crops that feed the world.

Unfortunately, most bees are in trouble. Colonies around the world are collapsing and many species are edging towards extinction. Their plight has been described as the death of a thousand cuts, and the causes range from widespread pesticide use to disease to climate change.

So, what can we do? How can we save the bees? Here's everything you need to know.

Why Are Bees Important?

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In short, bees matter because they're pollinators.

"Pollinators are small but mighty parts of the natural mechanism that sustains us and our world," Midwest Regional Director Tom Melius said in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) statement that accompanied the agency's listing of the rusty patched bumblebee as endangered. "Without them, our forests, parks, meadows and shrublands, and the abundant, vibrant life they support, cannot survive, and our crops require laborious, costly pollination by hand."

Ecosystem Services

In the wild, many plants rely on pollinators to reproduce and continue growing. Additionally, various animals depend on these plants for their survival. That's why, according to the EarthDay.Org report, bees are a "keystone species" - they pollinate the food sources of so many other organisms.

In creating floral growth, pollination also provides habitat for insects and birds, the report noted.

Greenpeace described bees as prolific in their work: a single colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day.

Moreover, bees themselves and the honey they produce are good food sources for many animals.

"Take bees out of the equation, and the effects can be felt all the way up the food chain," explained another EarthDay.Org article. Bees and other insects keep the food chain working.

This is especially true of native bees.

"Native plants attract native bees," explained Krystle Hickman, a bee photographer and community scientist. These plants rely on their bees for pollination. Honeybees, which were imported to North America, prefer to pollinate non-native species, she added.

In a commentary piece for Mongabay, Hickman explained how native bees evolved alongside native plants, to which they are adapted. Over millions of years, these plants and their pollinators adjusted to the same changes in climate and habitat. So, saving native bees also means saving native plants and therefore native ecosystems, she said.

Bees Feed the World

Bees similarly pollinate the majority of human food. According to Greenpeace, bees pollinate a "staggering" 70% of crops that feed people, including our fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Greenpeace also reported that honeybees, both wild and domestic, perform roughly 80% of all pollination activities worldwide. This includes everything from asparagus to broccoli, cotton to coffee, noted Heifer.org. Certain crops rely almost entirely on honeybee pollination. Cherries and blueberries, for example, are 90% dependant, and almonds are 100% reliant on honeybees, reported the American Beekeeping Federation. Importantly, honeybees also pollinate alfalfa, an important grass feed for beef and dairy cows.

In the future, "pollination shortfalls" for fruits and vegetables could trigger "nutritional deficits" in diets as fresh foods are replaced by wild-pollinated grains, rice and corn, The Guardian warned.

Economic Impacts

The pollination services that bees provide confer a huge economic benefit to the world. The EarthDay.Org report valued bee-pollinated crops worldwide to be worth $577 billion annually. In the U.S. alone, pollinators contribute $24 billion to the agricultural industry every year through pollination, the report said.

Beyond agriculture, entire industries are also based around bee-derived products like beeswax and honey. If these multibillion-dollar industries collapse, it could put tens of thousands out of work and harm the economy.

Food Security Concerns

Bees, generally, but honeybees, in particular, are "essential to healthy crops, and their rapid decline threatens global food security," reported Heifer.org.

Scientists forecast that as bee populations continue to decline, the production of food crops will also decrease. Unfortunately, this is directly opposite what the world needs.

Crop yields for key crops like apples, cherries and blueberries are already down across the U.S. because of a lack of bees in agricultural areas, a 2020 Rutgers study found. Because the U.S. is the largest food exporter in the world, the downstream effect of a crop shortage would be massive and global.

As the global population continues to grow - up to 10 billion by 2050, scientists estimate - we will need more food to feed everyone. Without bees, what or who will pollinate the crops?

What's Happening to the Bees?

Liam Hirst-Graves / EyeEm / Getty Images

So, why are bees dying?

"Habitat loss, acute and chronic pesticide poisoning, diseases and parasites, increasing intensification of conventional farming, and even the impacts of climate change are all taking their toll on bee health," noted SaveBees.Org. "Many of our bees are sick, stressed, and undernourished."

U.S. National Agricultural Statistics reported a 60% honeybee hive decline from 1947 (~6 million hives) to 2008 (~2.4 million hives). The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found an alarming 40% collapse of honeybee colonies from spring 2017 to 2018.

Unfortunately, it's not just managed bees that are in trouble. In 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity reported that one in four native bee species is at risk of extinction.

"[Certain native] populations are now very small and extremely vulnerable to slight habitat changes," Mongabay reported.

In 2017, the rusty patched bumblebee became the first wild bee to be listed as endangered in the continental U.S. Once "common" and "abundant," the species experienced a "swift and dramatic decline" of 87% in the late 1990s and continuing to the present, Mongabay also reported. Only small, scattered populations remain.

Because native bees pollinate native plants, if the bees go extinct, it could also wipe out endangered plant species and disrupt entire ecosystems, the report added.

A 'Perfect Storm'

Bees are facing a "perfect storm" that threatens their future survival. Who and/or what is to blame for this bee apocalypse?

Human activity is the primary driver, with habitat loss, pesticide use, monoculture farming and climate change wreaking havoc on bees and other insects.

Habitat Loss

Habitat loss, particularly of flowering meadows and fields, is devastating bee populations. As humans industrialize and urbanize, there are fewer places for bees to nest or forage. Less greenery and less diversity of plants in and around suburbs and cities mean bee habitats have become fragmented. What's left are "pollinator deserts" that have replaced once abundant wildflower meadows, SaveBees.Org reported.

Pesticides vs. Pollinators

The rise of commercial agriculture brought about increased pesticide use. These chemicals, especially those in the neonicotinoid family, have decimated bee populations.

Pesticides kill bees or weaken bee immune systems, leaving them more prone to diseases and parasites, SaveBees.Org reported. Still, the toxins are widely used both commercially and in homes. For example, undisclosed "inert" ingredients in Roundup are lethal to bumblebees, but the product remains on shelves.

A 2019 study found that agriculture became 48 times more toxic to insects in the U.S. between 1992 and 2014, largely because of neonicotinoid use.

"While climate change, habitat loss, and disease all play a role in the rate of colony collapse, mounting scientific evidence links the recent dramatic spike in bee deaths to the rise of neonic (short for neonicotinoid) pesticides - now the most heavily used insecticides in the United States," reported the NRDC.

Neonicotinoids can kill bees "on contact" and even trace exposures harm their ability to navigate, forage, and reproduce, the environmental organization noted.

Daniel Raichel, who is the NRDC's acting director of their pollinator initiative, called neonicotinoids "phenomenally toxic" to bees and other animals. These chemicals easily spread through soil and water, getting absorbed by wild plants. The pesticides are designed to be absorbed by every part of a plant, to "make the plant itself the pesticide," Raichel explained to EcoWatch. Thus, pollen and nectar from crops treated with nicotinoids become poisonous to bees and other pollinators.

"One neonic-treated corn seed can have enough active ingredient to kill a quarter-million bees or more and one square foot of neonic-treated lawn, at the EPA approved label rate, can have enough active ingredient to kill a million bees," Raichel explained.

Companies are aware of the devastating effect of pesticides on pollinators, but continue to evade and market around such facts because the chemical business is big money. How much? A 2020 report from Unearthed showed that the world's top five pesticide makers are making billions from chemicals that have been proven hazardous to humans, the environment and bee populations.

Monoculture, Multiple Problems

Habitat loss and pesticide use correlate with the rise in farming to meet food demands from a growing global population. As industrial agribusiness converted grasslands and forests - wild bee habitat - into monoculture farms overridden with chemicals, bee populations plummeted, Greenpeace reported.

Monoculture farming involves planting only one crop over a large area over and over. Rather than rotating crops to naturally restore soil nutrients and vitamins, monoculture farming depletes soils and invites weed and pest invasions, One Green Planet explained. That's why this type of farming often requires heavy pesticide, fertilizer and fossil fuel use to ensure maximum yield, Down to Earth reported. In the U.S., this is now the dominant farming practice.

To pollinate massive fields of monocrops, farmers often employ migratory bees. These are trucked-in European honeybees that are shipped across the U.S. to pollinate crops like avocados and almonds. U.S. farming couldn't function without this practice, but critics warn against its use.

The practice could stress, injure or kill bees, CNN reported. Also, forcing bees to gather pollen and nectar from a single, monoculture crop - the one they've been recruited to pollinate - means they receive fewer nutrients than they would with a natural, varied diet, Scientific American reported.

Finally, the report added, the shuttling of bees from area to area guarantees the spread of viruses, mites and fungi between the managed bees themselves and with native bees and other insects.

Climate Crisis and Environmental Threats to Bees

If the deadly combination of habitat loss, toxic pesticides and industrial agriculture wasn't enough, there are also environmental threats to bees.

For instance, research has found that pollutants linger on the bodies of honeybees in areas with high levels of air pollution, exposure to diesel exhaust interferes with their foraging ability and air pollution may affect the heart and immune systems of wild honeybees.

Climate change is also complicating things. A Feb. 2020 study found that bee populations experienced the largest decline in places that have warmed at a faster rate than the rest of the planet. The result, scientists warned, could be the extinction of the bumblebee due to the climate crisis.

"Our results show that we face a future with many less bumblebees and much less diversity, both in the outdoors and on our plates," said Peter Soroye, lead author of the study.

Different species of bees have also evolved to feast on certain blooms and during certain times of the year. As global temperatures shift, flowers could bloom earlier or later in the season, reducing the time that bees have to feed on them, the EarthDay.Org report said. Additionally, climate change could cause species of plants that bees rely on to go extinct, and conditions for life could otherwise become inhospitable for bees.

Disease, Mites and Parasites

These multiple, overlapping factors continue to affect bee populations negatively and make them more susceptible to diseases and pests.

For example, in late 2020, a single-celled fungal pathogen called Nosema emerged as the latest threat to bees. Nosema reproduces in a bee's gut, where it ruptures, spreads and infects the rest of the digestive tract. It leads to lethargy, reduced foraging ability and directional sense, and, often, death. Once one bee in a colony is affected, the fungus spreads quickly because hives are crowded. This can lead to total colony collapse.

Also, when infected bees visit flowers, they can leave the pathogen on surfaces that other wild pollinators land on. This "community spread" of insect diseases has been called a "pandemic" in its own right.

Finally, the Varroa mite is harming many bees. This parasite attaches to the bodies of honey bees and sucks their fat tissues, a PNAS report found. This weakens adults and can kill juvenile bees. Unfortunately, the mite is also a vector for at least five debilitating bee viruses. A significant mite infestation can kill an entire honey bee colony.

How Can We Save the Bees?

That brings us to how we can save the bees. Just like there are multiple threats endangering bee populations, so too there are numerous actions one can take to help. We can start by reversing the major threats to bees we've already covered.

Habitat Loss

Plant more wildflowers, meadows and grassy patches

Build bee gardens and hotels

Pesticide Use

Ban neonicotinoids and other toxic pesticides

Limit the amounts used and times of year

Monoculture Farming and Migratory Beekeeping

Rotate crops

Plant native plants alongside crop fields

Diversify managed bee species

Protect native bees

Climate Change and Air Pollution

Diseases, Mites, and Parasites

Reduce other stress factors to lessen the chances and severity of infestations

Keep a Bee Garden & Hotel

The most accessible solution is to give bees more food, water and shelter.

Plant native wildflowers and flowering shrubs at home and in community plots. Ideally, you'll choose native flowers that bloom at different times of the year to nourish as many different species of bees as possible. Fruit trees such as apples, pears, plums and cherries are also excellent pollinator food sources, SaveBees.Org recommended, as are vegetable and herb plots. Even small balcony gardens help passing pollinators rest up and rejuvenate.

Or, dig up a part of your lawn and convert it to meadow - prime native bee habitat - by replacing grass with native wildflowers and no-mow areas. Dandelions, in particular, are pollen-rich and last very long in the year. They feed a great variety of bee species.

Germany has taken this solution to a national scale, with a country-wide project to plant urban wildflower meadows. As of June 2021, more than 100 flower and wild grass beds have been planted in Germany's largest cities to aid their 580 species of native bees. The meadows include endangered native plants as well as annual blooms selected to bloom year-round.

Next, provide water for bees and other insects to drink. With fragmented habitats, bees can get dehydrated searching for nectar. Help by creating a shallow water bath with sticks or stones for bees to land on. Replace standing water weekly to prevent mosquitoes from developing.

You can also create simple bee "hotels" out of scrap wood and packing materials for native bees. Most native species nest in wood, dried stems or in the ground, SaveBees.Org reported. Providing similar materials nearby to flowers and water can allow these bees to get through their winter season. Experts recommend sanitizing the "hotels" between seasons to avoid pests, diseases and cross-contamination.

MaYcaL / iStock / Getty Images Plus

In the U.S., you can also support the Biden administration's infrastructure agenda, which includes funding for pollinator-friendly roadsides and the removal of invasive species alongside traditional infrastructures such as roads and bridges.

Ban or Reduce Pesticide Use - Especially Neonicotinoids

Mounting evidence shows that we must address our overuse of pesticides if we are to save the bees. Several government bodies are doing so. For example, the nation of Bhutan has adopted a 100% organic farming policy, Greenpeace reported. Also, the European Union voted to ban outdoor use of three major neonics, and Canada is moving towards curtailing its use of chemicals, the NRDC reported.

The U.S. has thus far failed to take significant federal action.

"...The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has so far failed to act. That's why NRDC is putting pressure on the EPA, both in and out of court," the organization said.

Meanwhile, some states are taking up the fight: Connecticut, Maryland and Vermont have banned the sale of bee-killing pesticides to consumers, Environment America reported. The NRDC is simultaneously working with other states to promote smart pesticide policies and to build pollinator habitats while pushing major retailers to take neonic products and neonic-treated plants off their shelves.

As an individual, you can urge Congress to ban Neonicotinoids right now and to pass the Saving America's Pollinators Act, EarthDay.Org recommended. The organization also asks individuals to sign their Earth Day Network's Pesticide Pledge to reduce pesticide use.

As a consumer, you can also reach out to large companies to demand they stop selling bee-killing products. The power of social movements should not be underestimated.

Swap Monoculture for Ecological Farming

Monoculture is not the way to go if we are to protect the future of bees. Alongside diversifying crops, Futurity also recommended increasing the diversity of managed pollinators and investing in honeybee colonies. This can help avoid diseases and colony collapse within current agricultural systems.

Greenpeace called these "big agriculture" systems, with their monoculture farms and widespread pesticide use, "dysfunctional and destructive." The organization instead advocates for "ecological farming" as a way to stabilize human food production, preserve wild habitats and protect the bees.

Going organic like Bhutan is a great first step. Avoiding genetically modified crops is another. Mexico and eight European countries have banned certain genetically modified foods in order to protect native varieties, Greenpeace reported.

"Ecological, organic farming is nothing new," the organization shared. "It is the way most farming has been done throughout human history. Ecological farming resists insect damage by avoiding large monocrops and preserving ecosystem diversity. Ecological farming restores soil nutrients with natural composting systems, avoids soil loss from wind and water erosion, and avoids pesticides and chemical fertilizers."

These actions restore bee populations and health, which in turn improves pollination rates, which boosts crop yields - all without harmful pesticides.

Mongabay recommended a middle-ground solution: planting native plants alongside crop fields to encourage diversity amongst bees and pollinators. Farming alongside a native ecosystem allows for pollination without the use of commercial honeybees. Importantly, many smaller farms already employing such crop management practices have achieved seed and fruit set "on par" with that achieved by honeybees.

Address Climate Change

As with many things, lessening the severity of the climate crisis and other environmental stresses will solve a lot of other problems. For example, less fossil fuel use lessens air pollution, which has been shown to coat bees. Preventing further extreme warming of the planet will also ensure more habitat remains liveable for bees in the future and will protect more native plants.

What Else Can You Do?

Dirk Hoffmann / EyeEm / Getty Images

In addition to the tips above to reverse the most severe threats bees are facing, you can shop responsibly.

When you buy fruits, vegetables and honey from local farmers or in a CSA (community-supported agriculture) box, you support earth-friendly, organic agriculture. Even if you don't have access to these products, "...eating organic goes a long way to help the bees!" added Heifer.Org.

Responsible consumption for the bees goes beyond food. According to SaveBees.Org, buying and wearing only certified organic cotton is a major step because cotton ranks "among the highest" in terms of pesticide use on crops.

To contribute more, you can also participate in citizen-science pollinator projects to plant flowers and look for bees, SaveBees.Org recommended.

The site also advised supporting pollinator-friendly bills and initiatives and speaking with elected representatives about the importance of bees.

Continue Learning

Finally, continue learning and sharing about bees and the challenges they're facing. There are many sources, movements, organizations and initiatives out there. Here are some of our favorite:
Tiffany Duong is a writer, explorer and motivational speaker. She holds degrees from UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. As a contributing reporter at EcoWatch, she gives voice to what's happening in the natural world. Her mission is to inspire meaningful action and lasting change. Follow her on Twitter/Instagram @tiffmakeswaves.
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Here's Everything You Need to Know About Saving the Bees - EcoWatch

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"Save the bees!" You've heard this call to action before, but what's the buzz really about? Turns out, bees are incredibly important in nature and in human food production. According to an EarthDay.Org report, there are more than 20,000 distinct bee species worldwide.

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https://justbeehoney.co.uk/blogs/just-bee-honey-blog/what-would-happen-if-all-bees-died

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In a recent blog we looked at many of the reasons why our bee populations are in serious trouble. So what would happen if bees actually became extinct? Why should we care? What would a world without bees look like and what issues would that cause for the human population, other animals and plants?

Bees are one of the most important species on the planet and if all the bees died the world would be a very different place. They are critical pollinators for many of the crop products we use daily.

A world without bees would be a place where supermarkets would struggle to fill the fruit and vegetable aisles and the products that we could find would likely only be available at a very high price. Items that are common and inexpensive now, would become luxury items.

Here is a list of 10 everyday things that need bees:

Apples

Apples are one of the most popular, common and very affordable fruits that we all enjoy. But without bees to pollinate apple trees this would no longer be the case. Apples would become scarce and very expensive quickly without bees.

Like most fruit trees, apples in particular require cross-pollination with other varieties that are not closely related to produce a full healthy crop of fruit. Without bees this would have to be done by human hand, which is possible but would make little economic sense in most countries.

Of course this would then knock-on affect other apple products like cider, apple pastries, and apple juice- you need around 2.5kg of apples just to make a single litre of juice. That a lot of pollination required by bees!

Berries and Cherries

Many types of berry rely heavily on bee pollination. In the case of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries bees are considered essential. It's almost impossible to imagine that these fruits would exist without bees. They would just be too difficult to produce without bee pollinating them. The same goes for cherries, so no cherry pie available in that famous Twin Peaks diner! It's not only cherry pie that would be off the menu either...

Coffee

... without bees a fine cup of coffee to start the day could be a thing of the past too! Some coffee varieties can be self-pollinated but even in those cases the presence of bees can dramatically improve the quality and size of the coffee beans. Without bees they might not be a viable crop.

Some varieties like Robusta coffee, appear to be completely dependent on pollinators. Without bees, coffee would be more difficult and more much expensive to produce. Our varieties available would become very limited and what was available would see a very unwelcome and dramatic price increase.

Cotton

Cotton crops do not rely completely on bees for pollination but introducing them into the crop during flowering results in a very large increase in quantity and quality of the cotton lint.

Without the hard work that bees do, several changes would happen. It would be likely that an inexpensive cotton t-shirt would become an expensive garment to buy. And that wouldn't just affect clothing, a simple item like a cotton tea towel or a bag of cotton make-up pads would become an expensive item.

Cotton crops would also be far less profitable and it would be a massive set back for cotton production, which might lead to only man-made materials available for most uses.

Bee pollination has been shown to increase fibre strength and length, so without bees we might see a big drop in the quality of any available cotton too.

Nuts

Almonds are one of the most nutritious and versatile nuts but unfortunately they would the first nuts to disappear. It would seem an impossibility to pollinate the almond groves without bees.

No more almond oil, almond milk, shampoos with almond extracts, almond bakery goods. Brazil nuts and macadamia nuts would follow soon after as bees are also deemed essential for their production.

Dairy Products

It's not only almond milk that would be disappear from the supermarket shelves either. Dairy cows rely on bee pollinated plants as a food source, so dairy cows would likely become a thing of the past too. You would have to say goodbye to most cheese, yoghurt, milk chocolate, ice cream and custard.

In time we would likely lose all the plants that bees usually naturally pollinate. All the wild animals that eat those plants would also struggle to find food. This plant based food shortage could continue along the food chain and eventually affect almost all living creatures on the planet.

Medication

Many medicines humans use, both conventional and alternative, are derived from flowering plants. The willow and aspen trees used to make aspirin are pollinated by bees. Opium poppies used to produce morphine are also pollinated by bees. The manufacturing of many important drugs and medical treatments could be affected by a sudden loss of our bee population, leading to shortages and in some cases complete unavailability.

Rapeseed Oil

We could expect the most common vegetable oil industry to collapse fairly quickly. Oilseed rape crops are loved by our buzzy friends and they are highly rich in pollen and nectar. The irony is that Oilseed Rape crops are also one of the crops most commonly sprayed with bee-harming pesticides.

Vegetables

Broccoli, Carrots, Pumpkins and other squash-type vegetables would become extremely hard to produce without bee pollination. Like many of your favourite fruits, they would just become too rare and expensive to use as everyday products, so it would be likely that they would disappear completely.

...And last but not least... Honey

Lastly, without bees there would obviously be no honey! We would be losing one of the healthiest, versatile and natural food products available. One of our favourite baking and cooking products would be gone and beekeepers would have no bees to look after. We would miss the honey in skin remedies, shampoos and other cosmetic products. Beeswax would also become something we could only read about.

If all bees died it may not be a total extinction event for humans, but it would be a disaster for our planet. We would see a domino-like effect as many plants started to just disappear one by one, and all animal species would start to struggle to find food.

Herbivores, who depend on certain plant species, would be affected first. They would simply become extinct if those plants ceased to exist because they were no longer being pollinated by bees.

The animals that fed on those animals would be the next to starve and face extinction... and so on as each link in our natural food chain broke down. The price of food and medicines would become out of control, leading to an economic disaster.

It's almost impossible to overstate how much bees play an essential role in the global food supply and natural balance of the planet. It's important not just for us that bees survive, but for every living thing on the planet.

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What would happen if bees became extinct?

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Bees are one of the most important species on the planet and if all the bees died the world would be a very different place. They are critical pollinators for many of the crop products we use daily.

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https://www.fairplanet.org/story/the-risks-and-dangers-of-bee-extinction/

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The blue skies and blooming flowers of spring also bring with them the buzzing of bees, which emerge from their hives in search of pollen. While small in size, their contributions to our ecosystems are momentous; put simply, life on Earth as it is today would not exist without bees.

Over millions of years, bees have evolved to help them pollinate flowers, even gaining little pollen pouches to carry larger loads; flowers have also evolved to attract bees and other pollinators and largely depend on them for reproduction.

Which is why their disappearance is worrying: over the past century, bee populations have plummeted and some have even been labelled as endangered, leaving their ecosystems - and our food chains - at risk of collapse.

Why are bees endangered?

Bees are at risk of extinction largely due to human activities: large-scale changes in land use, industrialised agricultural practices, like monocultures, and the detrimental use of pesticides have all contributed to destroying their habitats and reducing their available food sources. Globalisation has also facilitated the transmission of parasites and other invasive species that prey on bees, like the Asian hornet, which can decimate entire hives in hours.

Global warming also plays a large role in the endangerment of the bee population. Rising temperatures, increased flooding, droughts and changes in blooming seasons of flowering plants all affect the bees' ecosystems, reducing their suitability to the environment and threatening their survival.

Which bees are at risk of extinction?

While most species of bees have seen wide-scale population loss over the past 300 years, and 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species are facing extinction, eight species of bees have officially been declared as endangered.

Seven of the eight are species of the Hawaiian yellow-faced bee, which are at risk due to the threat from non-native species of ants that feed on the eggs, as well as from habitat destruction.

The rusty patched bumblebee ( Bombus affinis) is also listed as an endangered species, and faces risk of extinction, most likely due to exposure to pesticides and habitat loss from to urbanisation. The population of the rusty patched bumblebee, which is endemic to North America, has decreased to only 0.1 percent of its historic levels.

Fortunately, not all bees are endangered, although all face serious population decline due to human activity and climate change.

Why are bees important?

Bees are one of the most efficient and prevalent pollinators. They have a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with flowers and other plants, meaning that both the plant and bee benefit from their interaction: the bees pollinate the plants, spreading the pollen (which they catch on their tiny hairs) from flower to flower, therefore helping the plants reproduce; in exchange, the bees also eat the pollen, which is a critical component of their diets. The evolution of many flowers has largely been tailored around increasing their attractiveness to bees, favouring flowers who are in the colour spectrum that bees can see (ultraviolet rather than red-hued) and that release a strong, sweet smell when their pollen is ready to take.

However, bees pollinate more than just flowers - many of our favourite fruits and vegetables require the help of bees to pollinate them. From tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and eggplants to nuts, seeds and even cotton. It is estimated that about 80 percent of pollination of flowering plants uses the help of pollinators like bees to reproduce. Bees are critical for the stability of our food systems, supporting over 35 percent of global agricultural land - which is why their disappearance is worrying for humans.

What would happen if bees went extinct?

The ecological issue of the possible extinction of the bees is also a humanitarian issue, as the stability of human populations largely depends on the stability of bee populations. Considering the crucial role of bees' pollination activities in supporting our agricultural systems, their disappearance would likely result in a food crisis for humanity. Supplies of foods such as apples, berries, avocados, coffee and onions would fall drastically since they require the help of pollinators to reproduce. With plummeting supplies, the prices of these foods would skyrocket, making them rare and inaccessible to most people.

The decimation of these plants would have secondary effects on animals other than humans that also rely on them for food sources, resulting in larger biodiversity loss. In order to help us meet the food demand for the world's rising human population, and achieve SDG 2, we must actively protect and foster the populations of bees and other pollinators.

How can we help the bees?

Just as flowers and bees provide mutually beneficial exchanges, humans - all of whom benefit from bees' pollinating activities - should help foster the health of bees.

Banning dangerous pesticides: The European Food Safety Committee (EFSA) has stated that three major pesticides pose a "high acute risk" to bee species and have been found in dangerous levels within their hives. Governments must ensure that approved pesticides are not harmful to pollinator populations, which in the long-run will help increase crop yield and promote sustainable farming.

Prevent and reverse habitat loss: Without adequate environments for bees to build homes and have plentiful food sources, their populations will continue to decline. Preventing deforestation can therefore also prevent bee extinction and, as a side effect, promote higher crop yields.

Buy organic produce: Organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides and therefore does not have chemicals that can kill bees.

Plant flowers and plants that bees pollinate: If you have a garden, you can plant certain plants that attract bees and other pollinators. Make sure to plant using organic seeds and avoid using fungicides or pesticides.

Buy local honey: Local honey producers support bee populations, but need income to support their farms and themselves. Buying locally will help small-scale farmers survive, while also helping the biodiversity of plants and the bee communities in your area.

Do not kill bee hives: While many people are afraid of bees, it is important to understand that they are mostly harmless unless provoked. In fact, not all bees sting - some species do not possess stinging abilities, and male bees do not sting at all. Even female bees that do sting will only sting if directly threatened or attacked. If you don't feel comfortable with bees around, you can contact a local beekeeper association that will relocate the bees to a new home.

Concluding thoughts

On World Bee Day (20 May), we recognise the importance of these beautiful and small creatures, whose activities help preserve and perpetuate life on Earth. The decimation of their populations should remind us of the destabilising nature of human activity, which is possible to prevent and correct. Our perspectives of our environments and our food chains must shift from focusing solely on the plants we eat to including the other organisms that support plants' lives - and by extension, our lives as well.
Image by Bianca Ackermann

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Why are bees endangered and what happens if they go extinct? | FairPlanet

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While small in size, their contributions to our ecosystems are momentous; put simply, life on Earth as it is today would not exist without bees.

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https://www.toptenz.net/10-things-happen-bees-died.php

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In the 1990s, beekeepers started recording major losses of worker honeybees during the winter months. Since then, there have been mass die offs in many of the other 4,000 species of bees. In 2006, the phenomenon was bestowed with the name colony collapse disorder. No one is exactly sure why the bees are dying off in unprecedented numbers, but some theories include the loss of flower meadows, varroa mites that eat the bees' blood, climate change, and the use of pesticides. Thankfully, bees are a long way from becoming extinct. Which is good, because as this list shows, it could be disastrous for humanity.

10. Honey Will Disappear

Obviously, without bees we would no longer get honey. Humans have been harvesting honey for about 9,000 years. Beekeeping was important in early agriculture because bees pollinated crops, which allowed them to bloom, and it produced honey and wax.

While most people think of honey as something you eat, it also has a bunch of different uses. Notably, it is used as an ingredient in the cosmetic industry. It helps keep your skin healthy and is great for the scalp. It's also effective as a natural remedy for treating cuts and burns, so it's found in balms. Another major use of honey is in cough medicine and lozenges. The honey helps both the taste of the cold aids and it helps soothe the throat.

Honey is so diverse that in all the ways that honey is used, the average American uses 1.3 pounds of honey every year. Honey is also $300 million industry that employs thousands of people. So without bees, one of the healthiest and most versatile foods in history will become a thing of the past.

9. Many Fruits and Vegetables Will Stop Growing

Bees play a vital role in the world's ecosystem. According to a report by the United Nations, of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food supply, over 70 are pollinated by bees. According to the BBC, half of all the food in the grocery store would be gone if bees disappeared. This includes such everyday staples as almonds, apples, avocados, cashews, blueberries, grapes, peaches, peppers, strawberries, tangerines, walnuts, watermelons, and probably worst of all, coffee.

Of course, the disappearance of these foods would have far reaching and dire consequences, which we will explore later in the list. So feel free to take a minute to mourn the possible loss of coffee before moving on to more bad news.

8. Pollination by Humans

One thing that we may be able to do to save a few of the plants is to pollinate them by hand. This is already being done in China, where they are suffering from a shortage of bees. Workers in southwest China take buckets full of pollen and paint brushes, and they go through apple and pear orchards, pollinating each blossom by hand by painting the pollen on to them. Children are used to get the blossoms at the top of the tree.

If the bees were to completely die out, humans could use this method to pollinate some fruits and vegetables, but it will only be done on certain crops, especially ones that are incredibly valuable, like coffee. It couldn't be done on all crops, simply because there aren't enough people to pollinate all the plants that are currently pollinated by bees. Mostly because plants can only be pollenated in a small window of time, and humans are too slow and simply aren't as efficient as swarms of bees that have been pollinating crops for thousands of years.

7. Dairy Products Would Disappear

An additional problem that humans will face in a world without bees stems from the fact that we aren't the only ones who eat plants that are pollinized by them. Another major consumer is dairy cows. They need about 100 pounds of food every day and they have a rather complex diet. Most of what they eat, like alfalfa hay, needs to be pollinated by bees. Without the alfalfa, there wouldn't be enough food for dairy cows. That means things like butter, dairy milk, and cheese will just disappear. Sheep and goats also eat is pollinated food, so don't expect either of those to replace cows.

In fact, we may start to notice this becoming a problem in the near future. Almond hulls, a waste byproduct of almonds, are often added to dairy cow feed to make the food less expensive, which, in turn, makes dairy cheaper. However, almonds are heavily dependent on bees and with the bee numbers dwindling, almond production will likely decrease as well.

One other way this will be a problem is that dairy cows are also used for beef. About 17 percent of all beef comes from dairy cows. Without dairy cows, beef prices would also go through the roof.

6. Cotton Wouldn't Grow

Not all the plants that bees pollinate are something we eat. They also pollinate cotton, which is a staple of the clothing industry. Can you even imagine a world without cotton? There is a good chance that you are wearing something that is made from cotton, or at least contains some cotton, at this very moment. To name just a few clothing items that contain cotton are denim, t-shirts, underwear, and socks. It's also used in other everyday objects like bed sheets, shoelaces, disposable diapers, and toilet paper.

While we can make clothing that is similar to cotton, like polyester, the problem is the new demand for these synthetic fabrics will put a tremendous strain on the materials needed to make them and they are not as plentiful as cotton is today. Needless to say, clothing in a post-bee world will be much different, and probably much more expensive. So if you are planning on throwing away that old t-shirt, you may want to hold on to it until you're sure the bees are going to stick around.

5. What Will We Eat in a Post-Bee World?

You may be wondering what we will eat if all the bees go away. As we saw, cows and beef will be affected, but how about pigs and chickens? The good news is pigs will pretty much eat anything ( including dead people), and chickens eat non-bee pollinated food as well. That means that pork and chicken will likely become the staple proteins in many people's diets.

As for crops, wheat, corn, soybean, and rice do not need to be pollinated by insects, so they will still be plentiful. A few everyday staple fruits and vegetables that were pollinated by bees will also survive with human intervention. Potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots only need a small amount of pollination. However, the crop production would drop significantly. Also, you can say goodbye to a lot of different cooking oils like canola, coconut, almond, and sesame, which will no longer exist.

4. Food Costs Will Sky Rocket

One thing you've probably gathered throughout this list is that a lot of fruits and vegetables won't grow anymore, food will be scarce, and while humans could pollinate plants (like we previously mentioned), that is only going to make food even more expensive.

We don't even have to wait for the bees to disappear to experience this. We've already seen this happen in places like Scotland. In the winter of 2012, more than a third of the honey bee colonies were destroyed. This led to increased food prices, simply because once something becomes scarce, the more expensive it becomes. This is especially true for necessities.

If bees keep dying off the way they are, there will be a steady increase in the price of plants that bees pollinate like apples, cotton, and coffee, until there are no bees left. And then, who knows how much it will cost for a cup of coffee that was hand pollinated?

3. Malnutrition Will Be a Huge Problem

Humans are complex machines, and we need different vitamins and nutrients to stay healthy. This complexity would become a huge problem if bees were to go extinct. In 2011, a study from UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis found that across the planet, bee-pollinated crops provide the majority of the lipids, a large portion of the minerals calcium, fluoride, and iron, vitamin A, C, and E. Without the foods, we physically wouldn't do well. Vitamin A is needed for the immune system and night vision. Without vitamin C, scurvy could become an epidemic and while a lack of vitamin E doesn't hurt us, we need it to help with the immune system. Many people would also suffer from iron deficiency.

All of this would make us sickly, tired, and weak all the time. Wounds would take longer to heal and will keep opening up. Some people will have problems fighting the common cold. What is truly ironic is that honey helps with both of those problems.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, the foods that are pollinated by bees also contain nutrients that lower the risk of cancer and heart disease, meaning there could be elevated levels of both.

2. Possible Worldwide Economic Crash

Without bees, the world's economy is going to take a massive hit. There are going to be industries, like coffee, cotton, and food production, that just wouldn't exist anymore. This would have far reaching consequences.

For some perspective, let's just look at what would happen in the United States. The US is the third biggest producer of cotton, a $21 billion-per-year industry that employs 125,000 people. And that industry would vanish.

As we discussed in entry seven, the dairy industry would probably disappear. Currently, there are over 47,000 dairy farms in all 50 states. While we couldn't find an overall figure for the dairy industry in the US, we did find the figure for its largest dairy producer, Wisconsin. It contributes $43.4 billion annually. This doesn't even include companies that make dairy products like Kraft, Saputo, and Nestle, who would probably fold without dairy. The reason that the dairy industry would collapse is because alfalfa wouldn't grow. Amazingly, just growing food for cows is a $10 billion industry in the United States.

Those are just three industries, and we could go on about apples, canola, almonds, and so on. But another problem we want to focus on is that this is just the US. Other economies throughout the world will also be devastated. Take, for instance, the $81 billion coffee industry. What would happen to developing countries like Ethiopia and Indonesia that rely heavily on exporting coffee?

Needless to say, without bees, the world's economy would collapse. Just like a colony.

1. Famines Throughout the World

The good news is the demise of the bees probably won't bring about a cannibalistic apocalypse where everyone starves to death. Darn, right? However, that said, famines are likely to happen, especially in developing countries.

The reason that humanity will survive is because food crops like corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans grow without insect help. However, it would take a while to switch over to these crops. Our best hope would be if bees died off gradually. That would give us more time to prepare new sustainable food sources. If all the bees were to die off tomorrow, it'd put a tremendous strain on resources while farms were converted to grow corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans. During that time, famines would be likely.

Without bees, it would be hard to sustain our current population, which is still growing. This simply comes down to the fact that food availability will drop drastically, and costs will increase. Which means less access to food for many people.

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect here is that bees don't even have to disappear completely for this to be a big problem. One of the big issues we face right now is that the human population is increasing, but the bee population is dwindling. That means there's going to be less food and cotton, but more people to feed and clothe. Having a greater demand is never good when it comes to life essentials.

So while humanity would be able to survive the demise of the bees, the only question is: do you really want to live in a world without wine, cheese, ice cream, and coffee?

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10 Things That Would Happen if Bees Died Out

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In the 1990s, beekeepers started recording major losses of worker honeybees during the winter months. Since then, there have been mass die offs in many of the other 4,000 species of bees. In 2006, the phenomenon was bestowed with the name colony collapse disorder.

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https://www.newsweek.com/what-happen-all-bees-died-agriculture-food-1724114

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There are more than 20,000 known bee species on planet Earth, including the famous western honeybee, Apis mellifera, the domesticated species that has been managed by humans for thousands of years. But what would happen if all the bees suddenly disappeared?

Bees are currently facing a number of threats worldwide, including loss of habitat, parasites and pathogens, pesticides, climate change, declining forage quality and availability, and, in the case of domesticated bees in particular, poor management practices, according to Scott McArt, an entomologist at Cornell University.

Contrary to what many people believe, managed honeybees are not in decline. Nevertheless, huge numbers of hives are being lost every winter and spring. In fact, the numbers are only being maintained at relatively stable levels because beekeepers are becoming better at compensating for losses-a process that is very expensive and time consuming, according to May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

When it comes to wild bees, population numbers are harder to document. But it is clear that many species are in decline across the world, with some even facing the threat of extinction.

For example, one 2017 study found that of the more than 4,000 bee species that are native to North America, nearly one in four among the species with sufficient data to assess (1,437) are imperiled and at increasing risk of extinction. It is important to note that not all wild bee species are in decline, with some populations remaining stable while many others are increasing in number and becoming more widespread.

What Would Happen if All the Bees Disappeared?

Let's imagine a hypothetical scenario where all of the bees on Earth suddenly disappeared. One area where this would have a significant impact would be agriculture.

"If bees suddenly disappeared, there would be a profound impact on agriculture and the food we all eat," McArt told Newsweek.

Many crop plants rely on pollinator insects, such as bees, wasps and butterflies. When it comes to the number of global food crops, researchers have estimated that around three-quarters are partially or wholly reliant on pollinators, especially managed bees, and to a lesser extent, wild bees.

However, when it comes to overall crop production measured in tonnes, it is thought that around one third relies on pollinators to some extent. This is because we grow some crop plants more than others, and many of those that are produced in the highest quantities-staples such as cereals, for example-do not depend on them at all.

"If we lose all subspecies of Apis mellifera, we'd survive but we'd have to rely more on wild bees, which are having problems of their own, and other pollinators," Berenbaum told Newsweek. "Most fruits, nuts, and vegetables would be more expensive and much harder to find, because they'd be harder to produce.

"If you're talking about losing all 20,000 species of bees globally, we'd still survive because the bulk of calories people consume come from grains and cereals (for example, wheat, rice, and corn) or from vegetatively propagated crops (such as potatoes)-so we wouldn't starve per se."

However, bee pollination is very important-and difficult to replace on a large scale-for producing most of the crops that provide essential nutrients (particularly vitamins and minerals) and variety to the human diet (think spices and herbs, as well as stimulant crops such as tea and coffee), according to Berenbaum.

"So, if all bees were to go extinct, we may not be hungry but we'd likely be pretty sick and miserable," she said.

According to Christian Krupke, an entomologist at Purdue University, humans could conceivably survive without bees pollinating our crops but our diets would need to change dramatically.

"Bees pollinate most of our fruits, nuts, and vegetables-honeybees provide the bulk of this service," he told Newsweek. "Without them we would need to find another way to pollinate these many commodities and it would invariably be less efficient, resulting in lower quantities of more expensive food."

While some techniques have been developed to replace the pollination services that bees provide, scaling up these methods is challenging.

"There are many research projects and startup companies looking into robotic pollination of crops," McArt said. "Drones that release pollen from the sky, tiny robotic bees that brush against flowers, and even rovers dispensing soap bubbles containing pollen that coats flowers.

"Some of these technologies have been shows to increase pollination on a small scale, but none are currently effective on a large scale, and none are as good as bees. Bees are simply very good at pollinating. And wild bee pollinate for free! If we farm sustainably, the free labor will be there. If we don't farm sustainably, the free labor will leave."

Beside the impact on agriculture, the healthy functioning of natural ecosystems is also heavily dependent on the pollination services that bees and other pollinators provide, according to McArt. Around 90 percent of land plants are partially or wholly reliant on pollinators for reproduction, he said.

"If you look around, it's obvious we live in a green world where plants provide the foundation of ecosystems. Take away the ability/efficiency of plants to reproduce and ecosystems would be fundamentally disrupted," he said.

According to Robert Gegear, an assistant professor with the Department of Biology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, there are two very different contexts where bees function. While honeybees are important in agriculture, they provide no important services in the ecological context, he said.

"There they are competitors [with native bees] and they'll disrupt the system," Gegear told Newsweek.

If all the honeybees disappeared, it would have no negative effect ecologically speaking, he said, and would probably have a positive impact because honeybees are competitors for limited resources-pollen and nectar. Unlike honeybees, which form hives containing thousands of individuals, most native bee species are solitary.

If we start removing native bees, however, this would be a significant problem because they have a unique relationship with native flowering plants that supports ecosystems, keeping them healthy.

"If we lose native bees, we lose bee diversity. If we lose their functional role, which requires the plants that they pollinate, that's when we start losing things like wild biodiversity, ecosystem function and health. Because these plant-pollinator systems form the foundation of ecosystems."

On the ecological side, it is important to note that bees are just a part of a larger array of plant-pollinator interactions that includes other insects and animals, including flies, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds, to name just a few.

"Certainly, there are many bee-pollinated plants but that's only a small portion of flower-visiting animals that could function as a pollinator," Gegear said. "So, of the 200,000 species that visit flowers to feed on the nectar or pollen, around 20,000 are bees."

But this doesn't mean that removing native bees while other pollinators remained would have no impact.

"It's the diversity of native plant, or wild plant products native to that system, that's supporting the diversity of other wildlife," Gegear said. "As we start to remove those connections either from the animal side or the plant side, we'll eventually see ecosystem collapse and the loss of ecosystem services. These are things that we get from nature for free, like carbon sequestration and water purification, which all depend on healthy and diverse ecosystems."
Correction 07/22/22, 10:17 a.m. ET: This article was corrected to say Robert Gegear is an assistant professor with the Department of Biology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

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There are more than 20,000 known bee species on planet Earth, including the famous western honeybee, Apis mellifera, the domesticated species that has been managed by humans for thousands of years. But what would happen if all the bees suddenly disappeared?

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https://a-z-animals.com/blog/what-would-happen-if-bees-went-extinct/

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What would happen if bees went extinct? Let’s explore the potentially dire effects of losing the world’s most important pollinators.