Phillips 1 The loss of honey bees could have an enormous agricultural and economic effect worldwide. Researchers are scrambling for clues, any clues, into the recent, baffling disappearance of honeybees across the United States, a potentially catastrophic trend that threatens the hundred or more food crops dependent on bees for pollination. Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of America’s honeybees could have a devastating effect on the country’s dinner plate, perhaps even reducing its people to a glorified bread-and-water diet. The almond trees are blooming and the bees are dying, and nobody knows why. All up and down California’s vast San Joaquin Valley, nearly 2,500 square kilometers
Infection of virus 4. Neonicotinoids C. Thesis: However, to closely look at human cause, Neonicotinoid insecticides are considered by many scientists as the primary factor responsible for the ongoing collapse of honeybee colonies. III. One of the main cause of CCD—Neonicotinoids A. Its application in agriculture B.
Bees need flowers, and there are very few flowers to be found in the farmed countryside these days. Another is In the USA, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - where whole colonies disappear or die - has caused a devastating loss of honeybees.Various theories have been put forward - from a parasite like the Varroa mite (which wreaked havoc on bee populations through the 1990s) to the impulses from mobile phones scrambling bee signals.Colonies if left untreated may die within a 2-3 year period, and Varroa may be spread to other hives or apiaries by transient bees, affecting a wide area.Older larvae or pupae start to die, greater numbers of dead brood throughout the colony, neighboring colonies affected,outward spread to other apiaries. Another is that it may also be, such as the recent increase in atmospheric electromagnetic radiation.Bee populations may also be vulnerable to other factors, such as the recent increase in atmospheric electromagnetic radiation. When bees are rented out to farmers to pollinate their plants, these bees only get to make honey from only 1 type of plant. And this might also cause the lack of nutrients.
Most of those factory sites are actually in China, where 85 percent of the fake trees sold in North America originate. Labor standards there don’t adequately protect workers from the dangerous chemicals they are handling. Fake Christmas Trees and Other Health Problems In addition to PVC, fake trees contain lead and other additives designed to make the otherwise rigid PVC more malleable. Unfortunately many of these additives have been linked to liver, kidney, neurological and reproductive system damage in lab studies on animals. The Children’s Health Environmental Coalition warns that fake trees “may shed lead-laced dust, which may cover branches or shower gifts and the floor below the tree.” So heed the advice of the label on your fake tree, which tells you to avoid inhaling or eating any dust or parts that may come loose.
Hayes argued, “the impacts of atrazine on amphibians and on wildlife in general are potentially devastating” (Hayes et al. 4). Atrazine causes disease and deformities and is a threat to both humans and wildlife. Atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water that can spread a half million pounds of atrazine more than 1,000 km from the point of application via rainfall (Hayes et al. 1).
Pollinators transfer pollen and seeds from one flower to another, fertilizing the plant so it can grow and produce food. Cross-pollination helps at least 30% of the world’s crops and 90% of our wild plants to thrive. Without pollinators to spread seeds, many plants—including food crops—would die off. Some pollinators, such as many bees, intentionally collect pollen, while others, such as many butterflies and birds, move pollen incidentally because the pollen sticks on their body while they are collecting nectar from the flowers. Between 1947 and 2005, honeybee colony numbers in the United States declined by over 40%, from 5.9 million to 2.4 million.
Lastly, tobacco is bad for the environment. “Around 600 million trees are cut down every year to make the papers for the 5 trillion cigarettes that are made around the world annually” (SMOKING AND THE
It is caused by ascomycetous fungi, called Mycosphaerella musicola (2). Black Sigatoka can also be referred to as black leaf streak. Black Sigatoka could potentially be devastating to the banana species because it could yield losses of 50% or more, cause significant reductions in leaf area, premature ripening, and potentially a serious defect in fruit (3). This plant disease tends to infect banans that are used for desserts, cooking, and plantains susceptible (5). The Sigatoka disease was first found in the Sigatoka Valley in Fiji in 1963.
The Bornean orang-utan species has about 40,000 animals left in the wild, a much healthier number then the Sumatran orang-utan but still not ideal. While there are millions of acres of degraded land that could be used for plantations, many oil palm companies choose to use rainforest land to gain additional funds by logging the timber first. They also use uncontrolled burning to clear land, resulting in hundreds of orang-utans being burned to death and those who survive are left with nothing to eat. Approximately the area equivalent to 300 football fields per hour is being destroyed of the rainforests where the orang-utans reside, through the conversion to
Despite being the national symbol of the United States, the Bald Eagle was extirpated from many parts of the country in the mid to late 1900s. At that time, Bald Eagles were still being shot in large numbers and many were being poisoned by pesticides. When Bald Eagles consume prey with pesticides present in their tissues, these chemicals can accumulate in the eagle’s fatty tissues and, over time, can kill the bird. Pesticides such as DDT affected eagles in another way as well: by interfering with their ability to produce strong eggshells for their eggs. A ban on the widespread use of DDT and other harmful pesticides, and decreased persecution due to increased education, allowed Bald Eagle populations to rebound in the 1980s and 1990s.