Bumblebees are going extinct because of climate crisis, but there are easy ways to help

CNN — Some people might recall dodging flying bumblebees as kids, or finding the bees flitting around flowers in their front yard. Researchers from the University of Ottawa in Canada examined changes in the populations of 66 bumblebee species across the two continents, and compared that with climate changes in those locations Their findings highlighted that as climate change causes temperatures and precipitation to increase beyond what bumblebees can tolerate, so does their risk for extinction. “It’s not just that we’re looking at what our kids will experience; it’s that we are looking back not even a full generation, just to when we were kids, and saying, ‘Could we take our children to places we loved and find what we found?’ What our study says is that that answer is no across entire continents.” Populations are declining by the decade The researchers evaluated changes in the presence and diversity of bumblebee species across North America and Europe using a database of around 550,000 records. They’re really a critical piece of these natural landscapes that we like to enjoy.” “Plants and crops that rely on pollination from bumblebees are likely to suffer if bumblebee populations continue to decline or vanish altogether, which could result in incredible consequences for the ecosystem,” said Haley Todd, director of programs and education at Planet Bee, a San Francisco non-profit focused on bee conservation. Those include reducing the use of pesticides, planting a diverse array of flowers and shrubs to prevent habitat loss and providing bumblebees with occasional shelter from the sun “during extreme weather events that they’re being subjected to more frequently because of climate change,” Soroye said.