WEBVTT

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Human society is extremely
complex and fragile,

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built upon various pillars.

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One of them is the honey bee.

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One out of three meals eaten by humans
is made possible by honey bees.

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They are so important that if all the
honey bees were to die out,

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thousands of plants would follow,

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which could lead to millions of people
starving in the following years.

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On top of that, honey bees have
a huge economic impact.

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The dollar value of plants
pollinated by them each year

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is around $265 billion.

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Food we take for granted would just
stop existing without them,

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or there would be a massive
decrease in productivity.

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Food including apples, onions, pumpkins,
and also plants used for feeding livestock

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and thus extremely important
for our milk and meat.

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Einstein is often quoted as having said,

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“If honey bees die out, humans
will follow a few years later.”

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Actually, he probably didn’t say that,

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but there might be some
truth in the statement.

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It’s unsettling, but honey bees
have started to disappear.

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Millions of hives have died
in the last few years.

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Beekeepers all over the world have seen an
annual loss of 30–90% of their colonies.

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In the US alone, bees
are steadily declining.

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From 5 million hives in 1988
to 2.5 million today.

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Since 2006, a phenomenon called
“colony collapse disorder”

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has affected honey bees in many countries.

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And we’re not entirely sure
what’s causing it.

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All we know is that it’s pretty serious.

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Over the last few decades bees have seen
an invasion of very dangerous foes.

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Parasites straight out of a horror movie,
like Acarapis woodi,

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microscopic mites that infect the tracheae
(that’s the breathing tubes) of bees.

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Here, they lay their eggs and feed from
the fluids of their victims,

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weakening them considerably and spending
their whole life inside the bees.

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Or Varroa destructor, a fitting name
because they can only reproduce

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in honey bee hives and are one of
the bees’ greatest enemies.

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The female mite enters a honey bee brood
cell and lays eggs on the bee larva

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before it’s about to pupate and

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before the hive bees cover the
cell with a wax capping.

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The eggs hatch and the young mites and
their mother feed on the developing bee

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in the safety of the capped cell.

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The bee is not normally killed
at this stage, just weakened,

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so it still has enough strength to chew
its way through the wax capping

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and release itself from the cell.

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As it does, it releases the mother mite
and her new offspring from the cell,

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and these are free to
spread across the hive,

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starting the process over again
in a cycle of about 10 days.

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Their numbers grow exponentially,
and after a few months,

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this can lead to the collapse
of the entire bee hive.

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Once outside of the cell, adult mites
also suck the bodily fludis of bees

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and weaken them considerably.

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To make things worse, they also transmit
viruses that harm the bees even more

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and can lead to birth defects
like useless wings.

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But there are other threats too,
such as viruses and fungi.

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Under normal circumstances, these
phenomena should be manageable

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and are not enough to explain

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the horrendous amount of
dying going on in bees.

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Over recent years new insecticides
have been introduced

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that are deadly to bees.

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Neonicotinoids, a chemical family
similar to nicotine,

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was approved in the early 1990s
as an alternative to chemicals like DDT.

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They attack insects by harming
their nervous systems.

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Today, they are the most widely
used insecticides in the world.

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Globally, they saw sales
of €1.5 billion in 2008,

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representing 24% of the global
market for insecticides.

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In 2013, neonicotinoids were used in the
US on about 95% of corn and canola crops,

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and also on the vast majority
of fruit and vegetables,

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like apples, cherries, peaches, oranges,
berries, leafy greens, tomatoes, potatoes,

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cereal grains, rice, nuts,
grapes, and many more.

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Bees come into contact with the toxin

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while collecting pollen or
via contaminated water,

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often bringing material into the hive,

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where it can accumulate and
slowly kill the whole colony.

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The toxins harm bees in a
variety of horrible ways.

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In high enough doses, it quickly leads
to convulsions, paralysis, and death.

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But even in small doses, it can be fatal.

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It may lead to bees forgetting
how to navigate the world,

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so bees fly into the wild, get lost, and
die alone, separated from their hives.

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If this happens often enough, a hive
can lose its ability to sustain itself.

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We know that neonicotinoids
are harmful to bees

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and that we urgently need
an alternative to it,

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but there are billions of dollars
to be made in delaying this.

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Studies sponsored by the chemical
industry magically appear to prove

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a much lower toxicity to bees, compared to
those produced by independent scientists.

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There are even more factors
contributing to the demise of bees,

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like too much genetic uniformity,
crop monocultures,

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poor nutrition due to overcrowding,
stress because of human activities,

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and other pesticides.

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Each of those factors on its own is
a major problem for bees,

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but together, they probably account
for colony collapse disorder.

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With parasites upping their
game in recent decades,

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the honey bees are now
fighting for survival.

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It would be a catastrophe
if they lost this fight.

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This is a conundrum we have to solve
if we want to continue living

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with a relative abundance
and diversity of food.

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Humanity is deeply interconnected with
Earth and the other lifeforms on it,

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even if we pretend that we’re not.

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We have to take better care
of our surroundings,

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if not to preserve the beauty of nature,
then at least to ensure our own survival.

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This video is supported by the
Australian Academy of Science,

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which promotes and supports
excellence in science.

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See more at .

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