Bees Extinction (document en anglais)

BEES EXTINCTION

Intro: Today, bees are dangerously under threat, because of many different reasons. This extinction causes a lot of impacts in the world. But why are bees so important?

1) BEE ROLE:

Many people would think that bees only produce honey and sting predators. But they are mostly pollinators, and the natural pollinators are a vital link in our food chain. Over 85% of plant species of the earth, which many of them are the most nutritional foods in our diet, require pollinators to exist. Pollinating insects also play a critical role in maintaining natural plant communities and ensuring production of seeds in most flowering plants. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of another flower of the same species, which results in fertilization of plant ovaries and the production of seeds. The main insect pollinators, by far, are bees. Bees make excellent pollinators because most of their life is spent collecting pollen, a source of protein that they feed to their developing offspring. When a bee lands on a flower, the hairs all over the bees’ body attract pollen grains through electrostatic forces. Stiff hairs on their legs enable them to keep the pollen into specialized brushes or pockets, and then carry it back to their nest. Nowadays, bees produce 1 third of our food (including honey). Yet, we continue to attend an alarming decline of these populations.

2) Causes of death:

Last winter, beekeepers reported losses of 50-70 percent of their hives -- the worst year yet since the global bee die-off began! Scientists say that near than 40 factors are the cause of this collapse. Pesticides and fertilizers used by farmers or individuals in their gardens, have a significant impact on bee health. These products have been prohibited. By analysing pollen and honey of different bee colonies, up to 170 different chemicals were discovered. However, the evidence of the direct responsibility of these pesticides has not been made, but several studies point out that pesticides weaken the bees, making them lose their ability to move. Indeed, neonicotinoids (substance present in chemicals) act on the central nervous system of insects, which can no longer return to their hive.

Other factors are responsible of bees, such as disease, mushrooms, or the Asian hornet, which attacks the bee colonies. But once again, man causes problems to these insects: Beekeepers specialized in industrial-scale pollination, make their bees travelled over tens of thousands of miles to pollinate huge areas of monocultures. This constant movement causes stress, disorientation, infections and destroy the notions of space and seasons. This intensive agriculture reducing the variety and number of flowers. Bees also suffer from nutritional imbalance. Some species cannot find the plants of their usual diets.

3) Consequences

Participating in plant reproduction, bees allow all plant species in the world, to multiply themselves. If the bees disappear, plant species won’t be able longer to reproduce and will gradually disappear too, and hinder some animal species (including humans) to feed themselves. This will therefore gradually leads to their lost. To sum up, the food chain would collapse. Albert Einstein said that humanity would not survive more

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