It seems spring is playing games with us this year. February was too warm, then weeks later there was heavy frost. April was too cold, only rain, rain, rain with snow on hilltops. Meteorologists say we are experiencing the coldest spring in twenty years. And again, we can only silently note that climate change is a fact, here and now, not just something in a distant future.
On World Bee Day, we can witness how bees are becoming of the most obvious and direct victims of climate changes, at least in Slovenian environment. Due to the cold and rainy spring this year, they have been unable to gather their own food, and many colonies would die without human intervention.
Beekeeping has a long tradition in Slovenia and is very widespread, both as a professional and amateur activity. That is why Slovenia encouraged the world to declare 20 May World Bee Day. Bees pollinate three-quarters of plants, giving 90 percent of our food. Climate change is not only affecting bees but is causing havoc for many insect pollinator species.
For a long time, we did not realize how thoroughly these tiny creatures are embedded in natural ecosystems, it is high time we shed the human arrogance of superiority and help nature to re-establish balance. We are a part of the biosphere – whether we like it or not, like the bees, we too survive or disappear embedded within it. A tiny virus showed us this fact quite clearly last year.