4 ms·

One of the biggest biodiversity-related threats - as in able to trigger cataclysmic-level event - is IMO commercial honey production. Farm honeybees are essent

• toasty228 2mo ago
  That's a drop in the bucket Total insect mass dropped by 70% in Europe in 30 years, no insects = no pollination, no pollination = no flower = real mass scale extinction of pretty much everything that lives on earth since 80%+ of plants need pollinators.
  • friendzis 2mo ago
    It's related. Yes, there are other factors like insecticide use, habitat destruction, monoculture farming, etc. Bees are not the only factor, bet they are one of the factors. In the "old days" beehives were stationary and found certain equilibrium with the rest of the ecosystems. Diminishing honey returns on additional hives placed practical limits on honey farm sizes. However, these days commercial hives are literally transported all over the place following flowering plants, one hive serves serves a significantly larger area than in the past. The colonies can grow larger and denser, they outcompete other insects and starve them, suppressing numbers and diversity. On top of that they spread diseases while being treated, putting further strain on wild ecosystems. That's a huge threat. If for whatever reason there was a mass colony collapse event or we simply stopped migratory beekeeping, huge areas would become under pollinated, collapsing food supplies over night.