I’m sure they’ve crossed paths once or twice. Either professionally or personally, just wandering through the same portion of the non-“civilized” world. Whether they conversed at the time is up for debate.
I know what is with us stealing honey … it’s delicious. That is a great motivator for the most primitive parts of our brain. The rational parts of our brain exist to rationalize away the acts of the most primitive parts of our brain.
There’s also the extensive effort people go to, looking after hives, trying to arrange for them to have the maximum output and productivity. It’s not as much stealing as it is farming.
Add to this the number of agricultural businesses dependent in part on bees, and you’ll see that there’s a significant motivator, even in the strictly mercenary and commercial sense, to look after bees. I forget what the exact economic impact is suggested to be if bees go extinct, but there are several crops that we’re pretty sure will straight up die off.
That’s because pure vegans are extremely uninformed. Honeybees generally produce more honey than they can use, and if it isn’t removed one way or another it starts to harm them.
Well, in this case I was speaking as a Terran but if you think that humans can’t own natural resources then feel free to walk in on the Iranians and tell them that you’ve decided that they can’t drill for oil anymore and then see what happens if you don’t have a good army or two to back you up when you do that. ^.^
Like or not, humans are the primary species of Terra even in the Narbonverse. The moment when that changes in this series may be fast approaching but it is not yet here. ^_^
Not all bees are social and so presumably don’t have the “hive mind”. There would still be thousands of species left to pollinate plants… but yeah, no honey.
There are many natural pollinators besides honey bees. Unfortunately none of them are of practical value for commercial agricultural pollination. There’s a reason fruit and vegetable growers pay good money to get hives to come to their fields. The effect on the wild ecosystem is less well defined but probably still problematic.
The “Solo Bees” do a fine job of pollinating, if you can attract them to your crops. I put up a couple of shelters last spring and brought in several, who’ve done a very nice job on our flower and vegetable gardens. Extra bonus: most of the solitary species do not have stingers, which has made my daughter far more comfortable seeing them flying about.
You can get premade shelters for them to deposit their eggs at the link below, or there are several places to find ideas for easy homemade shelters.
This is power beyond any powers that puny humans could ever have: the ability to get a funnel cake when every amusement and concession is closed.
My guess still holds that the creators are/were channeling the now-closed Not-Playland-at-the-Beach Museum. I am now in the throes of skeeball withdrawal and now desperately need greasy pastry.
I have the vague notion that it’s something like in Spirited Away, where barely-visible shadow ghost people go through the motions of providing everything necessary for the VR experience of the boardwalk/arcade.
That sugar is generally for emergency use only. If it shows up in the honey it will crystallize.
Though I understand that in some areas the fructose yield is so low the local consumers have never known a clear liquid honey.
If Helen could develop a new variety of gerbils that would pollinate crops instead of eating them, she’d be up for the Nobel Prize, and she’d have governments and labs throwing money at her.
It could still pose a problem re: what all those gerbils would eat, but why think ahead?
I think Helen could manage bee sized gerbils easy enough. Granted there is no way she’d consider population control, and regardless of exactly what natural defenses she gave them a gerbees swarm would be one of the most dangerous things on earth, but they wouldn’t be giant rampagng pollinators, and might not even be rampaging, maybe.
You have just postulated what may perhaps be the cutest apocalypse scenario to ever spring from the mind of man. Humans would perish as the gerbees tickled them to death while searching for pollen and seeds.
Perhaps not even a tweak, since they already appear to be actively pollinating. It would just be a matter of breeding enough of them to handle entire crops, as opposed to just the odd flower here and there.
I don’t think you’d want to see the “honey” bats came up with. (And they’re increasingly endangered themselves.) There are indeed many other insects that can pollinate plants — I’ve seen four species of insect at once on a holly tree. But most of the flies, wasps, butterflies/moths, etc are less general than bees about where they go, and crop plants are often pickier as well.
Perhaps, but where the insects, bats, birds and whatever else fail, pollination by humans should still succeed. Losing all of the bees (or whichever ones Melissa is referring to here) could have a dramatic impact on the price and availablity of many crops, though.
At worst, you’ll end up with Anasigma being responsible for 8% of the world’s food production.
Speaking of which, I wonder what Mr Green thought he’d done with Gavotte, given that she’s actually in a bit of the simulation he didn’t know about.
Honey has several qualities that make it a super food, Crittenden points out. It’s very energy dense, about 80 to 95 percent sugar, and it’s a good source of the glucose needed to nurture brain development. Wild honey also contains traces of bee larvae, adding fat, protein, vitamins and minerals [, and is] easy to digest.
[…]
Rock art depicting honeycombs, swarms of bees and honey collecting date to as many as 40,000 years ago. Such art has been found in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia.
[…]
A variety of monkeys and apes eat honey today. Baboons and macaques, for example, use their hands and mouths to harvest honey from the nests of stingless bees. Orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees also like honey and bee larvae, often using sticks to extract the food from hives.
[…]
mastering fire may have allowed hominids to smoke out stinging bees, as modern people do, making it even easier to collect honey.
See the bees what scares they’ve shown,
But, guys, we didn’t take too long
To clear the air.
They swarmed at us and it was bad,
The buzzing bees were all around,
And in our hair.
Then the first hive came and we learned how
To break the wax and drain the sticky
Amber goo.
We knew that we were not invited,
Breaching walls and risking stings,
And we ate our way through.
It was always good to eat,
Kinda sharp and kinda sweet,
We loved it so.
We took them in and built them hives,
And harvested what they put out
Those years ago.
Put it on most anything,
Improve the taste upon our tongues,
We always know.
Protecting bees to make this sticky
Liquid and they’d be protected,
A quid pro quo.
And honey, we’ll miss you, ‘cause you taste real good.
We’d go away with you, if only we could.
I would have gone with… “It’s terrible because the ecology of the planet as adapted to bees requiring the species for survival and the entire world and all sapients and sentients on it are gonna die when the bees are gone…
I don’t know if someone asked this or not but do the bees know about sasqautches? And do the sasqautches know about bees?
I’m sure they’ve crossed paths once or twice. Either professionally or personally, just wandering through the same portion of the non-“civilized” world. Whether they conversed at the time is up for debate.
I know what is with us stealing honey … it’s delicious. That is a great motivator for the most primitive parts of our brain. The rational parts of our brain exist to rationalize away the acts of the most primitive parts of our brain.
There’s also the extensive effort people go to, looking after hives, trying to arrange for them to have the maximum output and productivity. It’s not as much stealing as it is farming.
Add to this the number of agricultural businesses dependent in part on bees, and you’ll see that there’s a significant motivator, even in the strictly mercenary and commercial sense, to look after bees. I forget what the exact economic impact is suggested to be if bees go extinct, but there are several crops that we’re pretty sure will straight up die off.
Sure it’s farming. All animal-based farming would be theft (or worse!) from the perspective of intelligent livestock.
the equation changes a bit if you know the bees are smarter than you.
To a pure Vegan it’s slavery. Why do you think they’re all wearing those little black and orange striped prison suits?
That’s because pure vegans are extremely uninformed. Honeybees generally produce more honey than they can use, and if it isn’t removed one way or another it starts to harm them.
“Consider it your rent for the use of our pollen!”. ^_^
“Our pollen” is an interesting perspective. Since when do natural resources “belong” to humans?
Well, no, Towering Barbarian could be a sentient plant. Anything is possible on the Internet, after all.
Well, in this case I was speaking as a Terran but if you think that humans can’t own natural resources then feel free to walk in on the Iranians and tell them that you’ve decided that they can’t drill for oil anymore and then see what happens if you don’t have a good army or two to back you up when you do that. ^.^
Like or not, humans are the primary species of Terra even in the Narbonverse. The moment when that changes in this series may be fast approaching but it is not yet here. ^_^
Primary? Im pretty sure the bees outnumber us
Yes, but we have the word of Gavotte that they aren’t Terran. ^_^
If they’re reuniting with the *global* consciousness, should they be leaving Earth? Or is it somebody else’s global consciousness?
Presumably their homeworld has a gestalt mind formed by the connection between all the different hive minds. Like Mars in A Miracle of Science.
Back to the planet Gaia
Plants not getting fertilized is rather more of a problem than a honey shortage. The damage to the ecosystem… (It’s bee “Atlas Shrugged!”)
Except that chaos would actually be a realistic outcome in this case
Mosquitoes might multiply to take up part of the slack. ^_^
*inwardly shudders*
That thought is as disturbing as it is impractical.
Not all bees are social and so presumably don’t have the “hive mind”. There would still be thousands of species left to pollinate plants… but yeah, no honey.
There are many natural pollinators besides honey bees. Unfortunately none of them are of practical value for commercial agricultural pollination. There’s a reason fruit and vegetable growers pay good money to get hives to come to their fields. The effect on the wild ecosystem is less well defined but probably still problematic.
It’s not quite that bleak, there have been a couple of projects working with various solitary bees to develop a backup for honeybees.
The “Solo Bees” do a fine job of pollinating, if you can attract them to your crops. I put up a couple of shelters last spring and brought in several, who’ve done a very nice job on our flower and vegetable gardens. Extra bonus: most of the solitary species do not have stingers, which has made my daughter far more comfortable seeing them flying about.
You can get premade shelters for them to deposit their eggs at the link below, or there are several places to find ideas for easy homemade shelters.
https://www.solobee.com/
At least now it’s clear what Melissa meant by “C’mon” – it was “C’mon, I’m going to get a funnel cake.”
This is power beyond any powers that puny humans could ever have: the ability to get a funnel cake when every amusement and concession is closed.
My guess still holds that the creators are/were channeling the now-closed Not-Playland-at-the-Beach Museum. I am now in the throes of skeeball withdrawal and now desperately need greasy pastry.
whadya mean? Funnel cakes just happen!
I have the vague notion that it’s something like in Spirited Away, where barely-visible shadow ghost people go through the motions of providing everything necessary for the VR experience of the boardwalk/arcade.
That’s no funnel cake….it’s a Krispy Kreme, baby.
Stealing? Given the amount of sugar beekeepers feed their bees, I’d say it’s paid quite well!
That sugar is generally for emergency use only. If it shows up in the honey it will crystallize.
Though I understand that in some areas the fructose yield is so low the local consumers have never known a clear liquid honey.
So begins the Pollination Apocalypse. And it will only get worse when *some* Mad Scientist decides to have Pollination work via gerbils …
If Helen could develop a new variety of gerbils that would pollinate crops instead of eating them, she’d be up for the Nobel Prize, and she’d have governments and labs throwing money at her.
It could still pose a problem re: what all those gerbils would eat, but why think ahead?
Fifteen foot tall ur-gerbils that eat only pollen seem in Helen’s capacity.
I think Helen could manage bee sized gerbils easy enough. Granted there is no way she’d consider population control, and regardless of exactly what natural defenses she gave them a gerbees swarm would be one of the most dangerous things on earth, but they wouldn’t be giant rampagng pollinators, and might not even be rampaging, maybe.
You have just postulated what may perhaps be the cutest apocalypse scenario to ever spring from the mind of man. Humans would perish as the gerbees tickled them to death while searching for pollen and seeds.
What a way to go. 😀
Gerbil sized bees would be easier.
But gerbil sized bees would be far more terrifying.
They pollinate AND eat them! Twice as good
It’s only a minor tweak on her existing gerbilflies.
Perhaps not even a tweak, since they already appear to be actively pollinating. It would just be a matter of breeding enough of them to handle entire crops, as opposed to just the odd flower here and there.
Incidentally, the gerbilflies are also featured in the final strip of Narbonic.
I’m sure Dave could work out some kind of wormhole tunnel to steal honey from Lovetron directly.
… Pollinating? That doesn’t sound right.
Just stick with bats, which it appears also do pollination. Just make them produce honey.
I don’t think you’d want to see the “honey” bats came up with. (And they’re increasingly endangered themselves.) There are indeed many other insects that can pollinate plants — I’ve seen four species of insect at once on a holly tree. But most of the flies, wasps, butterflies/moths, etc are less general than bees about where they go, and crop plants are often pickier as well.
Perhaps, but where the insects, bats, birds and whatever else fail, pollination by humans should still succeed. Losing all of the bees (or whichever ones Melissa is referring to here) could have a dramatic impact on the price and availablity of many crops, though.
At worst, you’ll end up with Anasigma being responsible for 8% of the world’s food production.
Speaking of which, I wonder what Mr Green thought he’d done with Gavotte, given that she’s actually in a bit of the simulation he didn’t know about.
Since bats are mammals, wouldn’t that be milk?
I approve of this scenario.
I posted about this on the previous thread, but that was just a summary paragraph. Here’s the full article from Smithsonian magazine:
Humans, the Honey Hunters : Energy-rich honey may have helped hominids evolve big brains
Quoting a few interesting points:
See the bees what scares they’ve shown,
But, guys, we didn’t take too long
To clear the air.
They swarmed at us and it was bad,
The buzzing bees were all around,
And in our hair.
Then the first hive came and we learned how
To break the wax and drain the sticky
Amber goo.
We knew that we were not invited,
Breaching walls and risking stings,
And we ate our way through.
It was always good to eat,
Kinda sharp and kinda sweet,
We loved it so.
We took them in and built them hives,
And harvested what they put out
Those years ago.
Put it on most anything,
Improve the taste upon our tongues,
We always know.
Protecting bees to make this sticky
Liquid and they’d be protected,
A quid pro quo.
And honey, we’ll miss you, ‘cause you taste real good.
We’d go away with you, if only we could.
—from “Honey,” Bobby Goldsboro (Bobby Russell)
I would have gone with… “It’s terrible because the ecology of the planet as adapted to bees requiring the species for survival and the entire world and all sapients and sentients on it are gonna die when the bees are gone…
Well I mean, you make a lot of it and it is *so* sweet…