After reading a new Snopes article Did Einstein Say Without Bees, Mankind Would Soon Perish? | Snopes.com regarding a falsely attributed quote to Albert Einstein, it got me thinking.
What will be the effects of a total extinction of honeybees on human life?
The apostrophe goes after the s for a plural. But that only raises the question: without bees’ what?
There certainly wouldn’t be total extinction, but a lot of plants would die. There’s an excellent article here that covers the importance of pollinators which details the major pollinators of human-consumed foods. It lists wasps, hover flies, butterflies, beetles, thrips, blackbirds, and starlings as pollinators in addition to bees, so there would be some species available that could survive.
One economics studies show that agricultural products would cost more., and this article indicates that pollinators are enormously important for many plants.
This doesn’t mean that they are important for all wildlife, though.
I just read an article on cnn.com, I thought the threat of honeybee extinction was just used in the urban legend not a real ongoing event. The article said paraphrased “imagine eating oatmeal without fruit on top”
New question on hive collapse disorder (if that’s correct) is this only getting the paid bees’ or is it getting wild bees’?
Hey Alan, at least he took your advice.
Sorry, I can’t help but laugh.