“The Importance of Bees”

Barnett, Misty Carl W Simpson COM 100- section 107 4 November 2010 â€Å"The Importance of Bees† General Purpose: to inform Specific Purpose: to inform my audience of the importance of bees, and the recent decline in their numbers due to the colony collapse disorder. Central Idea:I hope my audience walks away with the knowledge that we are dependent on bees for a variety of things, and of their unexplained deterioration in numbers. Introduction I’m sure everyone in this room enjoys eating.Maybe you like eating foods like kiwi, oranges, apples, blueberries, carrots, cherries, broccoli, onions, brazil-nut, watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, pumpkin, zucchini, macadamia, passion fruit, vanilla, or honey? Did you know that all of these foods are reliant on pollination from bees to produce more food? Since the 1980’s habitat destruction of pollinating insects has made these crops reliant on honey farms to bring in bees to pollinate their crops, but since 2007 we have had some of the largest decline in bee numbers on record.As I have mentioned in my first speech, I have my own bee hive. This is my second year with my hive, it’s doing pretty good, and this last year I was able to collect 6 gallons of honey. I have worked around bees since I was knee high to a grass hopper, and bee keeping is a hobby I hope to always able to have. I have several friends that also have hives, and we get together to socialize and help each other work with our bees. The small group of friends I have has even seen a decline in bee population.Last year my friend Johnse lost four of his five hives, and Tom lost all 5 of the hives he had. Body I) The colony collapse disorder, and its affects. A) Drs. Buchmann and Nabhan stated that bees pollinate about 75% of the world's crop plants. B) Large losses for US. a) It was reported in 2007 to have killed 32 percent of America’s honeybees. And in 2008 another 36 percent—more than a million hives— were re ported dead. C) Not just the US affected. ) According to Bernard Vaissiere, a pollination specialist with the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, â€Å"the situation for bees in Europe is no better than for bees in North America. † D) The presents of losses in different countries. c) A report by the European food Safety Authority estimates that the UK lost 30% of its honeybees in 2007, while Italy lost 40 to 50 percent. II) Theories about causes of the CCD. E) Cell phones not the culprit. F) Genetically modified crops not the culprit.G) Pesticides, viruses, fungi, and poor colony nutrition are the new theories. d) Dewey Caron, a University of Delaware entomologist who co-authored a recent report on CCD's toll, â€Å"I'd bet it's a virus that's fairly new or one that's mutated to become more virulent. † e) Entomologist, Lynn Royce, says â€Å"I think we brought this on ourselves. † III) Congresses gets involved. H) Congress has earmarked a few mi llion dollars for research to get to the heart of the problem, but the money has yet to start trickling out, and results are years away.The bees might be able to wait that long, but we can’t. Conclusion So in conclusion I hope you are can now walk out of this room with a little more understanding about the important of bees, and are now more aware of how their numbers are drastically declining.Works Cited Stipp, David. Flight of the honeybee. 156th ed. New York: time inc. , 1992. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. Jesiolowski, Jill. Get bugs to boost your yields. Vol. 43. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. Curmmins, Coroline. Silent Spring. Vol. 17. N. p. : The Environmental Magazine, 2006. Web. 13 Nov. 2010