Spring will always follow winter, and with spring comes pollen.
Now, I've been recently reminded that some people have very strong feelings regarding pollen, most of them negative. After all, they're all yellow and powdery and they cover everything and get stuck everywhere. Just a general nuisance, in many people's opinion. Not to mention the sneezing and coughing and allergies that are associated with pollen. Because of these admittedly not okay problems, the hatred of pollen runs deep.
In fact, this pollen hatred has become so intense I feel I must protest. Now, irritating as pollen may be to you, they're actually very necessary in the grand scheme of things. It is absolutely essential to our ecological functioning. Get this: over 80 percent of the world's flowering plants need pollen to reproduce. Can anyone imagine? I mean, imagine that your species' sole survival is reliant on a yellow floating thing that may or may not pollinate another flower and produce seeds, aka babies. That is a seriously awesome and terrifying way to survive. But I digress.
So, even knowing that pollen helps plants reproduce, some may ask, why should I care? I'll tell you why: flowers are important. For one thing, they photosynthesize, so the more flowers, the more photosynthesis. This is mighty important when we conclude that since flowers photosynthesize, they help with the rampant CO2 situation we've somehow found ourselves in (which simply cannot be our fault, of course, despite the overwhelming evidence proving otherwise).
Now, I've been recently reminded that some people have very strong feelings regarding pollen, most of them negative. After all, they're all yellow and powdery and they cover everything and get stuck everywhere. Just a general nuisance, in many people's opinion. Not to mention the sneezing and coughing and allergies that are associated with pollen. Because of these admittedly not okay problems, the hatred of pollen runs deep.
In fact, this pollen hatred has become so intense I feel I must protest. Now, irritating as pollen may be to you, they're actually very necessary in the grand scheme of things. It is absolutely essential to our ecological functioning. Get this: over 80 percent of the world's flowering plants need pollen to reproduce. Can anyone imagine? I mean, imagine that your species' sole survival is reliant on a yellow floating thing that may or may not pollinate another flower and produce seeds, aka babies. That is a seriously awesome and terrifying way to survive. But I digress.
So, even knowing that pollen helps plants reproduce, some may ask, why should I care? I'll tell you why: flowers are important. For one thing, they photosynthesize, so the more flowers, the more photosynthesis. This is mighty important when we conclude that since flowers photosynthesize, they help with the rampant CO2 situation we've somehow found ourselves in (which simply cannot be our fault, of course, despite the overwhelming evidence proving otherwise).
Now, some do not believe we are in a CO2 crisis (again, despite the proof of the world's temperature rising and other health effects that come with excess CO2). These people, therefore, now have an excuse not to care about pollen, right? Wrong. Because see, if pollen helps make flower babies, then that means it's responsible for the life of more than just flowers. It's responsible for the life of what eats the flowers as well, and what eats the eaters of the flowers, and what eats the eaters of the eaters of flowers, and so on and so forth. The immediate organisms affected are the myriad pollinator species that include bats, butterflies, moths, flies, ants, birds, and perhaps most well-known, bees (honeybees in particular).
Why does this matter? Well, think about it. Pollinators usually don't transport pollen for the express purpose of making new flowers. No, pollinators usually visit flowers for food, mating, and nest-building purposes. But if there was no pollen, there would be no flowers, and without flowers, pollinators would certainly die out within a generation or two.
Again, some might not see the importance in this, because I've discovered that humans are extraordinarily selfish creatures. But if these species die out, the entire ecosystem would collapse. This is not an exaggeration. Top level predators cannot survive without the bottom of the food chain, because hello, that's their food. So with the death of birds and bats and butterflies, there is the death of all their predators, which means the death of all their predators, and so on (which would, in case it's not obvious, eventually affects us, and not in a good way).
Here is a spotlight example of this devastating effect: with the death of flowers, there is the death of bees. This would be a travesty. Another fun fact: honeybees pollinate more than 90 percent of the flowering crops we eat. And that's just one type of bee, and it also disregards the aforementioned other pollinators. What does this mean? Well, basically if we didn't have pollinators, we wouldn't have enough food to feed the world's population.
And I know that everyone cares about that. Because everyone likes to eat, if only because it allows us to survive.
I mean, seriously, did no one learn nothing from the Bee Movie? I get that it's an animated feature (and a seriously creepy one at that), but really, those things often have a lot more life lessons than popular action or romance movies.
Why does this matter? Well, think about it. Pollinators usually don't transport pollen for the express purpose of making new flowers. No, pollinators usually visit flowers for food, mating, and nest-building purposes. But if there was no pollen, there would be no flowers, and without flowers, pollinators would certainly die out within a generation or two.
Again, some might not see the importance in this, because I've discovered that humans are extraordinarily selfish creatures. But if these species die out, the entire ecosystem would collapse. This is not an exaggeration. Top level predators cannot survive without the bottom of the food chain, because hello, that's their food. So with the death of birds and bats and butterflies, there is the death of all their predators, which means the death of all their predators, and so on (which would, in case it's not obvious, eventually affects us, and not in a good way).
Here is a spotlight example of this devastating effect: with the death of flowers, there is the death of bees. This would be a travesty. Another fun fact: honeybees pollinate more than 90 percent of the flowering crops we eat. And that's just one type of bee, and it also disregards the aforementioned other pollinators. What does this mean? Well, basically if we didn't have pollinators, we wouldn't have enough food to feed the world's population.
And I know that everyone cares about that. Because everyone likes to eat, if only because it allows us to survive.
I mean, seriously, did no one learn nothing from the Bee Movie? I get that it's an animated feature (and a seriously creepy one at that), but really, those things often have a lot more life lessons than popular action or romance movies.
Keeping all this in mind, pollen is our savior and we should not, under any circumstances, want less. People's pollen discrimination is frankly fairly disturbing when one processes all these facts. I understand why people with allergies might hate pollen--they get a free pass--but everyone else possesses no excuse.
Please try to remember that everything in nature usually occurs for a reason, and any disruption in any process that goes on is likely to be devastating to any ecosystem and therefore to us.
If you can't bring yourself to care about the other living things on this planet, at least care about that.
Also, we should try to save the declining honeybee populations, for the reasons I have just detailed. Find out how at this helpful website, under the Alternatives tab: http://savehoneybees.info/
Please try to remember that everything in nature usually occurs for a reason, and any disruption in any process that goes on is likely to be devastating to any ecosystem and therefore to us.
If you can't bring yourself to care about the other living things on this planet, at least care about that.
Also, we should try to save the declining honeybee populations, for the reasons I have just detailed. Find out how at this helpful website, under the Alternatives tab: http://savehoneybees.info/