Pollinators free essay sample

Under 1840s conditions, only 20% of scents were altered by chemical reactions within a 1,000-meter radius downwind of the floral source. In the most polluted scenario, only 25% of the scents survived 300 meters downwind. Today, more than 842 million people nearly three times the population of the United States are chronically hungry. 43 Chronic hunger is a profound, debilitating human experience that affects the ability of individuals to work productively, think clearly, and resist disease. it drains economies, destabilizes governments, and reaches across international boundaries. millions are undernourished The food security issues are a global concern. hunger is one of the greatest problems the international community is facingFood security deserves its place in any long-term calculation regarding global security. Widespread chronic hunger causes widespread instability and debilitating poverty and decreases all of our safety, Food insecurity, therefore, causes global insecurity b ecause widespread instability threatens all of our safety. China pollinates by hand now A third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees. These foods provide 35pc of our calories, most of our minerals, vitamins, and anti-oxidants, and the foundations of gastronomy. Yet the bees are dying – or being killed – at a disturbing pace. The story of colony collapse disorder (CCD) is already well-known to readers of The Daily Telegraph. Some keep hives at home and have experienced this mystery plague, . Albert Einstein, who liked to make bold claims famously said that if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live. China has its own problems. Crops are now pollinated by hand using feather brushes, a laborious process as one bee colony can pollinate up to 300million flowers a day. Einstein was not wrong. US pollutants are on the declineSpectroscopic images from remote-sensing satelliteshave revealed a decreasing concentration of nitrogen oxides and nitric acid, precursors to ozone. Scientists at NOAA confirmed pollution controls put in place 10 years ago are impacting us today. The air is cleaner in the regions where we have reduced emissions of a key pollutant. The 10 years of before-and-after data revealed a 40 percent reduction in pollution. Satellites have detected a 38% decline in nitrogen dioxide in thestates between 1999 and 2005, itrogen dioxide and nitric oxides are two gases that form a group of pollutants known as nitrogen oxides, When combined with other gases and sunlight, they form ozone, a major air pollutant in smog. Ground-The NOAA study is the first to verify from space that these single-point reductions have had a measurable impact on the atmosphere across the entire region. Cars are the largest source of pollution in the US Transportation is the largest single source of air pollution in the United States. It causes over half of the carbon monoxide, over a third of the nitrogen oxides, and almost a quarter of the hydrocarbons in our atmosphere in 2006. ir pollution is associated with the full life-cycle of cars and trucks. This includes air pollution emitted during vehicle operation, refueling, manufacturing, and disposal. Motor vehicles cause both primary and secondary pollution. Nor is vehicles good for the environment because buses and Diesel-powered commuter trains burn fossil fuels just like automobiles. IndyGo’s buses use more energy and emit more greenhouse gases, per passenger mile, than the average SUV, and extending bus service to remote suburbs will only make things worse. Construction emissions and feeder buses substantially increase emissions even where electric-powered rail transit generates less greenhouse gases than cars or buses, the trains are supported by feeder bus systems that emit lots of greenhouse gases. the feeder buses that support rail transit run fairly empty because many rail riders drive to transit stations. The result is that greenhouse gas emissions on many transit systems increase after opening rail transit lines. Construction of rail transit also consumes huge amounts of energy and releases enormous amounts of greenhouse gases. Highway construction also generates greenhouse gases, but because highways are much more heavily used than most rail transit lines, the emissions per passenger mile are far lower. The history of the last four decades shows that transit cannot and will not play a significant role in saving energy or preventing climate change. spending more money on transit does not significantly reduce driving. Transit uses just about as much energy as cars, so even if we could persuade people to take transit it would not save energy. Transit subsidies have historically had only a trivial effect on ridership. Annual subsidies in real dollars grew by 68 percent. Yet annual ridership grew by only 18 percent. Despite total real subsidies of well over three-quarters of a trillion dollars since 1970, per-capita transit ridership and passenger miles actually declined. transit uses as much energy and generates nearly as much greenhouse gas per passenger mile as urban driving. In 2006, the nations transit systems used an average of 3,444 BTUs and emitted 213 grams of CO2  per passenger mile. And light truck energy efficiencies have rapidly improved, while transit energy efficiencies have declined. If auto manufacturers meet the Obama administrations new fuel-economy standards for 2016 BY25 the average car on the road will consume only 2,600 BTUs and emit only about 186 grams of CO2  per passenger mile—considerably less than most transit systems this rapid improvement is possible because Americas auto fleet almost completely turns over every 18 years. By comparison, cities that invest in rail transit are stuck with the technology they choose for at least 30 years. he fossil-fuel-burning plants used to generate electricity for rail transit emit enormous amounts of greenhouse gases. Washingtons Metrorail system, for example, generates more than 280 grams of CO2  per passenger mile— considerably more than the average passenger car. Pollution masks floral scents pollinators need to locate plants ozone and other constituents of smog destroy at least some of t he floral perfumes that pollinators rely on to find their meals. Bees might suffer from these smog constituents, which pollute urban and rural areas alike. Foragers most likely to be confused by air pollution’s degradation of floral scents are pollinators such as moths and bats. Flower scents vulnerability to ozone and other reactive chemicals is not new. Under pristine conditions, scent molecules could drift unchanged over a kilometer or more, The strength and length of that plume diminished dramatically, however, in the presence of smog constituents. Within just 200 meters, half of the average intensity of a scent plume was lost, The report analyses the potential for many signals that nature depends on to go askew. ozone. In heavily polluted areas, up to 75% of floral markers are destroyed It had already been established that when fragrance molecules wafting downwind meet up with air pollutants, chemical reactions alter the floral scents the fate of three common volatile hydrocarbons emitted by flowers as they encountered increasing levels of ozone, hydroxyl radicals, and nitrate radicals. The researchers plugged these data into a model to test different air pollution scenarios ranging from conditions that prevailed during the 1840s to current summertime conditions in large eastern U. S. cities, where ozone levels can exceed 120 ppb by volume. Under 1840s conditions, only 20% of scents were altered by chemical reactions within a 1,000-meter radius downwind of the floral source. In the most polluted scenario, only 25% of the scents survived 300 meters downwind. Extinction: Honeybees are key to prevent extinction Without the Honeybee, we too would die off eventually from critically low food resources of all kinds. It wouldnt take many generations for use to disappear either. Easily it could happen in our life time There is a real threat to the preservation of this important creature and mans intervention is crucial to their survival. Plants and Food: Pollinators are key to the production of one third of all the world’s food and the survival of 90% of all flowering plants Imagine living in a world without flowers or fruit or coffee or chocolate. Thanks to pollinators like bees, the food we eat and flowers and plants are possible. Butterflies, birds, beetles, bats, wasps and even flies are important in the pollination process. But despite the importance of pollinators, they are taken for granted all too often. More than 1,300 types of plants are grown around the world for food, beverages, medicines, condiments, spices and even fabric. Of these, about 75% are pollinated by animals. More than one of every three bites of food we eat or drink are directly because of pollinators. Pollinators ultimately play a role in the majority of what we eat and consume. Pollinators are vital to creating and maintaining the habitats and ecosystems that many animals rely on for food and shelter. Worldwide, over half the diet of fats and oils comes from crops pollinated by animals. They facilitate the reproduction in 90% of the world’s flowering plants. Today, more than 842 million people nearly three times the population of the United States are chronically hungry. 3 Chronic hunger is a profound, debilitating human experience that affects the ability of individuals to work productively, think clearly, and resist disease. it drains economies, destabilizes governments, and reaches across international boundaries. In sub-Saharan Africa, millions are undernourished and millions more live on a dollar a day, making it the most po verty-stricken region in the world today. The food security issues of this region are a global concern. Together with terrorism, hunger is one of the greatest problems the international community is facing. Food security deserves its place in any long-term calculation regarding global security. Widespread chronic hunger causes widespread instability and debilitating poverty and decreases all of our safety. Global Economy: Pollinator loss would cause worldwide economic loss of almost $400 billion The worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by pollinators, Was â‚ ¬153 billion* in 2005 for the main crops that feed the world. This figure amounted to 9. 5% of the total value of the world agricultural food production. Pollinator disappearance would translate into a consumer surplus loss estimated between â‚ ¬190 to â‚ ¬310 billion. The decline of pollinators would have main effects on three main crop categories fruits and vegetable were especially affected with a loss estimated at â‚ ¬50 billion each, followed by edible oilseed crops with â‚ ¬39 billion. Potera 08 [Potera, Carol, Has Written for EHP since 1996. She Also Writes for Microbe, Genetic Engineering News, and the American Journal of Nursing. Http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516566/.   US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health, Aug. 2008. Web. 8 Nov. 2012. .] Trudell, 2005 (J. D. Candidate 2006, Robert H. Fall, Food Security Emergencies And The Power Of Eminent Domain: A Domestic Legal Tool To Treat A Global Problem, 33 Syracuse J. Intl L. Com. 277, Lexis) Prichard, Ambros E. , AEP. Einstein Was Right Honey Bee Collapse Threatens Global Food Security. The Telegraph (n. d. ): n. pag. 6 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Feb. 2013. NOAA 7[NOAA, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Is a Federal Agency F ocused on the Condition of the Oceans and the Atmosphere. Whats In Our Air? Atmospheric Scientists Map Pollution Decrease.   ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2007. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. .] UCS 8 [The Union of Concerned Scientists, leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment, â€Å"Cars, Trucks, and Air Pollution†, http://www. ucsusa. org/clean_vehicles/why-clean-cars/air-pollution-and-health/cars-trucks-air-pollution. html O’Toole, 12 senior fellow at the Cato Institute   (Randal, â€Å"Indy Transit Task Force Misses the Mark,† http://www. cato. org/publications/commentary/indy-transit-task-force-misses-mark O’Toole 2009 senior fellow at the Cato Institute   (Randal, Congressional Testimony, â€Å"On Transit and Climate†, http://www. ato. org/testimony/ct-ro-20090707. html) Raloff 08[Janet Raloff, has been reporting at  Science News  for more than three decades on the environment, energy, science policy, agriculture and nutrition. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (with an elective major in physics) May 200 8, Journal of Science News, Environment: pollution may confuse pollinators: smog dilutes scents needed to guide floral foragers, Vol. 73, Issue 16] Trudell, 2005 (J. D. Candidate 2006, Robert H. , Fall, Food Security Emergencies And The Power Of Eminent Domain: A Domestic Legal Tool To Treat A Global Problem, 33 Syracuse J. Intl L. Com. 277, Lexis) Potera 08 [Potera, Carol, Has Written for EHP since 1996. She Also Writes for Microbe, Genetic Engineering News, and the American Journal of Nursing. Http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516566/.   US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health, Aug. 2008. Web.