I understand. Having a healthy fear is okay. Having a healthy fear is what makes us keep our distance. I feel like most of the time people get stung, its by total accident. Once I was trimming the edge of my lawn with gardening shears (the weedwacker was broken) and then started cutting the grass just above a nest some wasps made in the ground, and they swarmed out and stung me right on my face. A rational person like you or me would take that to mean that I got too close to the nest and they thought I was attacking it. Naturally, in order to increase their chance of survival, they defended the nest.
But the sad truth is, most people wont interpret the situation like that. This is the common “stings out of nowhere” argument you see. “I didn’t have the intention of hurting them, why did they hurt me? They must have done it because they are psychotic killers.” Few are willing to put themselves in the place of the wasp.
It also doesn’t help when people create stuff like this:
It absolutely breaks my heart.
On the internet, nobody fact checks anything. Nobody cares enough to fact check anything. They see a funny meme and share it. I can’t claim to know these people’s intentions while creating these. But, I can tell you the effects are disastrous for our relationship with nature. We all know that “sleeps with your wife” and “hopes you have a horrible day” are not valid reasons to hate wasps. But with enough repeated exposure to this garbage, all of this gets stuck in people’s heads. Not to mention the very blatant misinformation it spread, namely that wasps don’t have a purpose. If these people bothered to research anything, they would find they are so very very wrong. And if people would go outside and actually bother to observe the complexities of nature, they would also find that wasps don’t sting “without reason.” I also want to point out that in the U.S. alone, around 100 people die from bee stings every year. And yet, I never see the same “we have no purpose in life” stuff I see attached to wasps.
I am most disturbed by the very last one, which says that honeybees “do you a service” by dying if they sting you.
Which reaches the core of the problem: people think that nature owes them something.
By viewing the world through a human filter, we have come to think that we are separated from everything else. We are different. We are special. Therefore, if there is something about nature that fails to please us, that means it must be actively plotting to destroy us. Cause we are just that special.
This gives us no room for empathy. If it is not perceived as useful or pretty to us, or it has a way of hunting or defending itself that isn’t pleasant, that gives us the right to advocate its removal from existence.
So there you have why people don’t just ignore wasps. They just can’t ignore the atrocities with which they associate wasps, giving way to the desire to prove we are somehow morally superior to them. We can’t just accept that we are a part of nature and can coexist with these species. We have to be their master.
you can be scared of wasps but you can also research and learn about their behaviors and roles in the environment and not jump to the immediate conclusion that they exist to bring you pain. If you can read this, you have the resources to do so right now. If you let go of your anthropocentrism, nature will not make you such a miserable person. It is us with nature, not us against nature.
this should be concerning a lot more people than it is
not only because bees are one of the most important animals in the world and their job is a lot more than gathering honey but also because they are what scientists refer to as an “indicator species”
this means that when their populations start dwindling and then rapidly dropping, humans need to watch their shit because that means that environmental factors are too difficult for THEM to live in, so it might be difficult for US to live in, too. bees basically act as an indication that humans have a lot to worry about and when they start dying like this it deserves a lot more than a few headlines.
last year my biggest worry was the steep decline in bee population and apparently thats not about to change anytime soon. people have told me to my face that they think its strange I’m so concerned for the bees. read this you selfish fucks
Get excited, motherfuckers. Without bees, we will die off. Bayer and Monsanto continue to produce the chemicals that have been proven to kill them, and the government has their backs. Bees pollinate 30% of our food in the US and we are passing legislation to PROTECT the scumbags responsible for killing them.
I preach this shit to everyone who will listen and I always get “WAAAAH I HATE BEES THEY STING AND THEY ARE BIG MEANIES!” but think about your future life without kiwis, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, peaches, sunflowers, cotton, apples, plums, pears, mustard, celery, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, beans, cherries, melons, turnips, canola oil, alfalfa, soybeans, lemons, oranges, and I could go on forever.
Bees are amazing creatures who are responsible for the comfortable lives we lead in this country and we cannot sustain and feed our population without them.
Alright you guys, there’s a good amount of notes on this but it’s only making us aware of the problem, not telling us what we can do to help. We can do something to help and YOU CAN HELP, YES THAT MEANS YOU. ALL YOU NEED IS DIRT, A FEW BUCKS, AND A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME TO MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE, LITERALLY.
Plant flowers that bees like and that attract them.
Bees prefer flowers that are blue, purple, and yellow. Choose flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer, and fall seasons such as coreopsis, Russian sage, or germander. They especially love clover! Other plants include sage, salvia, oregano, lavender, ironweed, yarrow, yellow hyssop, alfalfa, honeywort, dragonhead, echinacea, bee balm, buttercup, goldenrod and English thyme. Buy seeds online.
GET RID OF THE PESTICIDES!!
If pesticides are killing off the bees so easily, what do you think it’s doing to us? The EPA says studies have shown pesticides can cause birth defects, nerve damage, and cancer. There are other ways to get rid of pests in the garden than using chemicals. Organic Garden Pests shows you how to keep off the bugs the organic way.
Please, if you have already reblogged this, reblog this is again with what I have posted onto it so you know what you can do to help. We can make a difference.
Scientists trained a computer program to
analyze satellite images to determine what was causing global tree
losses, and plotted the data on a map that reveals what’s driving
deforestation worldwide.
some fool: UHHH SHUT UP THERE ARE CATS NATIVE TO EUROPE LOL???
me: outdoor cats are often destructive and detrimental to the stability of native ecosystems. if you have a cat that’s known to kill surrounding wildlife you should keep them inside and find better enrichment activities, or let them out in an area where they can be monitored.
some absolute buffoon: but my cat likes going outside :((((((
ifesbob 