[Pollinator] Media on pollinators: Dr. David Suzuki

[Faisal Moola]

Hello friends, 

The following is the most recent Science Matters column by Dr. David Suzuki
on the importance of ecological services, like pollination, provided for by
insects. Science Matters is a weekly science column that is published in a
number of newspapers across Canada. Dr. Suzuki is the chair of the David
Suzuki Foundation and is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and
broadcaster in Canada.


Faisal Moola, PhD

Director of Science
David Suzuki Foundation
2211 West 4th Avenue
Suite 219
Vancouver, BC
Canada, V6K 4S2
604 732 4228 tel
604 732 0752 fax
www.davidsuzuki.org


Science Matters by David Suzuki


Insects make better friends than foes

April 14, 2006

As a child, I was an avid collector of insects. Back then, I wasn't aware
that they are the most numerous, successful and important animals on earth.
I was simply fascinated by their diverse forms and beauty, especially
beetles.Still, for most people, insects inspire revulsion rather than awe,
and few creatures on this earth are as maligned. We poison them, step on
them, swat them and fear them. They invade our dreams as well as our crops -
a plague, a scourge to be eradicated, wiped out and cleansed from the earth.

But no matter how hard we try; we can never rid ourselves of our little
nemeses. They are built for survival and will continue on in spite of our
efforts. It's been said that for every human on the planet, there are at
least 200 million insects. In spite of all our technologies, all our
knowledge and power, this world really belongs to them - not us.

And yet, although they have a well-earned reputation as crop-killers and
disease spreaders, insects do far more good than harm. They keep systems
functioning on our little planet by breaking down organic matter,
pollinating flowering plants and providing food for fish, birds and mammals.

For those of us living in cities, such services may not seem like such a big
deal, but in nature they are irreplaceable. Unfortunately, natural services
that cannot be replaced are often taken for granted, as though they provide
no real value to our economy or our livelihoods. These free-of-charge
services don't fit neatly into our way of calculating the bottom line, so
they are usually ignored (economists call them an "externality.")

However, a recent study conducted through Cornell University attempts to
assign a dollar figure to the services provided by wild insects. The
findings, published in the journal Bioscience, conservatively estimate that
these services are worth at least $57 billion USD to the American economy
every year.

This figure only includes four services: dung disposal, control of crop
pests, pollination and providing food for wildlife, like birds. It does not
include many less-obvious or hard-to-calculate services, nor does it include
domesticated insect labours such as the honey made by domesticated bees. Had
these also been included, researchers say the total would be in the hundreds
of billions.

Bees alone are thought to pollinate close to $3 billion worth of fruit and
vegetables every year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that
over 30 per cent of all the food eaten in the U.S. comes from
insect-pollinated plants - including almonds, apples, cucumbers and
tomatoes. The value of pollinators made news in 2003 when California's
almond crop took a beating because there weren't enough insects to pollinate
them, forcing growers to import bees from as far away as Australia.

Bugs also save farmers serious money by eating pests that would otherwise be
eating their crops - some $4.5 billion every year. This service not only
prevents crop loss, but also reduces the need for expensive and toxic
pesticide applications. Dung beetles also help reduce illness in farm
animals by removing and processing disease-spreading waste.

According to the report, by far the most economically valuable service
provided by insects (at least, the most readily quantifiable) is as a source
of food for other wildlife. Many outdoor recreational activities, from
hunting to fishing and birdwatching, depend either directly or indirectly on
insects as the main source of protein in the food chain. This service alone
is estimated to be worth more than $50 billion a year.

Unfortunately, not all is well in the insect world. Diseases, parasites,
insecticide use and loss of habitat have resulted in substantial die-off
offs in beneficial insect species, such as bees. In fact, five species of
bumblebee have disappeared from the U.S. in the past six years.

Whether we like them or not, bugs are with us for good. Rather than killing
them indiscriminately, we'd be better off looking for ways to increase the
numbers of those insects that provide us with so much, while keeping the
real pests at bay.