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Why bees are disappearing

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Marla Spivak |

TEDGlobal 2013

• June 2013

Honeybees have thrived for 50 million years, each colony 40 to 50,000 individuals coordinated in amazing harmony. So why, seven years ago, did colonies start dying en masse? Marla Spivak reveals four reasons which are interacting with tragic consequences. This is not simply a problem because bees pollinate a third of the world's crops. Could this incredible species be holding up a mirror for us?

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Honeybees have thrived for 50 million years, each colony 40 to 50,000 individuals coordinated in amazing harmony. So why, seven years ago, did colonies start dying en masse? Marla Spivak reveals four reasons which are interacting with tragic consequences. This is not simply a problem because bees pollinate a third of the world's crops. Could this incredible species be holding up a mirror for us?

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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About the speaker

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Marla Spivak researches bees’ behavior and biology in an effort to preserve this threatened, but ecologically essential, insect.

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How we’ll revive our connection with bees

Read a conversation between Marla Spivak and bee experts Noah Wilson-Rich and Dennis vanEngelsdorp to learn how you can help maintain this vital co-evolved relationship.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.