Buzz Buzz... "The Plight of the Honeybee"

In a previous week's edition of TIME Magazine, they showcased a story about the dwindling honeybee population. Initially, my thought was that it wasn't a big deal; it was just another specifies that was on its way to extinction. What makes the honeybee so special? Yeah, bees pollinate fields and help the expansion of crops, but I didn't realize how much they influenced the economic status of our agriculture.

The fact of the matter is that the decline in amount of honeybees could severely affect our planet, leaving "the planet poorer and hungrier." I don't understand how we, as intelligent creatures, can't find an alternative to our honeybee pollinators. I do however understand the implications of the diminishing honeybee population. We don't know why they're disappearing, but we assume it's something that humans are causing. If this is the case and our actions are killing off other species, then we really could have a massive issue to deal with in the near future.

One theory behind the honeybee disappearance is the fact that they're not native to the US and we're destroying the habitat that they need to severe. We keep advancing as a species, which means industrialization of previously natural areas. In the scenario that we're merely taking away the honeybee habitat, we will most definitely be doing similar damage to many other species. The underlying issue here is that humans have taken over the entire planet and declared it ours. Since we're the most advanced and arguably the most developed, we've granted ourselves the executive right to do with this planet as we choose. 

This idea that we're the dominant species and do whatever we want (more or less) with the planet is ethically unfair. Under what authority do we, as humans, have to claim the earth as ours to rule and make executive decisions for? I guess one could pull from a religious (specifically Christian) arsenal and say that when God created the earth, He created man in order to take care of the earth and all living creatures inside it. Assuming you're one who accepts Scripture as infallible truth, then this is enough for you; however, if you're not quite convinced, we must propose another hypothesis for the origin of our Earth-managing authority. I have not been able to think of another argument to validate our domination of this planet, besides the fact that over time we have grown as a species and populated the entire world and industrialized much of it as we have grown.

To re-address what I mean by "ethically unfair," I would like to provide the following. According to Dictionary.com, ethics are the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc. Also, unfair can be defined as disproportionate; undue; beyond what is proper or fitting. Based upon these definitions, "ethically unfair" would mean that based on humans' commonly accepted code of conduct, our actions are directly or indirectly affecting another group in such as way that is undeserved.

In the case that the human action is the reason why honeybees are diminishing, it is our responsibility to avoid this from continuing. What this exactly entails, I do not know. Regardless of the solution to this problem, the fact of the matter is we rely on each other for survival. This is something that we cannot afford to forget.