Four Million Enthusiasts Are Rallying Obama To Save The Bees

When you're trying to save our planet's ecological health, don't forget the little guys. Four million people have signed a petition to rally the White House to protect bees and other pollinators. On March 4, hundreds of beekeepers, farmers, business leaders, environmental, and food safety advocates lined up in front of the White House to call President Obama's attention to the issue. What do they want? Bees are rapidly dying, and protestors demanded that decisive measures be taken to reduce effects of toxic insecticides that are driving bee populations down, according to Friends of the Earth.

"America's beekeepers cannot easily survive in the toxic environment the EPA has supported," Roger Williams, president of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association, said at the rally. "On top of many other stresses, bee-toxic pesticides, whether used to coat seeds or as sprays, are weakening and killing our bees and threatening the livelihood of the beekeepers who are so intimately tied to our nation's food supply."

The letter, that represents the urgent requests of more than 128 beekeepers and environmental enthusiasts, asks for research into, and eventually suspension of the insecticides that have been specifically harmful to bees. Bees, in case you were asleep during elementary science classes, essentially aid the reproductive plant cycle through pollination, and without them, many crops would disappear.