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Bee decline easily explained

Bee decline easily explained I heard last week on CBC's A New Day an interview with a professor from the Prairies who was doing a study on how bee populations are affected by climate change. At the end of the interview Sandi Coleman asked him, "What can o

I heard last week on CBC’s A New Day an interview with a professor from the Prairies who was doing a study on how bee populations are affected by climate change.

At the end of the interview Sandi Coleman asked him, “What can our listeners do to help bees?” Instead of saying concrete and helpful things like:

1) go to anywhere where you can buy bedding plants and tell them that you don’t want to buy any bedding plants that have neonics (neonicitides) on or in them, because this horrible pesticide is being used on many bedding plants and its effects lasts in the plant for a long time and can affect bees pollinating the flowers

2) tell these same businesses that you would like them to discontinue carrying any pesticides that contain neonicitides in them, and this is a long list of pesticides

3) tell local government, both territorial and municipal, that you would like to see bans on the use of these pesticides

4) tell your friends about the harmful effect of these pesticides on bee populations

... anyway, instead of saying any of these things, he made a very vague and unhelpful suggestion: “support any initiatives that combat climate change!”

If I was someone who didn’t think about climate change much, this would tell me nothing, and I would merrily go about my day with nary another thought for bee welfare.

Bees, however, are a key species and need our protection.

I was also amazed that this researcher had no ideas why the bees might not be migrating north as they are being pushed out of their southern range by climate change (he said). It doesn’t take a genius to maybe think that the vast stretches of agriculture land drenched in neonicitides might form a formidable barrier to their making any kind of progress north.

It was very frustrating to listen to him. I suppose, though, that his grant money just possibly might be funded by the pesticide companies who want to divert attention away from their product and say that the bee collapse is due to climate change.

Barbara Drury

Whitehorse