By Curtis Parrott

“It’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature,” too much. If you start kicking her too hard, she will kick back like an old mule. Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth Mother) is a common personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of a mother-like being. The term stems from Greek mythology. The Goddess Gaia (basis of the root word geo – meaning earth) created everything. She even gave birth to her husband Uranus (Sky) and Pontus (Sea). It’s very important for us to keep Mother Nature in balance before she gets mad at us.

The topic of bees. It’s well known that without bees, humans would be in really big trouble. Your local grocery store produce section would be barren. That’s what’s at risk if we lose the bees: a massive percentage of our global food supply.

In their southernmost habitats, bees are dying from high heat and have lost 200 miles of their livable range. But bees at the northern end of their range are not expanding into cooler territories. Instead, the northern border of their range is remaining mostly static. So their range is shrinking with no growth.

According to research, bees likely won’t be able to adapt to changing climate by shifting their habitat range. While other species can adapt pretty good, bees don’t adapt to quick change quite as easily, putting them in danger from the unexpected effects of the climate. Unless the world can stabilize or reverse climate change, bees may one day run out of livable habitat altogether or get so small in area that our food production will cost so much, and be so little, that only the rich will be able to afford it, leaving the rest of the world behind.

Bees are becoming more at risk for serious disease also. Bees are extremely susceptible to certain mites and gut parasites, and these parasites actually thrive better in the heat. This can cause massive Colony Collapse and even wipe out entire hives.

Pollination is all about timing. Bees are in tune with natural cues. But if weather patterns and temperatures shift beyond the norm, plants and bees may get totally out of sync. Scientists are concerned about bees mistiming their spring emergence, arriving on the scene long after the plants are ready to be pollinated. What would this mean? Food shortages, population decline, poor pollination rates. It’s really bad news for both plants, bees, and eventually us.

Thankfully, you are seeing a large effort to grow our bee population by countries all over the world. Many people are getting in tune by starting their own bee farms at home; it can be done most anywhere. If you put plants in the mix, well…you have a win-win situation.

Geraldo Rivera put it best when he said: “Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she’s going to come around and whack you. You’ve got to be prepared.”

Keep the Faith!