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Global warming has now been found to cause bee colony collapse!
Yes that's right.
Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere—which acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. As we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas for energy or cut down and burn forests to create pastures and plantations, carbon accumulates and overloads our atmosphere. Certain waste management and agricultural practices aggravate the problem by releasing other potent global warming gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.
As bee populations continue to decline, researchers were scurrying to try and find an answer as to why, and now they have.
A new study has linked Global Warming, as the bee’s nemesis.
The authors to a new study being published have found "convincing evidence" of the link between Global Warming and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which adult bees abandon their hives.
"The significance of bees to agriculture cannot be underestimated," an associate professor of environmental exposure biology, said in a press release. "And it apparently doesn't take much of global warming to affect the bees".
A research team has conducted a study to try and replicate how the climate change problem may have caused the CCD outbreak.
They monitored bees in four different bee yards, each of which had four hives treated with different levels of atmospheric conditions and CO2 levels, and one control hive.
After a very short period of atmospheric condition and CO2 changes, all the bees were alive. However, after a 23-week period, 15 out of 16 of the affected hives had died. The bees that were exposed to the higher levels of the atmospheric changes and CO2 increase died first.
The study is the first of many that have been performed that blame CO2 increases and global warming as the leading culprit behind the dwindling bee population.
It may not be possible to return to the good old days. Many areas of excellent bee forage have become housing developments, farms, airports, highways, shopping centers, theaters, sports arenas, etc.
Even undisturbed areas that used to have plenty of flowers for bees to pollinate now have sparse numbers of plants on them.
Scientists have been trying to pin down the likely culprit of CCD since they found that between 30 and 90 percent of honey bee colonies have been lost since 2006.
Honey bees are most robust and can fend off diseases, parasites and toxicants when they are at their physiological best. The proteins, vitamins, minerals, lipids, carbohydrates, sterols, antioxidants, etc. in a healthy mix of pollens are essential to rearing and maintaining healthy bees.
If we were to allow nature to take its course and not stop climate change, we would end up with a lot fewer bees, and we will lose billions of dollars in crop industry.
Some scientists say that it may not be too late to reduce Global Warming and CO2 increases to mitigate bee losses. We can engage in the sustainable management of honey bees and native bees. Promoting the health of bee pollinators can begin as an individual or local endeavor, but collectively has the far-reaching potential to beautify and benefit our environment in vital and tangible ways.
Please let's stop global warming and climate change.