Global warming is killing off bumblebees, according to a new study published last week by scientists.
Bumblebees – which help pollinate plants, wildflowers and fruit trees as well as important crops like blueberries and tomatoes, providing an invaluable service to agriculture and wildlife – are struggling to adapt to global warming and are dying rather than migrating to cooler climes, the study’s authors reported in the journal Science.
Until now the worldwide decline of the bumblebee had largely been blamed on pesticide use, parasites, disease and loss of areas for habitat.
“As the climate warms, bumblebee species are being crushed as the ‘climate vice’ compresses their geographical ranges,” said lead author Jeremy Kerr, professor of macroecology and conservation at the University of Ottawa. “The result is widespread, rapid declines of pollinators across continents.”
By examining nearly a half million records on 67 bumblebee species in North America and Europe from 1900, researchers were able to track changes in the bumblebees’ range.
They found that bumblebees have lost as many as 300 kilometres of their historical southern range in North America and Europe.
“This is a huge loss and it has happened very quickly,” said Kerr. “We are looking at rates of loss of about nine kilometres per year from those southern areas,” he said.
Meanwhile, bumblebees are “generally failing” to move north and are becoming extinct in some areas.
“They just aren’t colonising new areas and establishing new populations fast enough to track rapid human caused climate change,” Kerr said.
Researchers said the paper shows no indication that bumblebee decline is linked to human land development or to insect-killing chemicals that protect crops.
“Bumblebee range losses began before neonicotinoids were in wide use,” said co-author Alana Pindar, also of the University of Ottawa.
“This cannot be interpreted to mean that neonicotinoids do not and cannot harm bees, just that they do not affect our results,” she said.
Bumblebees are believed to have originated some 35 million years ago. Since they are natives of cooler areas, scientists think they may be not be well-equipped to cope with warming temperatures.
Ways to help the bees survive should include reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as helping establish populations in northern latitudes, a process known as assisted migration.
Until now, “scientists have been fairly relaxed about the effects of climate change, arguing that since pollinators can fly, if confronted by changing and hostile conditions, they would simply move to more suitable conditions, perhaps shifting northwards,” said Norman Carreck, science director of the International Bee Research Association.
“However, this paper reveals that the true picture is more complex and that this does not appear to be happening.”
Given the losses so far, researchers expect the problem will only get worse unless human-caused climate change can be stopped.
The decline in pollination could make food more expensive and some crops harder to grow, researchers said.
“Impacts are large and are already happening, they’re not just something to worry about at some vague, future time,” Kerr said.
* AFP
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Details
Through Her Lens: The stories behind the photography of Eva Sereny
Forewords by Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling, ACC Art Books
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The%20specs
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Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
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How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950