“The Head-Scratching Case of the Vanishing Bees” by Clyde Haberman
Haberman, Clyde. "The Head-Scratching Case of the Vanishing Bees." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
This article by Clyde Haberman talks about the vanishing of bees by the millions in Europe and especially England. Based on the famous tale of Mary Celeste, this disappearance was dubbed the name, Mary Celeste Syndrome. Also called the colony collapse disorder, this disappearance of bees started a few years ago in England as bees left their hives to search for pollen and nectar and would never return. Over the following years, this trend continued and it has proven to be a very big problem. First of all, the loss of the bees really hurt beekeepers who had invested their time and money in the bees but also the agricultural industry took a hit. The agricultural industry was hurt by the loss of the bees because they are needed to help grow food with their pollination. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that nearly a third of all food Americans eat depend on bee pollination. Although this statistic was from the US, the numbers are probably very similar in Britain and other parts of Europe, showing that the impact on farmers is huge considering the production of these types of food is nothing close to what it could be without the bees.
As the article shows, not all bees have left Britain and other parts of Europe but the amount that have is truly a great loss of the agricultural economy and for beekeepers around the areas affected. Some areas of Britain have even lost up to 90% of its colonies. Numbers like that are staggering but it is important to remember that not all bees have been lost but large amounts have. Scientists, when looking for an explanation of this sudden loss of bees have looked at many possible situations. These could include the bees being driven off by signals from cell phone towers, genetically modified crops, and pesticides in the crops that can drive away the bees.
I liked this article a lot because not only did the author make his point clear but there was a clear connection to what the facts actually meant. If it was just him saying that bees had were going missing, it wouldn’t mean anything to the reader but, when he connected the missing bees to the economy, showing the effects, it proved to be very interesting and it made sense why the article was being written in the first place.
posted for J. Marshall
This review was incredibly interesting and very informative. I liked that John used specific facts and statistics in his review instead of just giving overviews of the information given. For example, he used the statistic that some areas in Britain have lost 90% of their bee colonies to support his argument that the amount of bees leaving Britain is terrible. I also liked that John drew conclusions based on the information he gathered from the article that helped the readers of his review understand how important the issue was. For example, he used a statistic from the US to predict the impact of the same statistic in Europe. Another thing that John did very well was summarize the information. It was very easy to understand, even if one had no previous knowledge on the subject. One thing that John could have improved was to give more analysis on what would happen if the bees disappeared. Another thing that he might have done better would be to explain how scientists are planning to get rid of these factors that drive out bees. A very interesting fact was that one third of all of our food comes from bee pollen. This article was incredibly informative and well written overall, and John did a great job of telling the reader the facts that they needed to know.
ReplyDeleteI like how you added in statistics. It enforced the seriousness of the decline in the population of bees. The way you split this up into paragraphs made the article more organized and easier to read. Also, your reflection was good, and summed up your opinion well. In the beginning of your critique, make sure to include the title of the article, not just “this article.” Another thing you could work on is adding a bit more detail from the original text, so it’s easier to understand what’s happening. I learned a lot more about the bee population from this, like how important bees are to the agricultural world.
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