Colony Collapse Disorder If you’ve been on youtube recently, then you’ve probably seen stuff like “The Bee Movie but every time they say bee it gets 2x faster,” all over the place, right? Well what if I told you that the Bee Movie is actually based on a true story? I know I sound crazy, but let me explain. While bees sadly can’t talk, it’s true in portraying the potential effects of honey bees dying off, which at the time did not seem too unlikely. Although there were many causes to this decline, one of the major ones is something scientists call Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It’s a very complex disease, but in effect, it basically kills entire colonies overnight. One day you had a thriving bee hive, the next you had an abandoned one.
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As mentioned earlier, there are some generally accepted theories, although none of them have been proven to be the overreaching cause. First, to address the elephant in the room, while acute pesticide poisoning is related to bee death and is an important issue, it is not related to CCD and therefore won’t be covered. On the other hand, direct pesticide exposure has been suspected of contributing, so it’s still on the table. Anyway, the EPA has made a list of suspected causes. Their list has parasites, mites, pesticides, climate change, and stress on it as main causes. Most climate scientists seem to agree with these, as many of them went to an EPA hosted congress where they wrote it. There are plenty of fringe theories out there as well. Aliens, lizard people, and the whole thing being one big hoax are all things that have been thrown around; but they’re being pushed mostly by conspiracy theorists and not actual scientists. With some overall causes being determined, the science community began to focus on how much damage had already been …show more content…
For one, an overall decline in the population has occurred. With the disorder so widespread at the time it’s no wonder that was going to be the temporary result. Secondly, more awareness of beekeeping practices. A lot of established methods used to keep bees turned out to be accidental contributors to the collapse. In effect, bees overall better kept nowadays, with less pesticides and stress and more bee-friendly beekeeping methods. Finally, a general sense of unity when dealing with the problem. Unlike most climate related issues, the EPA’s move to try to contain CCD was met with very little opposition. For once, it seems that people decided to step up, put politics away, and help the environment. I think the reason behind this lies mostly in the effective way scientists presented the issue. Instead of focusing on the big, over-the-top end of the world effects, they instead made it more down to earth. No bees, no pollination, no food, higher prices, and overall a negative outcome. Scientists weren’t the only ones campaigning
As mentioned earlier, there are some generally accepted theories, although none of them have been proven to be the overreaching cause. First, to address the elephant in the room, while acute pesticide poisoning is related to bee death and is an important issue, it is not related to CCD and therefore won’t be covered. On the other hand, direct pesticide exposure has been suspected of contributing, so it’s still on the table. Anyway, the EPA has made a list of suspected causes. Their list has parasites, mites, pesticides, climate change, and stress on it as main causes. Most climate scientists seem to agree with these, as many of them went to an EPA hosted congress where they wrote it. There are plenty of fringe theories out there as well. Aliens, lizard people, and the whole thing being one big hoax are all things that have been thrown around; but they’re being pushed mostly by conspiracy theorists and not actual scientists. With some overall causes being determined, the science community began to focus on how much damage had already been …show more content…
For one, an overall decline in the population has occurred. With the disorder so widespread at the time it’s no wonder that was going to be the temporary result. Secondly, more awareness of beekeeping practices. A lot of established methods used to keep bees turned out to be accidental contributors to the collapse. In effect, bees overall better kept nowadays, with less pesticides and stress and more bee-friendly beekeeping methods. Finally, a general sense of unity when dealing with the problem. Unlike most climate related issues, the EPA’s move to try to contain CCD was met with very little opposition. For once, it seems that people decided to step up, put politics away, and help the environment. I think the reason behind this lies mostly in the effective way scientists presented the issue. Instead of focusing on the big, over-the-top end of the world effects, they instead made it more down to earth. No bees, no pollination, no food, higher prices, and overall a negative outcome. Scientists weren’t the only ones campaigning