hungry bee comic

This forlorn and starving cartoon bee from Occupy the EPA made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. The comic does a brilliant job of humorously expressing the very real plight of these vital insects, as they battle habitat loss, chemical pesticides and disease, in a desperate attempt to survive.

Two years ago we highlighted the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to blatantly disregard the findings of their own scientists, and allow the Bayer Corporation to sell its toxic pesticide, clothianidin, in the United States. This is despite repeated warnings that the chemical could be devastating to a wide variety of creatures, most especially pollinating bees. With irresponsible government agencies like this in charge of protecting the health of honeybees and our environment, we all best be very concerned.

The Occupy activist group suggests a number of ways that we can help these creatures, from planting honeybee loving flowers in a pollinator friendly garden, to eschewing use of chemical poisons and deadly pesticides. Without the industrious work of billions of bees, many food staples that sustain our own species would no longer exist. We are all in this together; if you can, please plant some flowers for our friends the bees.