Bees need our backing
Scientists
concerned about the decline of pollinators have found something
that everyone can care about: food. “If we lost all honey bees in
the U.S. without any wild pollinators taking over their chores, the
resulting price increases for food in the U.S. would amount to $6
to $8 billion a year,” says scientist Gary Nabhan. We take for
granted pollinators such as moths, butterflies, bees, bats,
hummingbirds and even flies, he says, but all are affected by
habitat fragmentation and pesticides. Since 1990 the U.S. has lost
a quarter of its domestic honey bee hives to introduced parasites,
diseases and invasions of Africanized bees. The awareness campaign
hopes to make “pollinator” the new buzzword in environmental
debates; the group will send out speakers, share pollinator slide
sets and deliver informational booklets. Contact the Forgotten
Pollinators Campaign, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney
Road, Tucson, AZ 85743-8919 (520/883-3006), fax (520/883-2500),
e-mail fpollen@azstarnet.com.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bees need our backing.
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