Bagaoisan 1

Aaron Bagaoisan
Ross Roemer

Fact Sheet:
Argument:
The whole universe should be trying their hardest to save the bees because they are essential to
our everyday lives.
URLs for sources:
1)http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp
2)https://student.societyforscience.org/article/why-are-bees-vanishing-pesticides-disease-other-
threats
3)http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128573
4)http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572
5)http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/BEEKEEP/CHAPT8/chapt8.html
6)http://entomologytoday.org/2014/06/11/genetically-modified-honey-bees-a-key-technology-
for-honey-bee-research/
7)http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/files/bees.pdf
8)http://beependent.wordpress.com/habitat/#_ftn
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/study-strengthens-link-between-
neonicotinoids-and-collapse-of-honey-bee-colonies/
9)http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1005_041005_honeybees.html
General Overview:
I want to prove that the death of bees are effecting the world in much more than a minor way.
They help provide the earth with resources such as fruits and vegetables. If the bee population
continues to dwindle, we will lose millions of dollars worth of food.

Specific Facts on the issue:
Without bees to pollinate many of our favorite fruits and vegetables, the United States could
lose $15 billion worth of crops (1)

Researchers call the mass disappearance Colony Collapse Disorder, and they estimate that
nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country have vanished (1)

Scientists studying the disorder believe a combination of factors could be making bees sick,
including pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus
that targets bees' immune systems (1)

Losing honeybees means more than just a world without honey. These insects play a major role
in producing all kinds of foods, including berries, apples, almonds, melons, kiwis, cashews and
cucumbers (1)

The trees had been sprayed with a neonicotinoid pesticide, he learned. Hatfield estimates that
more than 50,000 bumblebees died in just this one incident (2)


Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But
in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee populationwhich most farmers depend on for
pollinationhas declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.

Pollination is so important that many farmers rent bees. Once crops start blooming, beekeepers
truck in commercial hives to let the bees do their work (2)

Without this pollination, many plants wont produce fruit. Bees also pollinate crops used to feed
livestock. Fewer bees could thoerefore mean less of many different foods at the grocery store,
including meat and dairy (2)

Bees are by far the most important pollinatrs worldwide and have co-evolved with the floral
resources they need for nutrition (3)

In California, the almond industry requires the use of 1.4 million colonies of honey bees,
approximately 60 percent of all managed honey bee colonies in the United States(4)

The total number of managed honey bee colonies has decreased from 5 million in the 1940s to
only 2.5 million today (4)

Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains, the male sex cells of a flower, from the anther where
they are produced to the receptive surface, or stigma, of the female organ of a flower (5)

Their hairy bodies trap pollen and carry it between flowers. (5)

Their body size enables them to pollinate flowers of many different shapes and sizes.(5)

Using genetic technologies in the laboratory to actually manipulate the bee genome in living
bees will lead to deeper insights, such as how they fight infections like foulbrood disease or
parasites like Varroa mites, as well as the genetic basis for bee behavior. (6)

_ Much of North Americas natural habitats have been transformed into highways, houses, strip
malls, office complexes, and industrial parks. Urbanization not only directly removes bee habitat
but it also isolates and fragments the land in which bees are trying to travel across. (8)


Bees that experience habitat loss are suffering from nutritional stress as it is more difficult for
them to locate valuable food sources.(8)

Beginning in January 2013, bee populations in the control colonies began to increase as
expected, but populations in the neonicotinoid-treated hives continued to decline. (9)

Two widely used neonicotinoidsa class of insecticideappear to significantly harm
honey bee colonies over the winter, particularly during colder winters, according to a
new study from Harvard School of Public Health (9)




Possible Solutions
H.R. 2692, the Saving America's Pollinators Act








































Works Cited:
1. Vanishing Bees. 25 July 2008. NRDC. 9 September 2014
<http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bees.asp>
2. Alison, Stevens. Why are bees vanishing?. 10 January 2014. Student Science. 9 September
2014.
<https://student.societyforscience.org/article/why-are-bees-vanishing-pesticides-disease-
other-threats>
3. Bee faithful? Plant-Pollinator Relationships Compromised When Bee Species Decline. 22
July 2013. National Science Foundation. 9 September 2014.
<http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128573>
4. Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. 9 April 2014. USDA. 9 September 2014.
<http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572>
5. Pollination By Honey Bees. 9 September 2014
<http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/BEEKEEP/CHAPT8/chapt8.html>
6. Genetically-Modified Honey Bees: A key technology for Honey Bee Research. 11 June
2014. Entomology Today. 9 September 2014
<http://entomologytoday.org/2014/06/11/genetically-modified-honey-bees-a-key-
technology-for-honey-bee-research/>
7. Why We Need Bees: Natures Tiny Workers Put Food on Our Tables. March 2011. NRDC.
9 September 2014.
<http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/files/bees.pdf>
8. Habitat Fragmentation. Beependent. 9 September 2014.
<http://beependent.wordpress.com/habitat/#_ftn>
9. Bee Decline May Spell End of Some Fruits, Vegetables. 4 October 2004. National
Geographic. 9 September 2014.
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1005_041005_honeybees.html>