This Friday?on Al Jazeera?s global talk show?South 2 North,?Redi Tlhabi?looked at extinction and why the bee apocalypse could cause a third world war.?
?Who wants to live in a world filled with only cockroaches, rats and sparrows?? Redi asked at the start of the show. ?At present rates of extinction, that world is only a few decades away. Will we, human animals, even survive the extinction of so many other species? According to some specialists, if we kill off tiny animals like bees, we will have massive food shortages – drastic enough to even cause a third World War? So today we ask about the birds and the bees. Are they headed the same way as the Dodo ? and does it spell disaster???
Redi was joined in studio by Dr. Joseph Okori, the African Rhino manager for the World Wildlife Fund International Species Programme, and Dr. Belinda Reyers, an applied ecologist from The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa.??Entomologist and evolutionary biologist Dino Martins linked in from Nairobi.?
Dino said, ?Are bees important for daily life? Yes. Can we survive without them? No. Would the world end if we lose bees? Absolutely.??Bees are responsible for pollinating over two-thirds of all the plant species on the planet…??Everything from sunflower oil, cocoa, coffee, all of the legumes, lentils, passion fruit, papaya almonds, cashew nuts ? these are all crops that are dependent on pollinators. So no bees means no food or at least that the kind of food we have to eat would be very boring ? bread and potatoes only.?
Dr. Reyes added later, ?We?ll still be able to fertilise our crops but it?ll be by hand or by machine and it?ll cost a lot more.??
Dino said the current ?colony collapse disorder? facing bees is a result of a number of factors, including climate change, changing agricultural landscapes, and pesticides.?
?Here in East Africa, one of the big challenges we face is the dumping of pesticides from other countries where they have been banned,? Dino said. ?If they are toxic to Americans, they are just as toxic to Kenyans or South Africans, so we shouldn?t be using them.??
Dr. Okori argued that, ?Rhinos are equally as important as bees.? He pointed out that rhinos open up wallowing holes, help with seed dispersal, and generate income for communities on marginal land that is not viable for agriculture or cattle.?
Given that 367 rhinos have been poached in South Africa this year alone and that Mozambique recently lost its last 15 rhinos, Redi asked whether it wasn?t time to consider legalizing the sale of rhino horn, so that a live rhino would become more valuable than a dead one.?
However, according to Dr. Okori, legalizing the rhino horn trade would bring ?so many unknowns? The issue with legalization is you would be turning rhinos from a conservation asset to a tradable commodity. We do not believe that is the way to go to save a species.??
Watch Redi discuss legislating ecocide, the possibility of de-extinction, and simpler solutions like bee hotels on this week?s episode of?South 2 North,?which premieres at?19:30 GMT on Friday, 28 June 2013?and also screens?on Saturday?at 14h30,?Sunday?04h30 and?Monday08h30.?
For more information, visit?http://www.aljazeera.
You can also tweet your questions, comments and opinions to @AJSouth2North or find?South 2 North?on Facebook:?http://www.facebook.
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