For many of us, bees are annoying. We think that their only purpose is to keep buzzing around
and stinging random people. The truth is, bees are crucial for our environment, and
almost never get the credit they deserve. If bees didn’t exist,
humans wouldn’t either. Hi viewers, and welcome to another Curiosity video!
Most plants, including fruits and vegetables, need the help of pollinators, like bees, to continue
their life cycle and grow fruits. Bees get a lot of attention here because they're highly efficient
pollinators. A single hive can house 40,000 bees, and a hive of just 20,000 can pollinate an
entire acre. In fact, they’re said to pollinate one out of every three bites of food that we eat.
It’s that simple. The problem is that they're under threat from climate change,
pesticides, disease and parasites, which could lead to their extinction! In today’s video,
we’ll tell you what would happen if the bees went fully extinct. From losing products like apples,
wine, jam, honey, cotton and more, watch till the end to learn about all of them.
No More Apples: Apples are one of the most popular fruits.
It’s one most of us seem to enjoy. But without bees to pollinate apple trees,
we wouldn’t have them. Any apples left would become very expensive.
Like most fruit trees, apples in particular require cross-pollination with other varieties.
This produces a healthy crop of fruit. Without bees, this would have to be done by human hand,
which is possible but would make little economic sense in most countries.
Of course, this would affect other apple products like cider, pastries, and juice. You need around
2.5 kilos of apples just to make a single liter of juice. That’s a lot of pollination!
What’s your favorite way to eat apples? Tell us quickly down below in the comments...
Less Medicine: Many modern medicines, both conventional and alternative,
come from flowering plants. The willow and aspen trees used to make aspirin
are pollinated by bees. Opium poppies used to produce morphine are also pollinated by bees. The
manufacturing of many important drugs and medical treatments could be affected by the loss of our
bee population. This could lead to shortages, and in some cases, complete unavailability.
No More Nuts: Almonds are one of the most nutritious and versatile nuts,
but unfortunately, they would be the first nuts to disappear.
It’s pretty much impossible to produce them without the help of bees.
No more almond oil, almond milk, shampoo with almond extracts or almond bakery goods. Brazil
and macadamia nuts would follow soon after, as bees are also needed for their production.
Less Dairy: It's not only almond milk that would disappear from the supermarket.
Cows rely on pollinated plants as a food source, so dairy cows would likely become a thing of the
past. You would have to say goodbye to most cheese, yogurt, milk chocolate and ice cream.
Over time, we would likely lose all the plants that bees pollinate. The wild animals that eat
those plants would also struggle to find food. This plant-based food shortage could
continue along the food chain, and eventually affect most living creatures on the planet.
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Fewer Cosmetics: But what do they have to do with bees? Many deodorants, creams,
and conditioners contain plant-based ingredients taken from citrus fruits or shea-butter,
which can only exist if bees are there to pollinate the growing plants.
Many conventional cosmetic products would disappear if bees went extinct.
However, plant-based ingredients are found first and foremost in certified natural cosmetics.
This means bee extinction would cause most ecological
and fair trade cosmetic products to disappear first.
Less Cured Meat: Wondering what bees have to do with dried meats? Animal feed for pigs and cows
are largely made of soy. This is self-pollinating, so they’re not dependent on bees.
But here’s the thing. The typical flavor of many cured meats relies on herbs,
which are not self-pollinating. Although it won’t necessarily help the bees,
we recommend eating meat less often, and choosing higher-quality organic meats when you do.
No More Wine: If we woke up tomorrow and there wasn’t a single bee left, grapes would be under
serious threat. Many vineyards will keep bee hives to keep a steady flow of pollinators.
Without the diversity of plants and insects that bees create around vineyards,
an occasional glass of red or white may be a thing of the past.
Starvation and Poverty: This probably sums up what would happen if bees went extinct.
You can already see the problems with all the plants that bees pollinate.
We would still have proteins such as pork and chicken along with certain things like corn and
beans. But there wouldn’t be enough to go around. Basically, the cost of food would skyrocket.
The scarcity in food, of course, would drive food prices through the roof.
So, even if you could find food available, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t be able to afford it.
Rates of malnutrition would also skyrocket because we need a wide range of vitamins and
minerals from different foods. The problem is, we simply wouldn’t have all these foods
if bees went extinct. The majority of vitamins and minerals we get in our diet
come from plants pollinated by bees. The lack of nutrition that would affect people could end up
crippling the economy due to health care costs. The world’s economy would also take a nosedive,
with major industries like cotton, dairy, and coffee disappearing.
The cotton industry in the U.S. alone is a $21 billion industry.
No Hot Sauce: Bees pollinate all bell and chilli peppers,
which make up most spicy condiments. Next time you reach for that hot sauce to spice
up your favorite food, remember that it’s packed with flavor thanks to the bees!
Less Jam: Plums, strawberries, cherries and apricots are just a few of the fruits
pollinated by bees. Fewer berries might not seem like a red flag at first, but think
about how many of your favorite foods use jam. Toast really wouldn’t be the same without it.
No More Gummy Bears: That’s right, no bees, no gummy bears! It requires way too much fruit juice
to make these candies. Gummy bears are also coated with beeswax to give them a shiny appearance,
and to prevent them from sticking together in the package.
Fewer Animals: Animals that rely on particular plant species would become extinct if those plants
ceased to exist. This means entire ecosystems would change, eliminating some of the world's
biodiversity. For example, many cattle used for milk and meat eat alfalfa and lupins,
both of which need to be insect-pollinated. With less food available to feed large animals,
there would be less meat and milk production, so the human diet would change significantly.
Fewer Vegetables: Broccoli, carrots, pumpkins and other squash-type vegetables
would become extremely hard to produce without bee pollination.
Like many of your favourite fruits, they would become too rare and
expensive to use as everyday products, so it’s likely they would disappear completely.
While vegetables and plants are usually good for you, there are some plants out there that can
actually be fatal. Learn more about these plants by watching “Dangerous Plants That Can Kill You”.
No More Honey: Without bees, there would obviously be no honey.
We would be losing one of the healthiest, most versatile and natural food products available.
One of our favorite baking and cooking products would be gone,
and beekeepers would have no bees to look after. We would miss the honey in skin remedies, shampoos
and other cosmetic products. Beeswax would also become something we could only read about.
Economic Loss: Losing the honeybee doesn’t just mean fewer almonds and apples for our salads
and treats, it means big bucks for the U.S. economy. Because so many of the foods we eat
depend on pollinators for production, losing the honeybee would be devastating to our food economy.
The financial impact of losing the honeybee population would be greatest in the almond
industry. Combining the sale of almonds, and the wages of those employed to maintain them,
the almond industry adds roughly $5.9 billion to the U.S. economy. The cost of the production
of apples adds over $2.9 billion every year, and the broccoli and onion industries each contribute
well over $800 million to the US economy. Today, 1 in 12 jobs across the country are
directly connected to agriculture. In total, the honeybee contribution equates to well over
$16 billion dollars a year, and helps employ hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S.
Less Cotton: Cotton crops do not rely completely on bees for pollination,
but introducing them to the crop during flowering results in a very large increase
in both quality and quantity. Without the hard work that bees do, several changes would happen.
A cheap cotton t-shirt would become expensive, and that wouldn't just affect clothing.
A simple item like a cotton tea towel, or a bag of cotton make-up pads would also get pricey.
Cotton crops would also be far less profitable. Having less would be a
massive set back for cotton production. This may lead to only man-made materials.
Bee pollination has been shown to increase fiber strength and length,
so without bees, we might see a big drop in the quality of any cotton.
Bees going extinct might sound like a strange phenomenon,
but that’s not the only weird thing happening on Earth. There are many other things which are
way weirder and will blow your mind! Learn more about them by watching:
8 Scientists Who Experimented On Themselves
Or
20 Bizarre Laws From Around The World
Go ahead, click one. Or better yet, watch both and learn more about how crazy our world is.
What product would you miss the most if bees went extinct? Let us know in the comments below!