Bee-ing Nice to the Earth

Mason bee couple*

Bean Hill bee house

Today is Earth Day, the day that marks the 47th anniversary of the modern environmental movement. The movement was inspired by a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, and achieved through the now unheard of collaboration between Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. In its first year, the Earth Day movement resulted in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clear Air, Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Acts. Today Earth Day is being observed in 184 countries, most of which are headed by officials who acknowledge that climate change is not only real, it is happening now, and threatens the life of every living thing on the planet.

Nesting tubes

Currently the forward progress of the environmental movement in America is threatened by anti-science, dangerously ignorant elected and appointed officials. The rest of us, who recognize that clean air, clean water, and protecting God's creatures are good things, need to remain actively involved in environmental protection efforts. Starting today, think globally and act locally; starting today, think of one thing you will personally do for the Earth's sake.

This week at Bean Hill, we took up bee keeping. Not the labor-intensive, rather fragile hive-dwelling honey bees brought here from Europe, but the native, "solitary", self-sufficient kind. They're also called "gentle" bees because with no hive and no queen to protect, these bees aren't high-strung and aggressive. The bees we introduced to Bean Hill are mason bees, and late in May we'll introduce leafcutter bees.

Bees via U.S.P.S.

Tiny box of 20 bees with tiny ice pack

Colony Collapse Disorder has decimated our honey bee population, depriving us of valuable pollinators, and, in turn, threatening successful food crop production. However, honey bees are not the only pollinators, and compared to native bees, not the most efficient. Native bees collect pollen all over their bodies; honey bees only on their sticky back legs. By gathering more pollen from a flower, each native bee is able to distribute pollen to more plants than a honey bee can.

Mason bee cocoons

Native bees can be introduced to urban areas, without the permits required by many municipalities for honey bee keeping. If you want to encourage population growth of native bees, you need to provide tunnel-like holes where they lay their eggs. In late autumn, you remove the cocoons (masons) or the larvae (leafcutters) from the tubes and store them in a cool, dry place until it's time for their spring release.

My research led me to make Crown Bees my bee resource. Shop now--they're having an Earth Day sale!

As soon as they emerge from their cocoons, each bee looks for a nesting hole

 *Photo by André Karwath aka Aka.This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

Can you see what's before your eyes if you're short-sighted?

On March 16, Mike Mulvaney, Office of Management and Budget Director, told reporters that in the matter of government climate change research, "The President was fairly straight-forward: We're not spending money on that any more....We consider that a waste of your money...." 

WE consider that a waste of YOUR money.

Thanks for being so caring about how our money is used, but you didn't ask any of us. If you had, you would have heard, as reported by the New York Times (How Americans Think About Climate Change, in Six Maps) on March 21, "Americans overwhelmingly believe that global warming is happening, and that carbon emissions should be scaled back." Again, thanks for being so caring about our money, but is sounds as if a lot of us might want you to spend OUR money figuring out how to slow the pace of something that threatens the existence of every living thing on this planet.

It's somewhat of a relief to hear that the majority of Americans have finally realized something bad is happening to our planet. The distressing thing is "most don't believe it will harm them."

The article explains:

           Part of this is the problem of risk perception.

Global warming is precisely the kind of threat humans are awful at dealing with: a problem with enormous consequences over the long term, but little that is sharply visible on a personal level in the short term. Humans are hard-wired for quick fight-or-flight reactions in the face of an imminent threat, but not highly motivated to act against slow-moving and somewhat abstract problems, even if the challenges that they pose are ultimately dire.

I can understand this. During March at Bean Hill, we had wildly fluctuating temperatures (brutally cold early on in the month, then warmly spring, then back to brutal, then back to spring...) that made everything average out to "normal". No records were set. We had enough rain to almost wipe out the deficit created by a much too dry start to the year. I'm a chronic climate change worrier, and yet one deceptively normal month makes me feel almost secure. So I guess if you live somewhere untouched (to date) by uncontrollable wildfires, or tornadoes, winds, and floods more monstrous than ever before recorded, you believe climate change is a serious problem, just not your problem.

Keeping an eye on things

Short-sightedness is going to be the death of us. That's why I began this blog. I hope to encourage you to look very closely at your own flora and fauna. Listen to yourself as you say, "I never saw this happen before" or "this has been the hottest or driest [name your season] I can remember" or "I haven't seen many Monarchs this year" or "There used to be bees all over this garden." And then share your observations, because according to the Times article, only a third of us are talking about climate change, a third of us never do, and who knows what that other third is doing. The article didn't mention.

As Rachel Maddow says, "Pay attention, people!"