by Aleeha Shah | News Editor
With the rise of different technologies, it is no secret that there has been a significant impact on the environment. Some would even argue that most impacts have been negative, an example being the extinction and endangerment of many species. From building in their home areas to creating sprays to blantly kill them off, humans are eliminating many species’ populations. One insect that has been affected by these pesticides and construction are bees.
“Bees are dying at an alarming rate. A lot of people stomp on bees and everything because they see them as something that will hurt them but really they are trying to help us by pollinating and making honey. They are dying and it’s really bad,” junior Victoria Boesen said.
Because bees have the ability to sting us, people’s initial reaction when they see one is to kill them. This, along with ridding them of their homes and replacing it with a new building, has contributed to their devastating loss. A lack of flowers is also not beneficial for the bees.
“The bees are very endangered and we’re killing them. Not only are we killing them, but we are killing their environment whenever we construct a new building or something. We don’t plant enough flowers because we hate the bees because they sting us, but if we keep them happy they won’t do that,” senior Monica Stevens said.
In order to draw attention to this issue, student council has put signs all over the school. They hope that when a student sees these signs, they will reflect on it and try to do something to help the species nearing extinction.
“Our student council made save the bees signs to encourage people to raise awareness and have people realize that this is something that is happening. Our hope is that maybe someone will go out and see these signs and [do something],” Boesen said.
Because one of their main environmental responsibilities is pollination, one way students can help the bees is by planting flowers. This will allow them to do their jobs and scatter the pollen from those flowers to other areas. They can also limit the amount of pesticides they use and the number of calls they make to their exterminator.
“Students can plant flowers and try not to destroy their homes, by [not] fumigating them away and calling an exterminator. The number one thing they can do is plant flowers. Right now at Target they have them for $1 in little pots and they are really cute,” Stevens said.
Students can also help save the bees by donating money. This can be done by buying products from a brand that actively supports the campaign and donate money to save the insects. One of these brands is Burt’s Bees. They can also buy supplements instead of actual honey.
“Students can donate money. Burt’s bees is doing a campaign that if you buy one of their products, they will give so much of the money to saving the bees. Also, buying honey supplements instead of buying actual honey can help the bees,” Boesen said.
Bees are responsible for many essential parts of our everyday lives, even though some people don’t realize that. This means that is it crucial that people step in and save them from potential extinction.
“It affects students because the bees are apart of our environment and the environment affects everybody so we want to keep our earth as green as possible and the best it can be because we’re all living on the same earth,” Boesen said.
