Save The Bees!

Environment   Mar 3, 2017 by Keesha

"According to all known laws of aviation, there's no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to lift its fat little body off the ground. The bee, or course, flies anyway- because bees don't care what humans think is impossible." -Bee Movie

How does rising CO2 levels negatively impact agriculture and the role of bees in our ecosystem? #climate150 We love bees help save them, and yourselves!


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10 Comment(s)

Kainah Huckle
Apr 5, 2017

Is there a way to create more pollen? Could we generate more flower gardens? Bees survive off of pollen I have saved many by finding a flower with a good amount of pollen and resting the bee on the flower. So if there was a way to produce more pollen, that could work.

Aaron
Apr 2, 2017

I'm not sure that rising CO2 levels are the major cause of the decline of bees or that it should be the main focal point, though it certainly is an issue that is adding to their demise.

I believe the improper use of pesticides and poor farming practices (mono cultures, etc)  are the main reason for their decline and pose a greater risk. Though I understand that this project is Climate 150. 

Besides the obvious, I'd like to know how exactly climate change is affecting bees and pollinators in general. Like whether or not its influencing their development, navigation etc. Maybe add some research to prove/make a point?

Also;

"In the 1990s, Ellington’s research group studied bee flight and exposed the mechanism behind the insect’s physics-defying acrobatics.

As a bee takes flight, air swirls in a tight circle, a vortex, over the leading edge of the wing. ‘The vortex is a low pressure region above the wing, and it sucks the wing upwards,’ explains Ellington. This is what gives the bee the extra bit of lift it needs to buzz around from flower to flower."

Dawson
Apr 3, 2017

Hi Aaron! Thank you so much for your comment. We have looked deeply into the improper uses of pesticides and have included information about pesticides in our presentation. The reason we focused our inquiry more so on rising CO2 affecting bees rather than pesticides is because our sole purpose is to find out how Canada can lower its carbon levels as a whole. Our inquiry and subject on bees is only a small part of our class' entire presentation which will cover more topics regarding rising CO2 and the negative impacts on the environment, not just the collapse of bees. We will be posting our presentation shortly and hope that you will check it out! :) We also hope that you check out other presentations from our school (Mount Baker Secondary) as many other groups have also incorporated great information on the improper use of pesticides and poor farming practices, and the environmental affects that damage our ecosystem as a whole. The problem of bee die-off is a part of a much bigger issue: our environment's collapse as a whole, which can be positively impacted by the lowering of CO2 levels in our atmosphere. Poor use of pesticides is a major contributor when it comes to ecosystem damage, and unfortunately, damaged ecosystems affect bee reproduction as well as survival. I do hope that our presentation and this comment will help tie up any loose ends or questions. Thanks again for stopping by! :)

Najwa Sharif
Mar 31, 2017

Heyy Keesha!

Even though I'm terrified of bees they do play a big role in our Eco systems. Sometimes as humans we take our leisure activities too far that we end up causing more harm on ourselves and our Eco systems . I am also looking into climate change and species. Here's a link for you that you might want to take a look at:

http://sos-bees.org/

Keesha
Apr 3, 2017

Hey! Sorry for such a late reply, we just got back from our spring break! Thank you so much for your insight, we will use this website with our research :)

Jennifer Nguyen
Mar 26, 2017

Bee's are incredibly important to our environment yet so many people undermine them! I have been researching more on the effects of human health from climate change but I find this topic to be very interesting because I, myself don't quite know much of the great impacts that bees do for the environment and for us. I wonder how the environmentalists will try to have people more aware of the bees and their roles for our ecosystem! 

Keesha
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you for your reply Jennifer!! Lost of people don't know a lot about bees and how they affect our everyday lives! Without them we would only have four years left on the earth!! I will be uploading our project later and you can check it out!

Aisha Adams
Mar 24, 2017

What I found most interesting in their inquiry is that they used a quote from a movie. I found that very interesting because there aren’t really any blog posts with quotes from movies. I also liked how exact and spot on their quote was in relation to their question. Our inquiries are similar as they both relate to the sustaining of life on hearth. However they are different in the obvious way, my inquiry has to do with humans and ways to sustain our life while theirs has to do with the sustaining of bees. 

Dawson
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you very much for the compliment and for checking out our blog! We will be sure to check out your blog as it sounds very interesting :)

Stuart Moffat
Mar 24, 2017

Bees are essential for plant and human life on Earth! The research you are doing is extremely important and I am looking forward to seeing what information that you find. I am researching the impacts that climate change has on the health of humans. If bees go extinct humans will lose many sources of food that we currently rely on.

I found this link that I think will really help you with your research

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Bees/bees3.php


Good luck with all your research and I am looking forward to what you write next! :) #Climate150

-Stuart Moffat

Keesha
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you so much Stuart!! I am so glad you are excited about this project, as we are with yours! If everyone can pitch in a little maybe we can change our future for the better! Thank you so much for the website link! It will be very helpful! :)

Jessica Karafilov
Mar 20, 2017

Hey Keesha,

Great quote! I haven't seen the Bee Movie.. maybe I'll have to watch it sometime soon.

In the meantime, I'm hoping this can help you out in your Inquiry: http://www.beesmatter.ca.

I hope you guys are keeping busy as bees in your research! Haha.

Jessica (program assistant @ GreenLearning)

Dawson
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you so much for providing a resource for our inquiry! I highly recommend the Bee Movie :) Thanks again for your assistance and for checking out our blog.

ClimateBOI150
Mar 16, 2017

I love bees so much too, my friends mom is raising them right in her backyard. I think if we work together we can stabilize bee populations one hive at a time. 

Dawson
Apr 3, 2017

Yay for your friend's mom, that is excellent!! And yes- I agree. Thank you for checking out our blog :)

Matthew
Mar 15, 2017

I found it interesting that you focused on bees, which makes sense because they impact everything from crop growth to flower pollination. Could you provide more information on the dramatic change the loss of bees would create? I am doing an inquiry on the affects on wildlife from climate change and this is closely connected with it. I did not consider the loss of insects such as bees and now i will take a closer look and record that information as well.

Keesha
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you for your reply!! I will be uploading our project later today that you can go through! Bees have such a huge impact on everyone, without them we would only have 4 years left on earth!

Keason Bowen
Mar 10, 2017

Dear Keesha,

I like what you wrote. Your quote resonates with me. To me, it is evident that bees do their things differently from humans and nothing is impossible to them. Humans are a big impact on the earth because they think what they are doing is right most of the time. Farmers are one of the issues involved with bee extermination because they put chemicals on their crops like pesticides and insecticides to kill other insects but they are killing bees too and without bees most of the plants wouldn't be here right now. We need bees to pollinate plants and with the unpredictable effects of climate change coming quickly we can’t afford to drive bees to extinction.

Here are two links that I thought might be of use to you in your work:

http://www.climateontario.ca/doc/factsheets/Ecosystems%20Factsheet-FINAL.pdf

https://beependent.wordpress.com/climate-change/

Thanks,

Keason Bowen

Milliken Mills H.S.

Keesha
Apr 3, 2017

Thank you so much Keason!! These links will help a bunch :) I have talked to local farmers, and the employees at top crop (a local farm and garden shop in our town). The farmers were very kind and honest saying that they only grow organic native plants in our area and sell them at local farmers markets, but when I talked to employees at top crop they beat around the bush trying to avoid admitting to using invasive plants and pesticides. They told me that they cannot be 100% sure if any of the plants do or do not have harmful pesticides.  Thank you so much for your input!! 

p.s sorry for the late reply we just got back from spring break!