Global Warming Drives Declining Bee Populations

When the most useful insects become extinct, what bugs will likely survive?   Mosquitos, the ubiquitous cockroach, ants....?  A world without bees will also be a world with fewer flowers, fruits and, of course, almonds.

The study found that in the course of a single human generation, the chances of a bumble bee population surviving in a given place has dropped by an average of over 30 percent.

"Bumble bees are the best pollinators we have in wild landscapes and the most effective pollinators for crops like tomato, squash, and berries," says fist author Peter Soroye, a PhD student in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa. "Our results show that we face a future with many less bumble bees and much less diversity, both in the outdoors and on our plates."

The bright side is that the authors of this study have created a tool to determine the likelihood of extinction for a species.  So  there is that.