Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
People talk about the need for a Plan B during a crisis. But, what about a Plan Bee? To protect the world’s honey bees.
In San Diego, CA., September 20, 2023, when beekeepers checked on their 64 hives, they found most of the bees were dead. Some 3 million honey bees…killed by an unknown contagion.
This is happening around the world. Beekeepers are losing 30% or more of their bee colonies each year. This is critical since bees are one of the key pollinators responsible for pollinating plants that produce the world’s food supply.
SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel wrote about the threats to bees in 2016 when the United Nations issued its groundbreaking Pollinator Report on the importance of bees, birds, butterflies, bats, and other pollinators to the environment. The information in that report is even more vital today:
United Nations Issues Warning
Bees, Birds, Butterflies Under Siege
A recent report from the United Nations warns that pollinator species worldwide – the bees, butterflies, birds and bats that pollinate plants – are in danger of extinction. At risk are 40% of the bees and butterflies and 16% of birds and bats.
This decline in pollinators of all kinds is critical to our food supply since 75% of food crops are at least partially dependent on pollination.
“Pollinators are important contributors to world food production and nutritional security,” said Dr. Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca, who co-chaired the study. The health of the pollinators “is directly linked to our own well-being.”
There are many reasons – both man-made and natural – that pollinators are declining: habitat loss due to farming and urban development, pesticide usage, parasites, disease, and global warming.
The increasing trend of agribusinesses to plant giant areas of farmland devoted to single crops is eliminating the grasslands and wildflowers that the pollinators seek. The pollinators need the wildflowers, which, in turn, need the pollinators to reproduce.
SurfWriter Girls learned that more than 20,000 species of wild bees help to pollinate plants.
Plus, many species of butterflies, flies, moths, wasps, beetles, birds, bats and other animals do, as well.
Crops that depend on these pollinators include fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and oils – many of which provide essential vitamins and minerals to our diets.
Others, such as coffee and cocoa, not only provide welcome indulgences, but needed income to developing nations.
The report, which was the work of researchers from 124 countries, highlighted the interdependence between animals, plants and man. It also noted that a number of steps can be taken to bring back the pollinators.
U. N. Pollinator Report – 2016
These steps include:
Planting patches of wild flowers in agricultural areas could attract pollinators to crop fields.
Cutting back on pesticide use in favor of organic farming methods is another way to protect and attract pollinators.
Something as simple as planting flowers in our yards and putting out window boxes of flowers on ledges could make a difference, too.
SurfWriter Girls are reminded of the classic folk song Where have all the flowers gone?
For the sake of the pollinators, the answer is more important than ever now.
Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine
SurfWriter Girls
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Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.
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