How you can help save the bees, one hive at a time | Noah Wilson-Rich

62,991 views ・ 2019-04-10

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Pollinator decline is a grand challenge in the modern world.
0
12793
4170
00:16
Of the 200,000 species of pollinators,
1
16987
2909
00:19
honeybees are the most well-understood,
2
19920
2836
00:22
partly because of our long history with them dating back 8,000 years ago
3
22780
4193
00:26
to our cave drawings in what is now modern-day Spain.
4
26997
3168
00:30
And yet we know that this indicator species is dying off.
5
30189
4330
00:34
Last year alone, we lost 40 percent of all beehives in the United States.
6
34543
5275
00:39
That number is even higher in areas with harsh winters,
7
39842
2699
00:42
like here in Massachusetts,
8
42565
1360
00:43
where we lost 47 percent of beehives
9
43949
2868
00:46
in one year alone.
10
46841
1595
00:48
Can you imagine if we lost half of our people last year?
11
48460
3365
00:52
And if those were the food-producing people?
12
52285
2653
00:55
It's untenable.
13
55544
1150
00:57
And I predict that in 10 years,
14
57241
3448
01:00
we will lose our bees.
15
60713
2387
01:04
If not for the work of beekeepers replacing these dead beehives,
16
64027
4313
01:08
we would be without foods that we rely upon:
17
68364
2915
01:11
fruits, vegetables,
18
71303
1822
01:13
crunchy almonds and nuts,
19
73149
2261
01:15
tart apples,
20
75434
1404
01:16
sour lemons.
21
76862
1976
01:18
Even the food that our cattle rely upon to eat, hay and alfalfa -- gone,
22
78862
5254
01:24
causing global hunger,
23
84140
1965
01:26
economic collapse,
24
86129
1802
01:27
a total moral crisis across earth.
25
87955
2442
01:31
Now, I first started keeping bees here in Cape Cod
26
91417
2734
01:34
right after I finished my doctorate in honeybee immunology.
27
94175
3385
01:37
(Laughter)
28
97584
2432
01:40
(Applause)
29
100040
4507
01:45
Imagine getting such a degree in a good economy --
30
105560
3970
01:49
and it was 2009:
31
109554
1761
01:52
the Great Recession.
32
112242
1520
01:54
And I was onto something.
33
114456
1561
01:56
I knew that I could find out how to improve bee health.
34
116041
3673
01:59
And so the community on Cape Cod here in Provincetown
35
119738
3355
02:03
was ripe for citizen science,
36
123117
1666
02:04
people looking for ways to get involved and to help.
37
124807
2840
02:07
And so we met with people in coffee shops.
38
127671
2337
02:10
A wonderful woman named Natalie got eight beehives at her home in Truro,
39
130032
3563
02:13
and she introduced us to her friend Valerie,
40
133619
2086
02:15
who let us set up 60 beehives at an abandoned tennis court on her property.
41
135729
5578
02:21
And so we started testing vaccines for bees.
42
141902
3161
02:25
We were starting to look at probiotics.
43
145087
2519
02:27
We called it "bee yogurt" --
44
147630
1616
02:29
ways to make bees healthier.
45
149270
2046
02:31
And our citizen science project started to take off.
46
151798
2910
02:35
Meanwhile, back in my apartment here,
47
155375
2682
02:38
I was a bit nervous about my landlord.
48
158081
2436
02:40
I figured I should tell him what we were doing.
49
160968
2348
02:43
(Laughter)
50
163340
1029
02:44
I was terrified; I really thought I was going to get an eviction notice,
51
164393
3462
02:47
which really was the last thing we needed, right?
52
167879
2310
02:50
I must have caught him on a good day, though,
53
170213
2128
02:52
because when I told him what we were doing
54
172365
2016
02:54
and how we started our nonprofit urban beekeeping laboratory,
55
174405
2884
02:57
he said, "That's great! Let's get a beehive in the back alley."
56
177313
3899
03:01
I was shocked.
57
181236
1385
03:02
I was completely surprised.
58
182645
1798
03:04
I mean, instead of getting an eviction notice,
59
184467
2167
03:06
we got another data point.
60
186658
1684
03:08
And in the back alley of this image,
61
188366
2325
03:10
what you see here, this hidden beehive --
62
190715
2605
03:13
that beehive produced more honey that first year
63
193344
2570
03:15
than we have ever experienced in any beehive we had managed.
64
195938
3158
03:19
It shifted our research perspective forever.
65
199120
2624
03:21
It changed our research question away from "How do we save the dead and dying bees?"
66
201768
4867
03:26
to "Where are bees doing best?"
67
206659
2319
03:29
And we started to be able to put maps together,
68
209002
2939
03:31
looking at all of these citizen science beehives
69
211965
2322
03:34
from people who had beehives at home decks,
70
214311
2428
03:36
gardens, business rooftops.
71
216763
2077
03:38
We started to engage the public,
72
218864
1570
03:40
and the more people who got these little data points,
73
220458
2587
03:43
the more accurate our maps became.
74
223069
1653
03:44
And so when you're sitting here thinking, "How can I get involved?"
75
224746
3175
03:47
you might think about a story of my friend Fred,
76
227945
2269
03:50
who's a commercial real estate developer.
77
230238
1985
03:52
He was thinking the same thing.
78
232247
2076
03:54
He was at a meeting,
79
234347
1389
03:55
thinking about what he could do for tenant relations
80
235760
2550
03:58
and sustainability at scale.
81
238334
1809
04:00
And while he was having a tea break,
82
240167
1746
04:01
he put honey into his tea and noticed on the honey jar
83
241937
3164
04:05
a message about corporate sustainability from the host company of that meeting.
84
245125
3808
04:08
And it sparked an idea.
85
248957
1970
04:10
He came back to his office.
86
250951
1663
04:12
An email, a phone call later, and -- boom! --
87
252638
3294
04:15
we went national together.
88
255956
1957
04:18
We put dozens of beehives on the rooftops of their skyscrapers
89
258322
3270
04:21
across nine cities nationwide.
90
261616
2989
04:24
Nine years later --
91
264629
1306
04:25
(Applause)
92
265959
5757
04:31
Nine years later, we have raised over a million dollars for bee research.
93
271740
4814
04:36
We have a thousand beehives as little data points across the country,
94
276578
5161
04:41
18 states and counting,
95
281763
1389
04:43
where we have created paying jobs for local beekeepers, 65 of them,
96
283176
4282
04:47
to manage beehives in their own communities,
97
287482
2730
04:50
to connect with people, everyday people,
98
290236
2817
04:53
who are now data points together making a difference.
99
293077
4280
04:57
So in order to explain what's actually been saving bees,
100
297866
2621
05:00
where they're thriving,
101
300511
1162
05:01
I need to first tell you what's been killing them.
102
301697
2427
05:04
The top three killers of bees
103
304148
1880
05:06
are agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides;
104
306052
3869
05:09
diseases of bees, of which there are many;
105
309945
2373
05:12
and habitat loss.
106
312342
1536
05:13
So what we did is we looked on our maps
107
313902
2071
05:15
and we identified areas where bees were thriving.
108
315997
2362
05:18
This was mostly in cities, we found.
109
318383
2766
05:21
Data are now showing that urban beehives produce more honey
110
321173
2955
05:24
than rural beehives and suburban beehives.
111
324152
2661
05:26
Urban beehives have a longer life span than rural and suburban beehives,
112
326837
4921
05:31
and bees in the city are more biodiverse;
113
331782
2413
05:34
there are more bee species in urban areas.
114
334219
2743
05:36
(Laughter)
115
336986
1451
05:38
Right?
116
338461
1239
05:39
Why is this?
117
339724
1324
05:41
That was our question.
118
341711
1300
05:43
So we started with these three killers of bees,
119
343035
2208
05:45
and we flipped it:
120
345267
1155
05:46
Which of these is different in the cities?
121
346446
2135
05:48
So the first one, pesticides.
122
348605
1546
05:50
We partnered up with the Harvard School of Public Health.
123
350175
2678
05:52
We shared our data with them.
124
352877
1493
05:54
We collected samples from our citizen science beehives
125
354394
2582
05:57
at people's homes and business rooftops.
126
357000
1946
05:58
We looked at pesticide levels.
127
358970
1447
06:00
We thought there would be less pesticides in areas where bees are doing better.
128
360441
3802
06:04
That's not the case.
129
364267
1163
06:05
So what we found here in our study is -- the orange bars are Boston,
130
365454
4050
06:09
and we thought those bars would be the lowest,
131
369528
2255
06:11
there would be the lowest levels of pesticides.
132
371807
2234
06:14
And, in fact, there are the most pesticides in cities.
133
374065
4009
06:18
So the pesticide hypothesis for what's saving bees --
134
378599
2762
06:21
less pesticides in cities --
135
381385
1399
06:22
is not it.
136
382808
1405
06:24
And this is very typical of my life as a scientist.
137
384237
3870
06:28
Anytime I've had a hypothesis,
138
388131
1890
06:30
not only is it not supported, but the opposite is true.
139
390045
3320
06:33
(Laughter)
140
393389
1021
06:34
Which is still an interesting finding, right?
141
394434
2135
06:36
We moved on.
142
396593
1160
06:37
The disease hypothesis.
143
397777
1174
06:38
We looked at diseases all over our beehives.
144
398975
2295
06:41
And what we found in a similar study to this one with North Carolina State is:
145
401294
4113
06:45
there's no difference between disease in bees
146
405431
2126
06:47
in urban, suburban and rural areas.
147
407581
1751
06:49
Diseases are everywhere; bees are sick and dying.
148
409356
2602
06:51
In fact, there were more diseases of bees in cities.
149
411982
2466
06:54
This was from Raleigh, North Carolina.
150
414472
2032
06:56
So again, my hypothesis was not supported. The opposite was true.
151
416528
3987
07:00
We're moving on.
152
420539
1449
07:02
(Laughter)
153
422012
2258
07:04
The habitat hypothesis.
154
424294
2094
07:06
This said that areas where bees are thriving have a better habitat --
155
426412
3651
07:10
more flowers, right?
156
430087
1615
07:11
But we didn't know how to test this.
157
431726
1798
07:13
So I had a really interesting meeting.
158
433548
2060
07:15
An idea sparked with my friend and colleague Anne Madden,
159
435632
3117
07:18
fellow TED speaker.
160
438773
1183
07:19
We thought about genomics, kind of like AncestryDNA or 23andMe.
161
439980
4652
07:24
Have you done these?
162
444656
1335
07:26
You spit in a tube and you find out, "I'm German!"
163
446015
2636
07:28
(Laughter)
164
448675
1103
07:29
Well, we developed this for honey.
165
449802
1849
07:31
So we have a sample of honey and we look at all the plant DNA,
166
451675
3546
07:35
and we find out, "I'm sumac!"
167
455245
1845
07:37
(Laughter)
168
457114
1270
07:38
And that's what we found here in Provincetown.
169
458408
2384
07:40
So for the first time ever, I'm able to report to you
170
460816
2539
07:43
what type of honey is from right here in our own community.
171
463379
2790
07:46
HoneyDNA, a genomics test.
172
466193
2433
07:48
Spring honey in Provincetown is from privet.
173
468650
2636
07:51
What's privet? Hedges.
174
471310
2371
07:53
What's the message?
175
473705
1155
07:54
Don't trim your hedges to save the bees.
176
474884
2572
07:57
(Laughter)
177
477480
1110
07:58
I know we're getting crunchy and it's controversial,
178
478614
2448
08:01
so before you throw your tomatoes,
179
481086
1626
08:02
we'll move to the summer honey, which is water lily honey.
180
482736
2736
08:05
If you have honey from Provincetown right here in the summer,
181
485496
2880
08:08
you're eating water lily juice;
182
488400
1769
08:10
in the fall, sumac honey.
183
490193
2415
08:12
We're learning about our food for the first time ever.
184
492632
3149
08:15
And now we're able to report, if you need to do any city planning:
185
495805
3480
08:19
What are good things to plant?
186
499309
1703
08:21
What do we know the bees are going to that's good for your garden?
187
501036
3883
08:24
For the first time ever for any community, we now know this answer.
188
504943
3324
08:28
What's more interesting for us is deeper in the data.
189
508291
3382
08:31
So, if you're from the Caribbean and you want to explore your heritage,
190
511697
3366
08:35
Bahamian honey is from the laurel family,
191
515087
2714
08:37
cinnamon and avocado flavors.
192
517825
2635
08:40
But what's more interesting is 85 different plant species
193
520484
2948
08:43
in one teaspoon of honey.
194
523456
1666
08:45
That's the measure we want, the big data.
195
525146
2511
08:47
Indian honey: that is oak.
196
527681
2975
08:50
Every sample we've tested from India is oak,
197
530680
2454
08:53
and that's 172 different flavors in one taste of Indian honey.
198
533158
4453
08:57
Provincetown honey goes from 116 plants in the spring
199
537635
3550
09:01
to over 200 plants in the summer.
200
541209
2941
09:04
These are the numbers that we need to test the habitat hypothesis.
201
544174
3448
09:07
In another citizen science approach,
202
547646
1749
09:09
you find out about your food and we get some interesting data.
203
549419
3268
09:12
We're finding out now that in rural areas,
204
552711
2234
09:14
there are 150 plants on average in a sample of honey.
205
554969
3511
09:18
That's a measure for rural.
206
558504
1520
09:20
Suburban areas, what might you think?
207
560048
2066
09:22
Do they have less or more plants in suburban areas with lawns
208
562138
4130
09:26
that look nice for people but they're terrible for pollinators?
209
566292
4010
09:30
Suburbs have very low plant diversity,
210
570326
2590
09:32
so if you have a beautiful lawn,
211
572940
1879
09:34
good for you, but you can do more.
212
574843
2979
09:37
You can have a patch of your lawn that's a wildflower meadow
213
577846
3112
09:40
to diversify your habitat,
214
580982
1432
09:42
to improve pollinator health.
215
582438
2221
09:44
Anybody can do this.
216
584683
1914
09:46
Urban areas have the most habitat, best habitat,
217
586621
4093
09:50
as you can see here: over 200 different plants.
218
590738
2558
09:53
We have, for the first time ever, support for the habitat hypothesis.
219
593320
3580
09:57
We also now know how we can work with cities.
220
597407
3223
10:00
The City of Boston has eight times better habitat
221
600654
2405
10:03
than its nearby suburbs.
222
603083
1310
10:04
And so when we work with governments, we can scale this.
223
604417
3754
10:08
You might think on my tombstone, it'll say,
224
608195
2009
10:10
"Here lies Noah. Plant a flower." Right?
225
610228
2337
10:12
I mean -- it's exhausting after all of this.
226
612589
3126
10:16
But when we scale together,
227
616255
1633
10:17
when we go to governments and city planners --
228
617912
2195
10:20
like in Boston, the honey is mostly linden trees,
229
620131
2326
10:22
and we say, "If a dead tree needs to be replaced, consider linden."
230
622481
3426
10:25
When we take this information to governments, we can do amazing things.
231
625931
3421
10:29
This is a rooftop from Fred's company.
232
629376
1849
10:31
We can plant those things on top of rooftops worldwide
233
631249
3714
10:34
to start restoring habitat and securing food systems.
234
634987
3061
10:38
We've worked with the World Bank
235
638072
1532
10:39
and the presidential delegation from the country of Haiti.
236
639628
2742
10:42
We've worked with wonderful graduate students at Yale University and Ethiopia.
237
642394
3754
10:46
In these countries, we can add value to their honey
238
646172
2413
10:48
by identifying what it is,
239
648609
1272
10:49
but informing the people of what to plant
240
649905
1988
10:51
to restore their habitat and secure their food systems.
241
651917
3182
10:55
But what I think is even more important is when we think about natural disasters.
242
655123
3868
10:59
For the first time,
243
659015
1151
11:00
we now know how we can have a baseline measure of any habitat
244
660190
3052
11:03
before it might be destroyed.
245
663266
1992
11:05
Think about your hometown.
246
665282
1677
11:06
What risks does the environment pose to it?
247
666983
3427
11:10
This is how we're going to save Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
248
670434
3519
11:14
We now have a baseline measure of honey,
249
674541
2849
11:17
honey DNA from before and after the storm.
250
677414
2755
11:20
We started in Humacao.
251
680193
2010
11:22
This is right where Hurricane Maria made landfall.
252
682227
2523
11:24
And we know what plants to replace and in what quantity and where
253
684774
3809
11:28
by triangulating honey DNA samples.
254
688607
2815
11:32
You might even think about right here,
255
692112
2000
11:34
the beautiful land that connected us, that primed us,
256
694136
2667
11:36
all the citizen science to begin with,
257
696827
1867
11:38
the erosion, the winter storms
258
698718
2149
11:40
that are getting more violent every year.
259
700891
2254
11:43
What are we going to do about this,
260
703169
1875
11:45
our precious land?
261
705068
1779
11:46
Well, looking at honey DNA,
262
706871
1339
11:48
we can see what plants are good for pollinators that have deep roots,
263
708234
3300
11:51
that can secure the land,
264
711558
1811
11:53
and together, everybody can participate.
265
713393
2209
11:55
And the solution fits in a teaspoon.
266
715626
2366
11:58
If your hometown might get swept away or destroyed by a natural disaster,
267
718506
4794
12:03
we now have a blueprint suspended in time
268
723324
3297
12:06
for how to restore that on Earth,
269
726645
2528
12:09
or perhaps even in a greenhouse on Mars.
270
729197
4193
12:14
I know it sounds crazy, but think about this:
271
734025
3495
12:17
a new Provincetown,
272
737544
1833
12:19
a new hometown,
273
739401
1642
12:21
a place that might be familiar that's also good for pollinators
274
741067
3478
12:24
for a stable food system,
275
744569
1364
12:25
when we're thinking about the future.
276
745957
2051
12:29
Now, together, we know what's saving bees --
277
749230
3292
12:32
by planting diverse habitat.
278
752546
1738
12:34
Now, together, we know how bees are going to save us --
279
754741
4115
12:38
by being barometers for environmental health,
280
758880
3181
12:42
by being blueprints, sources of information,
281
762085
2675
12:44
little data factories suspended in time.
282
764784
2829
12:48
Thank you.
283
768148
1165
12:49
(Applause)
284
769337
3713
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7