Death And Extinction Of Bees Summary

Bees have been around for millions of years and essentially help make the world function. They help grow our fruits and vegetables by pollinating them. Without them the world would be a very different place. Over time without the bees humans would eventually go extinct because we need them for our survival. It boils down to if bees go extinct humans will as well. Recent studies have been done that show that bee populations are declining. Our bee population has decreased by nearly half in recent years. Due to harsh winters, severe drought, and pesticides used on plants, bees are dying at an alarming rate.
Many states that have long and very cold winters have major decrease in bee population because the bees cannot survive those harsh temperatures. In the article “Death and Extinction of Bees” by Joachim Hagopian they discuss how harsh wintertime effects the bee population. They claim, “Recent harsh winters that stay freezing cold

well into the spring have been instrumental in decimating the honeybee population in Iowa by up to 70% as well as the other historically high yielding honey states - the Dakotas , Montana, Minnesota” (1). Since the winters have such low temperatures and last so long bees are not being able to survive or produce any of the things we need.
Although some state’s bee population are suffering from the low temperatures states like California have suffering bee populations due to severe drought. In the same article “Death and Extinction of the Bees” by Joachim Hagopian they talk about how a state like California has a declining bee population due to the drought. They say, “The recent severe drought in California has become an additional factor driving both its honey yield and bee numbers down as less rain means less flowers available to pollinate” (1). If there are no flowers for the bees to pollinate they cannot survive and thrive in their environment.
The last reason bees are dying off is due to the pesticides and chemicals used on certain plants.

Pesticides are very harmful to the bees. Although pesticide use can be prevented, they have still caused many honeybee deaths. In the TED talk “Why bees are disappearing” by Marla Spivak she presents the reasons why bee populations have been declining so rapidly over recent years. Spivak expresses, “If one of these neonics, we call them, is applied in a high concentration, such as in this ground application, enough of the compound moves through the plant and gets into the pollen and the nectar, where a bee can consume, in this case, a high dose of this neurotoxin that makes the bee twitch and die”. If a bee goes to pollinate a flower that has a pesticide within it the bee will become poisoned by it and end up dying. Even in lower doses it can still harm the bee to the point where it is unable to function well and navigate where it needs to go. This is the very bad since it can be prevented yet it is still a big cause of large bee

deaths.
Bees are dying off at very rapid rates which is very bad for mankind and the human race. Without them the humans cannot survive. Not much action can be done to prevent the death of the bees when it comes to the environmental causes. Although, some things can be prevented such as using harmful chemicals on plants that bees pollinate. If people stop using pesticides and plant more of the flowers bees need they might not go fully extinct after all. In conclusion, bees are dying due to harsh winters, severe drought, and pesticides on plants.