An interesting thought

Hi everyone,

There was a thread on here that I read a while back about the worlds Bee population rapidly decling for reasons unknown, yesterday I read an article in the newspaper about the whole situation and it was very interesting.

I didn't realise how important Bee's actually are, they pollinate crops vital for most of our food sources and other things such as the cotton plant etc

If all the worlds Bee's actually died it could potentially be the end of the world i.e. certain foods (more than you would think) would become "extinct" as they couldnt continue to survive with no Bee's around to pollinate them.

Now, what I thought was the most interesting thing about the article is reading that Einstein once said that if the Bee disappeared off this earth then we would only have 4 years of life left.

If you take into account that the Bee's have started dying this year and imagine if you will that they do all die at the end of this year, Einstein said we would only have 4 years so 2008 + 4 years = 2012 !!!

So maybe the Mayans were correct...

P.S. Sorrry if this is a re-post or similiar to the other post on Bee's, I didn't actually read it just caught a glance

Interesting thought. I still don't think the world is going to end in 2012 though no matter how much you guys run around screaming it.

Interesting observation. However, it should be pointed out that the colony collapses that are in the news started well before 2008. Still, your point is well taken.

I read a thread in the Fragile Earth Forum yesterday about the bees being back. It was titled, 'The Bees Are Back'.

Check it out for the latest information.

No worries my friend.....the Bees ARE back.

I don't believe that the world is going to end in 2008 either, just thought it was an interesting thought I would share with you all And, I'll admit I didn't know that the Bee population had been declining for a while, I thought it was a relatively new thing (aka starting happening this year)
Just seen the Bee's are back thread so I'm going to go and have a read.
I'm still shocked about how important Bee's actually are to us as human! I found that part really interesting, I'll try and find the link of the article if it's online.

reply to post by Death_Kron
Bee's are important to ALL life, not just humans. Thousands of species would die out without plant life.

reply to post by Anuubis


Correct. I never realised how important they are though ! It's strange how something small and seemingly insignificant as a bee can have a major impact on not just mine or yours but ALOT of different species,

Crazy! Then again I'v always been told don't underestimate the small things in life, as everythings got to start somewhere...

Sorry for spelling mistakes people, I'm quite drunk

reply to post by Death_Kron
Imagine the world without flies.

Mankind with their never empty ego likes to think of Man as the "Top" of the food chain. This is a fools way of seeing it. a chain depends upon other aspects of the chain to be A CHAIN!

Man eat fruits. No bees = no fruits for man to eat?

No!

No fruits means no fruits or grains for the cows to eat.
No grains mean no chickens are fed.

No bees means NO FOOD!

Of course there's always the ocean. How long will that last?

I love sushi!

The bees don't die off. Nature balances out. However the bees are part of the starvation issue of 2012 in some places.

P.S. "Bees" are not the only one's that can polinate plants. This job can be done by man if needed. However that would make an apple cost about 20 dollars.

a pound of wheat for a days wages. do not touch the oil or wine.

It should be pointed out that crops are not soley reliant on bees for pollination. They may be the most efficient, but many species of insects also do the same thing. Then there is also the wind. Plants can also be pollinated by hand. The loss of all bees would make it harder to produce the current quantity of crops, but by no means would it mean the end of plant life and definitely not the end of mankind.

reply to post by disgustedbyhumanity


Yeah, I do realise that crops do not rely entirely on the Bee for pollination but as you said they are one of the most efficient.

I did read the other day that crops can be pollinated by hand, which surprised me, there was an article about an island somewhere where I think the Bee population at that particular location had disappeared for some reason so they pollinate their crops my hand.

Maybe it wouldn't be the end of mankind if all the Bee's disappeared, maybe not at first, but is it not possible that a chain reaction would occur and over time we would slowly but surely start running out of things? I know this is a worst case scenario.

One other thing I forgot to mention was Beeswax, without Bee's their would be no Beeswax and apparently it has hundreds of commercial applications and is used to make pharmaceuticals, candles, polish & cosmetics among other things. So, it not only our food sources that would be hampered with the Bee's decline.

Perhaps Einstein was simply making a commentary on how, without the smaller things in life, the bigger things could not have been made possible.

Perhaps we've all taken things out of proportion, which is exactly what Einstein may have wanted.

In which case, he's probably laughing at us from his vantage point in heaven.

I mean, it's not as if Einstein could've thought up how something would kill every single bee on this planet.

Well... apart from genetically modified crops...

reply to post by Anti-Tyrant


I agree Anti-Tyrant, Einstein probably was making a statement or an observation that as you said, you can't have the bigger things without the smaller things.

Everything has got to start somewhere and be built upon, and strangley enough nearly everything on this planet interacts and relies on everything else, at least at some level.

As mentioned, I personally don't think the world is going to end in 2012, even though I do find it all quite interesting. I was just quite shocked about something as simple as a humble little Bee could have such a large impact upon the world. Sort of reminds me about the Butterfly effect!

As others have already said, bees are not the only pollenators, there are many other insects that do the same thing.

Nowadays many fruit trees are termed 'self-pollenating' so do not need any intervention.

Incidently, where I live, a few years ago a disease all but wiped out the bees on my Island - later the disease was called 'The Isle of Wight Disease'. I hasten to add that the bee population is back at pre-disease levels now.

FYI - Einstein never said anything about bees at all, its a misconception. There are several threads on these boards about Einstein and Bees.

The world will end when the cycle is complete. Whether that be brought on by the disappearance of the bees, or being hit by an asteroid, or by the global decline of all the markets, or by a nuclear bomb. It truly matters not, which, nor when..just know that it has before, and it will again.
And those that do survive, will realize that all our fancy technology, was what most likely put us into a state of "D"evolution..verses evolution.
Man truly knows nothing about the universe surrounding him.

Bees are important, but don't forget that some fruits are not affected by bees, like bananas aren't seeded via bees cross-pollenating and pinapples are pollenated by humming birds (mostly).