This cute Bee cartoon is prescient and true and a little macabre. I like it.

[BlueJazz]

[whttevrr]

1. Mmmm... honey...

[awoke_in_2003]

14. more importantly

Mmm, pollination

[mike_c]

2. except that it's not....

All of our staple crops are wind pollinated or vegetative tissues that don't require pollination. And there's a healthy native pollinator community, too. The primary victims of honey bee population collapse would be the bee-keeping industry (and honey production), and some elements of Big Ag since honey bees are quite happy to be transported around the country and spend small amounts of time in specific crops, where native pollinators would need significant habitat restoration for long term success in situ.

But the notion that human society is dependent upon honey bees is a convenient scare fiction that helps to sell newspapers and advertising time.

[AverageJoe90]

5. So true. So true.

[BlueJazz]

8. You don't understand. Those are "Walking Dead" Bees. Your insolence will be noted.

[reflection]

41. I saw one of those!

[BlueJazz]

47. Sweet Jesus ! LOL!

[jtuck004]

9. Absolutely. We could live on wheat. Alone. No apples, no

grapes, no carrots, nuts, no clover, no honey. No taste.

And I'm not so sure about the native pollinator community, assuming you mean bees and not flies. This article talks about the threat to wild bees as well, which makes me wonder about your assertion.

As you said, it would also lead to the demise of a job for about 20 guys I know with pickups that drive bees around and make some of the best honey there is, plus perhaps a few thousand more. And Sue Bee, I guess, though I haven't eaten that stuff in years.

Maybe you are correct, but with our penchant for getting rid of habitat and spraying poisons around, I'm not sure the future bodes well.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees

[Scootaloo]

10. Uhm, the Western Hemisphere between 20,000 BCE and 1500 CE would like a word...

You know that honeybees are an introduced invasive species, right? In fact this is true for Europe and the Near east as well - Honeybees are a product of somewhere in the south China / Indochina region, and their cultivation spread to India, and from there to the west of Eurasia, which did not have wild honeybees (Africa did - apparently they were a Gondwanaland refugee in Africa / India until the Miocene impact?)

North, Central, and South America did not have honeybees until they were introduced by the English, possibly as early as the Roanoke colony, but probably later (their role as pollinators was not known at the time, bees were honey-producers, and honey was a big luxury. Also they ate the comb and all, which is pretty nummy). There was no shortage of pollinators - there are a variety of bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, flies, beetles, birds, and bats which all pollinate just fine. Just no Apis mellifera.

Somehow, Native American societies from Canada to Tierra del Fuego managed to do just fine with their crops.

Also, note that the hive losses are domestic honey bees. There are still plenty of genetically diverse feral honeybees out there that are doing just fine, to say nothing of Africanized hybrids.

Hive colony collapse is a problem... but mostly it's a problem for mile upon mile of monocropped fruit plantations, which have to bring in rented hives to support themselves.

[jtuck004]

15. Lol. Yeah, there is that. And we used to live in mud huts and club women over the

too, (well, ok, not everyone has evolved) but I have grown accustomed to what we have, and I really don't need reasons for thieving corporations and a lazy culture killing off the domesticated bee with poison and overbuilding into native habitat, you know? As well, agriculture as practiced during the period you describe would take a hell of a lot of time away from my computer, which is what makes my money.

People keep saying the wild bees are doing ok, except that link above, as well as others, say they are not doing that well, that they they are are undergoing die-offs of their own.

The idea that we will be fostering the growth of Africanized bees given the reports of attacks seems kind of thoughtless. I realize that's only when their nest is disturbed, but the little buggers build nests everywhere, especially in the South, so that could turn into a real problem.

And I really like the honey, so most of those other pollinators don't do it for me

[Scootaloo]

21. I didn't say it was a good thing

Just making a point that it's pretty far from certain doom. or uncertain doom. or any possibility of doom.

[jtuck004]

24. I guess doom is in the eye of the beholder. With 300+ million people, most of whom are used

to a diet perpetuated by factory farming and oil, I can see losing a third of the population simply because neither they nor we as a nation are prepared for something like that, not that we couldn't survive. That would probably lead to lots of mob violence as well.

And that would give the enemies of the country a real shot at us, one we have helped them wish for, I suspect. So it might not just be the disruption in the food supply that would be the problem.

[Scootaloo]

25. If a hundred million people die to a lack of apples...

Then this country is worse off than I imagined it to be. Really, if cheap heavy fruits are the only thing keeping us propped up as a nation, that a price jack would render THAT many people to death's door, I think we have worries far, far beyond bees.

[jtuck004]

30. Not just apples, but a serious disruption in the food supply, not one we can easily

remedy by just moving shipping around. And if bees die off and take crops with and other parts of the system are deprived of their food or nutrients or shade plus climate change plus a little loose radiation from fukushima plus ? Like Storer wrote about in The Web of Life a few decades ago.

If it was just one thing I would say it's probably fixable in some way, But it will likely be a combination of different things, just hard to tell what. And that's just the natural biological threat. Add in the potential terrorist who is working in a lab right now on a weapon other than a bomb (which is what grabs everyone's attention).

All that aside, our finance-driven economy is being propped up by huge amounts of borrowed money and government injection, while we aren't investing a thing into upping the skills of tens of millions of blue-collar workers whose abilities are being wasted while the nation deteriorates, and then raising a whole generation or two into the face of that. And we are, in fact, dependent for our food supply on petroleum, so you are correct, that is just a crazy high price increase away from a real potential disaster.

Either could be a problem, and either could keep us from resolving the other should it get worse.

Nothing like livin' on the edge, eh?

[53tammy]

36. +1

when we don't look at how a change of events affects everything else you would never think of. Something we all too often fail to do.

[bvar22]

42. Nailed It, jtuck004!

Trying to argue that HoneyBees are not indigenous, and therefore not important is ridiculous and shameful, but we get all types on DU these days.

I have no desire to live in a migratory hut and chase herd animals across the plains for my survival.
Unfortunately, the massive herd animals are gone now too, so good luck with THAT.

--bvar22 & Starkraven
Small Scale, Decentralized, Natural BeeKeepers

[rosesaylavee]

11. Our penchant for getting rid of habitats, soil, insects, birds, etc.

will be our undoing if we don't turn this around. Our sweet honeybee is but the precursor to it all collapsing. I keep bees too... and also keeping an eye on how we do agriculture and how the climate is changing. It's all of a piece. We ignore this at our peril.

[riverbendviewgal]

12. Wheat is not good to live on.

We are better to live on what man lived on before wheat came along..We would live longer.

[Scootaloo]

22. Disposing of agriculture altogether would probably yeild even better effect

But, uh, yeah, that would probably not work out well for several billion people. Just a theoretical thing, since as it turns out, Agriculture is a high-cost, low-provision method of collecting food, compared to hunting and gathering, with more stress, greater risk of disease, and much more social injustice.

[bvar22]

13. Some of what you say is true.

As BeeKeepers, we aren't so sure the Bees are "quite happy" being transported around the nation. They really don't get a choice in the matter.
We believe it is very stressful.
It interrupts their natural seasonal cycles,
and exposes the the Bees to a multitude of contagious diseases, pests, pesticides, and exhaust toxins.
The current state of the Commercial BeeKeeping Industry indicates that their Bees are NOT happy at all.

We practice Natural BeeKeeping, and are careful to avoid stress from overcrowding, movement, exposure to pesticides, toxins, & corn syrup (among other things).

Most of the Veggies in our garden are either self-pollinating or wind pollinated.
Our Bees couldn't care less about them,
but the Berries, Fruits Trees, and herbs are a favorite of our Bees,
and we feel that the close proximity of our two colonies is helpful in the maximizing Production.

The Fruit & Nut industry in California agrees with us so strongly that they pay many thousands of dollars every year to BeeKeepers for bringing the Bees to their orchards.

The US could probably "survive" a Honey Bee extinction,
but we are doing our best to ensure that doesn't happen,
and enjoying the bounty from these incredible insects.



Low Stress, Small Scale Decentralized, natural Bee Keeping might be the answer.
If I were a Bee, I wouldn't want to be fed Corn Syrup and live in an overcrowded factory Bee Yard. I would leave too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1182412

[jtuck004]

16. >I wouldn't want to be fed Corn Syrup and live in an overcrowded factory Bee Yard <

Bees be smarter than us...

[BrotherIvan]

28. Oh my, that picture -- DROOL

And do you have some kinda perfect life going or something? Jeez, some people.

[question everything]

19. I thought that almonds are dependent on bees for pollinationm(nt)

[mike_c]

23. yes and no....

Almonds growing in southern California are the largest managed pollination event on Earth. THOSE almonds are pretty much utterly dependent upon honey bees. They're densely planted in an arid desert, for the most part, and any additional long term pollinator habitat like weedy borders and such has by and large been ripped out, if it occurred at all. It's a desert. And the trees are heavily treated with pesticides during much of the year. This all means that native pollinators cannot adequately pollinate THOSE almonds because their populations cannot be maintained in those harsh habitats. Honeybees work specifically because hives can be trucked into the orchards for a few weeks in spring, then removed and taken elsewhere before the bees starve, fly away, or are killed by later management practices. The blue berry crops in various states are similarly managed large scale pollination events.

Almonds are likely not coevolved with honey bees, certainly not with domesticated honey bees, so their "dependence" upon honey bees is more an artifact of cultivation than a real requirement for pollination. As has been noted up thread, honey bees were only introduced to North America a few hundred years ago. Native bee pollinated plants, like blue berries, coevolved with other, native pollinators. Honey bees were originally introduced to produce honey, a luxury product-- not to pollinate crops.

[question everything]

31. Thank you. Interesting

This year, as previously, we spread seeds of native flowers even though there were some seeds already in the ground from previous years. We wanted to make sure that we attracted bees - not sure whether they were honeybees - and the monarch butterflies.

[pasto76]

26. mostly right, kind of a little wrong. "scare fiction"? hardly

in the vast expanses of monoculture that is BigAg, there is almost no habitat for the native pollinators.

colony collapse isnt really the issue, its the way we farm. smaller local farms are the answer to this question.

honeybees are _not_ happy to be transported around the country, and this is a contributing factor to the collapse disorder. whatever combination of mites, fungi and chemical contamination that is killing them, is passed from hive to hive when they are all in say, california. like the swine flu and airports.

it is no fiction by any stretch. Continued decline in the honeybee populations **because of the way we farm, currently** will have dramatic and drastic effects on this country's food supply.

using the word 'human society' in this post is a good look into your window of americo-centrism.

[mike_c]

27. DU's sense of humor is declining faster than pollinator friendly habitat....

I was being a bit facetious about honey bees being "happy" to be trucked, etc. But try that with a native bee like Osmia, for a REAL contrast. And "human society" was a pointed reference to the hyperbole that surrounds this issue. But sheesh. I suck.

I'm an entomologist and ecologist by profession, so the hyperbole that's so prevalent in the poorly informed lay press-- and in much of the discussion on DU-- about the human consequences of honey bee population decline or the utter dependence of human culture on bee keeping drives me nuts. It's right there in the OP. And I really didn't want to spin off a whole discussion about farming practices, but you're right-- to a large extent the situation we find ourselves in results from the synergy, economic and agricultural, between the development of reliance upon a single prolific but introduced and invasive pollinator and the evolution of large scale monoculture cultivation. Nonetheless, that has also helped us create lots more bellies to fill, so the problems are real. But simplistic jingos, like the OP, are neither accurate nor helpful.

[hueymahl]

39. +1

Rational discourse is not served by hyperbolic rhetoric only loosely based in fact.

The Bee problem is directly related to factory farming techniques. Those need to be reformed, and will by force be reformed if the bee population collapses. But other than a short-term shortage of some types of food and corresponding increase in prices (and, of course, more serious effects on those in the beekeeping industry), it will have little effect on either nature or humanity.

[fasttense]

34. One Really Big problem with what you wrote

To get seeds, yes seeds to plant your vegetative tissue crops, you must have a pollinator.

AND what is killing the honey bees is also killing the other pollinators like bumble bees and mason bees.

So, it would be nice if only the honey bees were dying but all the bee pollinators are being affected. Say good bye to tomatoes.

[mike_c]

37. also, the sky is falling....

Seriously. Keep your head down.

[fasttense]

40. Yeah, because just killing off the bees would still leave flies

Beatles, wasps and roaches to pollinate. Not that they are great pollinators but they do help with things like those stinky ornamental flowering pears trees that produce NO pears.

No need to worry or do anything about losing part of the ecosystem because evolution will eventually fill those niches anyway. It will just take time, lots and lots of time.

When the facts aren't on your side, snide remarks always move the argument along.

[bvar22]

44. ^^^This^^^

We can always go back to living in temporary huts and chasing herd animals for our food.
The HoneyBees are not THAT important.

SHEESH!
Some people just HATE progress.
Who needs Honey?
We can all eat Corn Syrup instead.

[mike_c]

45. good lord, I couldn't have made the point better if I'd tried....

Temporary huts and chasing wild animals? How is that going to happen? I mean, if honey bee populations decline by 10 percent will that mean that 10 percent of us will have to move into temporary huts and trap our food, or will we be able to live in our current domiciles until all the bees are gone, then move en masse into huttery and bone gnawing? Maybe cannibalism?

A few hundred years ago there were no honey bees in the western hemisphere at all. North American agriculture did just fine. Well, that's perhaps overly simplistic, but fruits and vegetables were pollinated by native pollinators and people lived in houses (OK, including some huts), led normal lives, and by and large did not resort to "chasing herd animals for food." The sky remained aloft. Even well into the twentieth century-- and certainly for most of the nineteenth-- most crops were pollinated by wild bees, either honey bees or other, native pollinators, most of the time.

Honey bees are an invasive species. A useful-to-humans invasive species, but an ecologically damaging invasive species nonetheless. The success or failure of agriculture is not dependent upon honey bees.

[bvar22]

48. Good lord, I couldn't have made the point better if I'd tried....

The ability to feed our population at its current levels and enjoy the quality, health, and variety of our food IS dependent upon maintaining our current Bee populations.

As a species, we could probably "survive" a Bee extinction.
We could "survive" a lot of things, even a nuclear holocaust,
IF we're willing to eat MRE's and live underground.

That is why My Wife & I are actually helping our HoneyBees to survive by giving them a healthy, low stress, natural environment,
and not minimizing their importance on anonymous WebSites.

[font size=3]Everybody RELAX.
They're just venting a little steam!
Its only a little radiation.[/font]

[font size=3]Everybody RELAX.
We can survive a HoneyBee extinction
They're not THAT important.[/font]

[mike_c]

54. so now we're gonna have to "eat MRE's and live underground...."

Dude.

on edit: There is a certain irony to the circumstance that I have to keep this response brief because I'm late for teaching an entomology class. This week's topic: Hymenoptera.

[bvar22]

55. Embarrassing Strawman. Someone who claims to be a teacher really should know better.

If you go back and read my post
you will see that I said,

We could "survive" a lot of things, [font size=3]even a nuclear holocaust[/font],
IF we're willing to eat MRE's and live underground.

I will accept you grade school Strawman
and childish cartoon as surrender.

My sympathy goes to your students.
I will go tend to our Honey Bees.

[font size=3]"Everybody RELAX.
They're just venting a little steam at Fukushima.
Its ONLY a little radiation, well below the lethal dose.
I know SCIENCE."


Everybody Relax.
The Honey Bees aren't THAT important.
I teach entomology.[/font]

[fasttense]

51. Yes, you hate honey bees, we understand. But....

What's killing the honey bees is also killing Bumblebees, mason bees and other pollinating bees. It's NOT just affecting Honey bees.

"Bumblebees have experienced recent and rapid population loss in the U.S., punctuated by a mass pesticide poisoning in Oregon this past June that led to the deaths of some 50,000 bumblebees. A 2006 report by the National Academies of Science concluded that the populations of many other wild pollinators—especially wild bees—was trending “demonstrably downward.” The threats are much the same ones faced by managed honeybees: pesticides, lack of wild forage, parasites and disease. The difference is that there are thousands of human beings who make it their business to care for and prop up the populations of honeybees. No one is doing the same thing for wild bees"

Read more: Wild bees are in even worse shape than honeybees | TIME.com http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2jKhdBGbM

All the ecosystem is connected. When one part of it is being killed off, other parts of it are dieing as well.

[hopemountain]

50. say this to farmers and ranchers in the food basket growing business

around the world.

tell me how allowing decimation of bee pollinators (domestic and wild) and a resulting limited food supply would not have any impact on the ecological food chain and balance. how dare you dismiss the importance of any living thing. karma, dude.

[fasttense]

52. Exactly, all the natural world is connected

If part of it is suffering then other parts are also suffering. Honey bees are not being replaced by wild bees, they are dying too.

[hopemountain]

53. another threat to all pollinators

are gmo landscape plants being sold at stores across the nation. i expect next season to be disastrous to pollinators. we must demand no "gmo" plants.

[wandy]

3. So true. Yes, they sting........

Yes, they can be a bit of a pest.
No! They are not invited into the house.

But if they die, they will take us with them.

[NYC_SKP]

4. I LOVE THIS! (nt)

[arthritisR_US]

6. We only have one earth so let's take care of it! nt

[CFLDem]

17. Spaceship Earth

She's the only thing protecting us from the hostility of space. That's what really drives the conservation message home for me.

[arthritisR_US]

20. I wish more would like that. Respect,

respect for all no matter how seemingly small.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, BlueJazz.

[JEFF9K]

18. Conservatives should take note - as their policies are killing the country!

[woo me with science]

38. Corporatists, in both parties.

[RoccoR5955]

46. Capitalism is killing the planet! n/t

[LostOne4Ever]

29. As mentioned above

America did just fine long before we introduced the ITALIAN honeybee to north america.

[p class=post-sig style=margin-top:0px;text-align:center;]

[div style='color: #B20000;font-size: 2.000em'] [center] Not all those who wander are LOST!!! [/center]

[fasttense]

35. Yes, but what's killing them is also killing other bee pollinators. n/t

[LostOne4Ever]

59. Which may very well be true

But thats not what the graphic says, and no evidence of which was provided in the OP.

The graphic just says bees and just says that if they die they are taking us with them. Which can be proven untrue simply by noting that the people in the US did just fine before the bee was introduced.

[p class=post-sig style=margin-top:0px;text-align:center;]

[div style='color: #B20000;font-size: 2.000em'] [center] Not all those who wander are LOST!!! [/center]

[bvar22]

49. Did just fine?

Tiny populations of hunter/gathers living in temporary huts and chasing herd animals for food?

YEP! Those were the days!
Lets do THAT again!

[LostOne4Ever]

56. Tiny Populations?

A city rivaling the size of london for its time and building monuments rivaling and putting to shame the Egyptian pyramids?

Yeah, your strawman notion of what Native American Culture was like back then is in NO way illogical or based off of stereotypes.

[p class=post-sig style=margin-top:0px;text-align:center;] [div style='color: #B20000;font-size: 2.000em'] [center] Not all those who wander are LOST!!! [/center]

[bvar22]

57. The article you quoted from "CRACKED" lacks documentation,

and is vague about what "a city rivaling the size of London" means.
Are they talking about permanent resident population?
Are they talking about population density?
or maybe total Acreage?
Permanent structures?
Size of local economy?
Exports?
Food Production?


What exactly does that mean "a city rivaling the size of London"?
Do you believe THAT is a standard the modern USA would be willing to accept?
Would you like to go back and live in London in the 1600s and be "just fine"?

I don't.

As I stated above, we could probably survive a HoneyBee extinction,
but those here trying to minimize the impact of such an extinction by saying that
"We did just fine before the HoneyBee was here" are being very callous, short sighted,
and very misleading.

Yes, we might survive a HoneyBee extinction, but we probably won't survive whatever killed all the HoneyBees. NOTHING happens in a vacuum.
The HoneyBees are Canaries in the Coal Mine, along with the Humming Birds, Monarch Butterflies, earthworms, frogs, and lightening bugs.
The HoneyBees are trying to tell you something,
but you ain't listening because,
"We did JUST FINE before they were here."
Good Grief.



BTW: "Cracked" is NOT a noted scientific population,
but more of a magazine to pick up amusing anecdotes with which to amaze your friends at fraternity parties.

Nothing to see here folks.
Fukushima is just venting a little steam.
It is only a little radiation, well below the fatal dose.
Everybody relax.

[LostOne4Ever]

58. Documentation?

You mean like these links given in the very article?

http://discovermagazine.com/2004/feb/uncovering-americas-pyramid-builders#.UnW1OPnrwy0
http://world-pyramids.com/en/world-pyramids/northern-america/monk-mound,-great-pyramid-of-the-usa.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=XhAqcIq_pGcC&pg=PA50&dq=1491+native+americans++physically+weak&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0E2xT7jaGIWdiQLR2t2sDg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

They are hyperlinks just like the one I gave.


[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]What exactly does that mean "a city rivaling the size of London"?
Do you believe THAT is a standard the modern USA would be willing to accept?
Would you like to go back and live in London in the 1600s and be "just fine"?

It means that london had a population of 40,000 while Cahokia had a population of 50,000.

And yeah, given many americans live in cities smaller than 10k today that is a far amount. Either way, its ANYTHING but "tiny" as you described it.

Would I want to go back to london in the 1600's and be just fine? As opposed to what? To pre-history? Sure. Or you mean now? No, it does not have the modern technology we have now, which has nothing to do with bees.

In fact, your whole original reply to me has nothing to do with my original comments. Its a distraction from a truthful statement you decided to take issue with. You disproved nothing I said, and you related to some negative stereotypical view of native americans you have in your mind. Things that have nothing to do with bees. Not all native americans lived in tents and they did not stop living in tents because of bees, and so on and so on.


[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]Yes, we might survive a HoneyBee extinction, but we probably won't survive whatever killed all the HoneyBees


Please provide evidence. Something more than a spurious similarity. Especially given that we are not dying out like the bees. Which, you know, kinda implies that it isn't killing us.


[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left:1em; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius:0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]The HoneyBees are Canaries in the Coal Mine, along with the Humming Birds, Monarch Butterflies, earthworms, frogs, and lightening bugs.
The HoneyBees are trying to tell you something,
but you ain't listening because,
"We did JUST FINE before they were here."
Good Grief.

Again, please provide evidence that what is killing the bees is going to kill us.

Also, they also could be unrelated...in the same way that what is killing the frogs is unrelated to what is killing the bees.

Im not about to be taken in by a moral panic over some psuedo-scientic woo. Which is exactly what the graphic in the OP is designed to do. Scare people into thinking that if the bees die out we will die out as well....which we won't. I require evidence rather than innuendo to some catastrophe that very well could be nothing more than paranoia run amuck.

So provide proof that this is a canary in a cold mine, that what is killing the bees will kill us. I bet there isn't a single shred of evidence or the graphic would have had more than an imaginary threat to scare people into a panic.

Either way, the hummingbirds, butterflies, earthworms, etc are not a part of the graphic or the discussion. The graphic only mentions the bees and my comments are focused only on the bees and are 100% true.

And, yes crack is a humor magazine. That does not disprove a single one of their statements or their research. Fukushima has nothing to do with (bees were dying out long before the bees started dying) and like many of the other ancillary items you have mentioned is an attempt to distract from the major point of my original comments and the Graphic in the OP:

We will not all die if the bees go away.

[p class=post-sig style=margin-top:0px;text-align:center;]

[div style='color: #B20000;font-size: 2.000em'] [center] Not all those who wander are LOST!!! [/center]

[ffr]

32. FACT!

[avaistheone1]

33. k&r

[hue]

43. Other native pollinators are declining also such as Monarchs & other Butterflies.

The problem exists worldwide such as in the EU where a 2 yr. ban on neonicotinoids has just been enacted.
Pesticides and genetically modified crops, large scale agriculture have leveled insults on other crop contributors such as the lowly earthworm, needed for soil aeration. Data from manufacturers has been shown to be skewed and pesticides that were touted as having short lives have, for example, been found in water.
Trucking hives exposes domesticated hives to stress and promotes exposure to diseases such as varroa mites.
Last year Monarch Watch published data showing that Monarch numbers of those overwintering in Mexico were at the lowest ever since being recorded. The killing off of wildflowers--as a nectar source--especially Milkweed in agriculture has severely assaulted the Monarch community.

So what I'm saying is that the little honey bee in the OP is to me representative of all the little creatures, all the ecosystems, that are ESSENTIAL for the balance of life on our planet.

They are a barometer or an indicator of how we are doing as stewards of our Earth!


http://www.monarchwatch.org/