{"id":34792,"date":"2018-06-05T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34792"},"modified":"2018-06-05T09:23:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T14:23:00","slug":"will-the-extinction-of-bees-really-mean-the-end-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34792","title":{"rendered":"Will the Extinction of Bees Really Mean the End of Humanity?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will the Extinction of Bees Really Mean the End of Humanity?<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/center>Feared at best and considered a useless, disposable nuisance at worst, bees are among the most underappreciated creatures on the planet.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a shame because our very existence relies on the tiny buzzing creatures.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve known for years<\/a> that bee populations all across North America and Europe are collapsing at an alarming rate.<\/p>\n

This is a huge threat to our food supply. One-third of all the food we eat comes from plants that are pollinated by insects, and\u00a080% of those crops are pollinated by bees<\/a>.\u00a0It also has big implications for our meat supply as well: plants (like alfalfa) that feed animals are pollinated by bees.<\/p>\n

The largest international survey of insect pollinators found<\/a> that just 2 percent of wild bee species now account for 80 percent of global crop pollination.<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, if all the bees die, humanity will follow.<\/p>\n

Worldwide, there are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized\u00a0biological families. Of those, 4,000\u00a0calls the United States home.\u00a0Bees exist on every continent except Antarctica. Wherever you find insect-pollinated, flowering plants you will find bees.<\/p>\n

Native bees come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, but one thing they all have in common is their important role as pollinators.<\/p>\n

Here are just some of the fruits and veggies bumble bees help pollinate: Squash, pumpkin, zucchini, alfalfa, cranberries, apples, green beans, scarlet beans, runner beans, cucumber, strawberries, tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, potatoes, blueberries, cherries, kiwifruit, raspberries, blackberries, plums, and melons.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0Cornell University study<\/a>\u00a0published in 2012, crops pollinated by honeybees and other insects contributed $29 billion to United States farm income in 2010.<\/p>\n

As you can see, bees are a crucial part of our ecosystem. Our food supplies \u2013 and essentially, our lives \u2013 rely on them.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will the Extinction of Bees Really Mean the End of Humanity? Feared at best and considered a useless, disposable nuisance at worst, bees are among the most underappreciated creatures on the planet. That\u2019s a shame because our very existence relies on the tiny buzzing creatures. We\u2019ve known for years that bee populations all across North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[66,20368,1912,928,5329,20367,16592,6787],"class_list":["post-34792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-bees","tag-colony-collapse","tag-food-production","tag-food-supply","tag-humanity","tag-lisa-egan","tag-pollination","tag-ready-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34793,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34792\/revisions\/34793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}