• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat

David_N

DP Veteran
Joined
Sep 26, 2015
Messages
6,562
Reaction score
2,769
Location
The United States
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Liberal
How do we help pollinators? This assessment has some good ideas.
Pollinators Vital to Our Food Supply Under Threat | IPBES
A growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures, many of them human-made, threatening millions of livelihoods and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of food supplies, according to the first global assessment of pollinators.

However, the assessment, a two-year study conducted and released today by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), also highlights a number of ways to effectively safeguard pollinator populations.

The assessment, titled Thematic Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production and the first ever issued by IPBES, is a groundbreaking effort to better understand and manage a critical element of the global ecosystem. It is also the first assessment of its kind that is based on the available knowledge from science and indigenous and local knowledge systems.


"The good news is that a number of steps can be taken to reduce the risks to pollinators, including practices based on indigenous and local knowledge," said Zakri Abdul Hamid, elected Founding Chair of IPBES at its first plenary meeting in 2012.

The safeguards include the promotion of sustainable agriculture, which helps to diversify the agricultural landscape and makes use of ecological processes as part of food production.

Specific options include:

Maintaining or creating greater diversity of pollinator habitats in agricultural and urban landscapes;
Supporting traditional practices that manage habitat patchiness, crop rotation, and coproduction between science and indigenous local knowledge;
Education and exchange of knowledge among farmers, scientists, industry, communities, and the general public;
Decreasing exposure of pollinators to pesticides by reducing their usage, seeking alternative forms of pest control, and adopting a range of specific application practices, including technologies to reduce pesticide drift; and
Improving managed bee husbandry for pathogen control, coupled with better regulation of trade and use of commercial pollinators.
 
I took a quick read through the link, and it looks like "Climate Change" was added in order to satisfy the editors.
It almost looks like that is a prerequisite to getting published.
 
It almost looks like that is a prerequisite to getting published.

The most important environmental threat to our species and other members of the planetary biome is likely to get mentioned in any article devoted towards a discussion of current threats facing the environment.
 
The most important environmental threat to our species and other members of the planetary biome is likely to get mentioned in any article devoted towards a discussion of current threats facing the environment.
"Climate Change" does not even make the list.
The problems facing Human Civilization could be boiled down to one simple thing, energy storage!
We have enough energy, but are just beginning to learn how to store that energy in
dense enough packages to be functional.( I.E. at least as energy dense as fossil fuels.)
If we solve that problem, all of the other problems, real or imagined, fall away.
Fresh water? we have Oceans waiting to be desalinated.
Food sustainability? with a supply of energy, we can grow all we need,
and maybe more important, distribute it!
The pollinator problem looks like it was mostly a parasitic fly.
 
Back
Top Bottom