To bee or not to bee

When most people think of climate change they just concentrate on global warming and think that somehow we'll manage to survive extreme weather, we always do. But climate change means more drastic changes than too much rain or hurricanes. It means vast numbers of species becoming extinct. Our place on Earth in the food chain is part of a delicate balance. Mess with that balance and the food chain can collapse.

There is an increasingly disturbing trend being noticed by farmers around the world that bees are disappearing. Beekeepers across the US and Europe have reported losing 80-95% of their hives this spring. In the UK, three species of bumblebee have become extinct. Everything has been blamed from insecticides, GM crops, intensive farming, too much rain to emissions from mobile phones and wireless networks leading bees astray. But whatever the cause, it's happening. Studies have shown that bees are not dying in the hive, something is causing them to lose their sense of orientation so that they cannot return to the hive. Many people don't realise the vital role bees play in maintaining a balanced ecosystem. According to experts, if bees were to become extinct then humanity would perish. Albert Einstein said "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

What can we do? On a big scale, make sure bees are on the environmental agenda. On a small scale, plant the bees favourite flowers in your garden (they generally like blue but a full list can be found here). And if a bee gets stuck in your house this summer, please let her go free!

Think on this: it's aerodynamically impossible for bumblebees to fly - but they do it anyway. You've got to respect that.

To learn more about the problem just put "dying bees" into Google.