Save the bees, bats, birds! Pollinators are disappearing, report says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Many insects that pollinate plants are dying out. The world needs to do something about it, a new report warns. If it does not, people may not have enough to eat.

There are 20,000 species of creatures that pollinate in the world. Pollinators spread pollen from plant to plant. Without them, plants cannot grow. The world's crops, including fruits and vegetables, even chocolate, depend on pollinators. Yet 2 out of 5 species of invertebrate pollinators are dying out, said the report. Invertebrates, like butterflies and bees, do not have backbones. Pollinators with backbones, like hummingbirds and bats, are doing only slightly better. Just 1 in 6 of these vertebrate species are going extinct, or dying out.

The problem is only going to get worse, said the report's lead author Simon Potts. He is a professor at the University of Reading in England. The study is the biggest ever of its kind.

Many Causes For Decline

The problem is not just with honeybees. The number of honeybees has been shrinking in the United States. Yet, in some ways they are doing better than many wild insects, like the bumblebee.

The trouble is the report cannot point to a single cause. Many different things are causing the problems. Farming has changed. Also, there are not enough wildflowers for pollinators to use as food. Farmers use pesticides that kill insects, including pollinators. The growth of cities is destroying their habitats, the places where they live. Other problems include disease and global warming, the heating up of the Earth's climate.

The report was done for the United Nations. It is the world group of nations. The report was approved by officials from 124 countries on Friday.

But We Can Act Now And Correct The Problems

There is still time to fix the problems. Most of the solutions involve changing the crops grown on farmland. These are somewhat simple problems and not that expensive to correct, said David Inouye of the University of Maryland. He helped write part of the report.

In the United States, too many farms grow just one crop. Also wildflowers are disappearing, Potts and others said. Wild pollinators especially do well on grasslands. Since 1945, nearly all of Europe's grasslands have disappeared.

England pays farmers to plant wildflowers for bees, Watson said.

Pesticides, which kill bugs, are another problem. They do not just kill harmful bugs. They also kill pollinators, the report said. Herbicides kill off weeds, which are useful for wild pollinators.

Global Warming Plays Big Role

Potts said global warming is a real risk. In England, one-quarter of the bumblebee species have died out. Bumblebees are more affected by global warming than other types of bee. When the earth heats up, it changes an animal's or insect's habitat. Two English species of wild bumblebees are extinct. In the U.S., one type of bumblebee has died out.

A managed honeybee hive is one that is kept by famers. Over the last 50 years, the number of managed honeybee hives in the world has gone up. Yet, the number in North America and Europe has dropped, the report said.

In 1981, there were 5.5 million managed hives in the United States. In 2012, there were 2.5 million.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp is a University of Maryland bee expert. He praised the report. He said it is looking at the big picture, not just at honeybees.

Doing something to save pollinators is very important, said vanEngelsdorp.

If we want to feed the world in 2050, "pollinators are going to be part of that," he said.