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Nicholas Hicks

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104-039

November 8th, 2018

All Sting, No Buzz: Pollinator Population Decline

“According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to

fly” (Seinfeld, Bee Movie). Although the film, Bee Movie, is known for being a children’s

movie to have a woman dump her boyfriend for a bee, a SWAT team take out Winnie The Pooh,

and interspecies lovers creating suicide pact; Bee Movie also tells humanity about the harsh

reality of what happens to a world without pollinators doing their jobs. This paper is going to ask

the question, what happens as pollinator populations decline?

Many people have walked out their door to hear a faint buzzing and to see a honey bee

buzz around their front yard. At this moment, many people with a fear or allergy towards bees

think of killing the creature. Although it is likely that countless people end up making the

decision to kill the bee that gets too comfortable with buzzing close to them, this is not the real

widespread cause of pollinator population decline. Throughout this paper, I will work to answer

the following questions: why are pollinator populations are declining, what are the effects as

pollinator populations decline, and how can humanity work to prevent pollinator population

decline; throughout this paper, I also aim to keep you as engaged with this paper as you would be

by watching Bee Movie.

Why are pollinator populations declining?

Such is an important question to ask before considering the effects of pollinator

population decline. This section is going to explore the rate of pollinator population decline and

why pollinator populations are declining.

Pollinator populations have been declining at an alarming rate, and as with the fact that

the Kardashians are millionaires, it is humanity’s fault. This is not a minor problem as shown by

a 2015 study completed by The Bee Informed Partnership, the Apiary Inspectors of America, and

the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States lost more than 28 percent of its

managed bee colonies a year. This study met its highest figures at a 45 percent colony loss in

2013. This means that even bee colonies that people had financial incentives to keep safe were

dying at dangerous rates. When the bee colonies that have the most incentive for human

protection fall victim to this dangerous decline, it can be assumed that wild bee colonies can be

in just as much danger.

This absurd drop in population has countless possible causes. According to the Faculty of

Biological Sciences from the University of Leeds, possible causes of pollinator population

decline include the loss of natural habitat, the simplification of landscapes and crops, the

intensive use of chemicals in agriculture such as pesticides and herbicides, domesticated

pollinators parasites and diseases spreading to wild pollinators, and over-reliance on

domesticated honey bees for pollination. It is easy to see how each of these issues root from

humanity’s actions. Humanity destroys many pollinator’s natural habitats; humanity has lowered

biological diversity in many ecosystems and commonly has large-scale production of singular

crops in areas; humanity has many environmentally dangerous farming practices that poison

countless different organisms a year; humanity uses domesticated pollinators that spread poor
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health to wild pollinators; and humanity brought honeybees to the United States and rapidly bred

and used the pollinators to produce honey for commercial use.

Some things can't be prevented: we can’t prevent earthquakes from happening, we can’t

prevent hurricanes from causing billions of dollars in property damages, and we can’t prevent

President Trump from angering other countries. I know that if it were not for humanity’s large-

scale urbanization, environmental interaction, and capitalistic goals, pollinator population decline

could have been prevented.

What are the effects as pollinator populations declining?

To understand the effects of pollinator population decline, this section is going to inform

the reader of what pollinators do and how that affects ecosystems.

According to Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences’ Center for Pollinator

Research, “pollinators are animals (primarily insect, but sometimes avian or mammalian) that

fertilize plants, resulting in the formation of seeds and the fruits surrounding seeds.” This makes

pollinators the most important animals on earth. This is because, excluding species that have

adapted in the deep ocean, plants are the only life capable of creating their own energy. This

energy is passed down in the food chain to all other species. With pollinators being the creatures

that assist in plant reproduction, pollinators are responsible for the energy that nearly every

living creature consumes. This is emphasized when the Center for Pollinator Research went on to

say that “humans and other animals rely on pollinators to produce nuts and fruits” and they even

said that “the majority of flowering plant species found worldwide require animal-mediated

pollination to make seeds that will become the next generation of plants.” I may despise salads,

but I still understand that these plants are required for us to be able to get the nutrition we need
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and to eat the hamburgers and steaks that I love. Because they allow the reproduction of most

plant life on earth, we know that pollinators are incredibly important for the planet earth.

Now that it has been established what pollinators do, we can explore what happens as

their populations decline. According to the University of Leeds Faculty of Biological Sciences,

“one potential consequence of declining populations of pollinators is a decline in the rate of

pollination. This may lead to a decrease in the reproduction of a large number of flowering

plants, including many rare species and a number of crops.” With food loss rooting from

pollinator population decline, we will eventually have even more problems feeding the rising

population of humanity.

The decline of pollinator populations would not only be bad for our food supply, but it

would also damage our economy. According to the University of Leeds, in 2005, “global

pollination was worth £131 billion… of global food production.” This means that pollination

populations decline has the potential to do substantial damage to the economy. There are also

other externalities that would affect the national economy; such as the fact that many stimulant

crops, such as coffee, reproduce through pollination. As someone who has countless friends that

claim they get headaches halfway through the day because they need a second cup of coffee, it is

apparent to me that decline in pollinator populations would have countless negative economic

effects.

With countless possible damages to humanity’s food supply and economy, we must

recognize the peril that can come from pollinator populations decline.

How can humanity work to prevent pollinator population decline?

Now that it has been established why pollinator populations are declining and how this

affects humanity, we can explore how humanity is capable of preventing pollinator population
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decline. This is going to be addressed in the order as causes of pollinator population decline are

addressed in the section, “why are pollinator populations declining?”

To prevent the loss of pollinator natural habitat, humanity could work to make non-

commercially used community beehives. By leaving these in forests and maybe some parks, The

pollinator population can naturally increase in areas that are suitable for them to live.

To prevent the simplification of crops, individuals could begin growing small gardens in

their yards. By doing this, there would be many new crops growing across the world for

pollinators, and people could grow some of their own, organic food.

To prevent the use of pesticides in farming, we could take strides forward in genetically

modifying crops. This could help prevent pesticides from damaging wildlife, speed up the

process of our crop growth, and increase our crop yield.

To prevent the spread of domesticated pollinators spreading diseases and parasites to wild

pollinators, research should be made into these diseases for the purpose of finding out how to

cure domesticated pollinators of these ailments to prevent spread. This means that those who

manage domesticated pollinators would be able to tend to them even better.

To prevent the over-reliance on domesticated honey bees for pollination, the idea of

creating large, wild man made hives could be very beneficial. This means that wild pollinators

could have new, larger homes to compensate for an increase in population.

With these mostly simple solutions, I believe that preventing pollinator population

decline should be easily possible for humanity. The only thing preventing this is the fact that

humanity is complacent with how we live now. To succeed in making the world a better place

and fixing a problem that we created, we must make a change.

Works Cited

“Colony Loss 2014-2015: Preliminary Results.” Colony Loss 2014-2015: Preliminary

Results, Bee Informed Partnership, 13 May 2015, beeinformed.org/results/colony-loss-2014-

2015-preliminary-results/.

“Consequences of Pollinator Declines.” Agriland, University of Leeds,

www.agriland.leeds.ac.uk/about/Consequencesofpollinatordeclines.php.

“Possible Causes of Pollinator Declines.” Agriland, University of Leeds,

www.agriland.leeds.ac.uk/about/causes.php.

Seinfeld, Jerry, et al. Bee Movie. Paramount Pictures, 2007.

“What Are Pollinators and Why Do We Need Them? (Center for Pollinator Research).”

Department of Entomology (Penn State University), ento.psu.edu/pollinators/resources-

and-outreach/what-are-pollinators-and-why-do-we-need-them.