The honeybee crisis

Passage

Honeybees are responsible for pollinating a large share of the crops that humans rely on for food, from almonds and apples to coffee and cotton. In recent decades, however, beekeepers around the world have reported alarming declines in their colonies. Scientists attribute this collapse to a combination of factors rather than a single cause. The widespread use of certain pesticides weakens bees' immune systems and impairs their ability to navigate. At the same time, the spread of parasitic mites and viral diseases has devastated hives. Habitat loss compounds the problem by reducing the diversity of flowers bees depend on for balanced nutrition. Because the effects of these pressures overlap, isolating any one of them is difficult, and addressing the crisis will require coordinated action across agriculture, industry and conservation.