FORECASTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY:
2nd Highest Honeybee Die Off On Record
FORECASTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY:
2nd Highest Honeybee Die Off On Record
5 Ways To Save The Honeybees
D. S. Mitchell
Bad News For Honeybees
Honeybees were dealt a staggering blow in 2022-23. The news was once again alarming. Thursday the University of Maryland and Auburn University released their study on honeybee health. The study found that 48% of honeybee colonies were lost in the year that ended April 1st. The astounding loss was blamed on a combination of factors including parasites, pesticides, starvation, and climate change. The numbers indicate that honeybee hives in the United States were devastated, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies. Despite staggering losses beekeepers are staying afloat, but are being forced to use costly and near superhuman determination and ingenuity to create new colonies.
Honeybee Dependent
Honeybees are critical to the food supply, responsible for pollinating more than a 100 crops that humans eat, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus, and melons. Despite the heart stopping decline in honeybee colonies, this last years was not as bad as 2020-21 when the mortality rate reached 50.8% .
Scary Times
The temperatures around the country are more and more likely to hit triple digits for days on end than they were 10 or 20 years ago. My lord, a postal carrier dropped dead from heat stroke in Texas. Time to stop the denials. Time to save our planet before it’s too late. Pressure your state and federal legislator. The time for silence is long since over. Pesticides and fossil fuels are killing a necessary partner in human food production.
In 1962 Rachel Carson Warned Us
- In September 1962 Rachel Carson published one of the most important books on the environment ever published. Certainly, it can be described as the foundation of the mid-20th century environmental movement. Fundamentally, Ms Carson documented the harmful effects of the “indiscriminate” use of pesticides.
Future Generations Will Not Forgive Our Failures
In her ground breaking nonfiction book, Silent Spring she said: “It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. …we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man himself. Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life.”
Field Work
Ms Carson graduated from John Hopkins University in 1932 with a Master’s Degree in Zoology. Ms Carson worked as a field scientist for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for fifteen years. After World War II, the government touted the value of many toxic chemicals that had been developed during the war. The prime reason behind the government support of these chemicals was the hope to maximize farm production.
