Who cares about #Bees anyway? (Hint: You should)

It may seem like just another one of "those environmental efforts," all this buzz and noise about bees lately.  But everyone should be paying attention to this issue.  Any species seemingly and abruptly dying off should be reason for concern as we hear more about climate change and the disastrous potential effects.  But bees in particular are essential to our economy and possibly to the future survival of the human population.  Did you know that honeybees add $15 billion dollars annually to the US economy and over $350 billion globally? We depend on bees to grow all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and other crops.  So we should be concerned that honey bee colonies declined over 40% between 2014 and 2015.  National bee colonies fell from 5.7 in the 1950’s to the current 2.7 million.  The White House has announced a “National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators.”  But is this enough?  The strategy relies heavily on restoring 7 million acres of habitat for bees and other pollinators (including monarch butterflies) habitat but not yet also on reducing or eliminating the use of potentially toxic agricultural chemicals.  In particular, many environmental groups worry that a class of chemicals called neocotinoids are causing bee populations to collapse and are also potential dangerous to birds, other insects and animals, and humans.  More than 4 million Americans have signed petitions asking the government to restrict neocotinoids, as has already happened in the EU, Canada, and other counties and localities.  The US has issued a moratorium on new and expanded uses of these pesticides while a complete review may not be ready until 2017.  Let’s hope the bees can wait.  Current efforts are a start, but they may not be enough.  One can only hope that the USDA and the EPA will move even faster to study this issue, and act.