By Thomas Guan, MEng ’23 (ME/Product Design)
This op-ed is recognized as having the Best Visuals in the annual Berkeley MEng op-ed contest and part of a series from E295: Communications for Engineering Leaders. In this course, Master of Engineering students were challenged to communicate a topic they found interesting to a broad audience of technical and non-technical readers. As an opinion piece, the views shared here are neither an expression of nor endorsed by UC Berkeley or the Fung Institute. In the spring of 2020, stores were devoid of fresh groceries, dairy products, and infamously, toilet paper. That was a glimpse of a potential world, where lack of resources are not due to supply chain and labor issues hampered by a global pandemic, but rather a world where pollinators are extinct. Not only will the fruit and vegetables we enjoy on a daily basis be under threat, but also the food which much of agricultural livestock eats as well, leading to a whole host of food security issues.
“While we are just students at Berkeley, there is still much we can do to slow the progression of this ever-growing problem.”“Voting with your wallet” can contribute greatly to bee health. Where and when possible, looking towards organic growers and the general reduction of pesticide use in growth can help loosen the grip pesticides have on bee populations. Further, being able to directly support beekeepers in their endeavors to maintain our critical insect population is a noble effort in itself. For people of action, getting involved with community or personal gardens to create pollinator friendly-gardens, maintaining mason homes, or creating bee oasis in hot months can do a great deal to help the natural and wild pollinators of our world, not just limited to honeybee populations. Planting native bee-friendly flowers, using your vote to protect existing habitats, volunteering with a local beekeeping or gardening association are just some of the ways which we can start progressing towards cultivating stronger pollinator populations. We here are lucky enough to have some of the brightest minds studying, working, and teaching here at UC Berkeley. While you may not have any breakthrough ideas, or for that matter, care to think of ideas to help bees and other pollinators, knowing and pollinating other minds with this issue might just be enough to strike true in someone’s heart, someone’s mind, and push an engineering revolution to create a critical solution. Knowledge and ideas never truly die. Let this story of humans and insects fighting valiantly against an evil, ever-changing reaper spirit be one you tell. One you might just bring up in casual conversation, or remind yourself of the next time you’re shopping for food. So long as this story lives with you, the bees and their keepers have not truly lost. References
- “One Bee for Every 20 Nuts”. www.asmith.ucdavis.edu. Aron Smith. Retrieved 2022–11–11.
- “Bolstering Bees in a Changing Climate”. USDA:Agricultural Research Service. Retrieved 2022–11–11.
- “Isle of Man Government — Bees”. www.gov.im. Retrieved 2022–11–10.
- “New Varroa mite detection linked to Newcastle”. Newcastle Weekly. 2022–07–04. Retrieved 2022–11–10.
- “California Puts Freeze on New Uses of Bee-killing Pesticides”. Center for Biological Diversity. 2018–01–04. Retrieved 2022–11–11.
- “United States Honey Bee Colony Losses 2021–2022: Preliminary Results from the Bee Informed Partnership”. Bee Informed Partnership. 2022–07–28. Retrieved 2022–11–11.
Op-ed: Bees versus the world was originally published in Berkeley Master of Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.