More than Honey

Bees are disappearing rapidly on account of human activities: intensive agriculture and the use of harmful pesticides are modifying and ruining their habitat. As if that weren’t enough, they now have a terrible new enemy: climate change.

Bees represent the first rung in the food chain. Thanks to their precious contribution to pollination, they are indispensable for crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins and are the main allies of variety in our diet and biodiversity in the plant world. The likelihood of coming across these insects has decreased drastically in the last few decades. For scientists, the speed of their decline is that of a mass extinction. At this rate, they argue, many bee species risk disappearing for good in the space of a few decades, thus causing the world’s sixth mass extinction and the greatest global crisis since a meteor put an end to the age of dinosaurs. To save bees from extinction what is necessary is, above all, more sustainable agriculture. For the moment, Greenpeace’s petition to the European institutions has led to a permanent ban on three highly harmful neonicotinoid insecticides.