8.21.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Radioized Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader's
Kelly Taylor. I'll have some articles related to the topics
of science and nature. But first a reminder that RADIOI
is a reading service intended for people who are blind
or have other disabilities that make it difficult to reprint
in material. First up today we'll go to BBC Science

(00:25):
Focus magazine and this article is headlined Hope is not
Lost for the humble honeybee. When I started studying honeybees
in nineteen ninety eight, I quickly noticed just how much
people love them. I also realized that people's knowledge rarely
extended beyond bees make honey and they live in hives.

(00:47):
Sometimes there would be mentioned of bees wax or queen bees,
but in general love for these insects was based on
surface knowledge and cultural links, very often Winnie the Pooh.
Over the next ten years or so, I know, notice
things changed. Pollination became something people started to recognize and
care about. Suddenly bees were essential for our food production.

(01:10):
Then disaster struck around two thousand and seven. The first
reports of mysterious mass disappearances of honeybees, especially in the US,
started to appear in the world's news Colony collapse Disorder
CCD was at the forefront of people's minds, and doom
mongers everywhere predicted a world without honeybees. The BBC's long

(01:32):
running sci fi show Doctor Who even did a story
about it. We would The headlines seemed to scream all
starved to death. It seems the pattern is destined to
repeat itself. Almost two decades on from CCD, the headlines
are full of honeybees quote. Millions of honeybees are dying
and no one is sure why, said the UK's Independent

(01:54):
in April, reporting on sixty seventy percent losses to US
beekeepers the year and fifty five percent losses last year.
Top beekeepers in the US are warning of a death spiral,
according to The Guardian, and the Trump administration's withdrawal of
funding for research programs is only adding to concerns. But

(02:15):
here's the thing. Most of the panic simply doesn't hold up.
Top insect experts agree the issue is overblown and often misunderstood.
To understand the current problem, we have to revisit the
mid two thousands and CCD. During this time, beekeepers witnessed
the majority of worker bees disappearing from hives, leaving the

(02:36):
queen her eggs and larvae and just a few remaining
bees to care for them. Although colony collapses in the
US attracted the most press attention, the phenomenon was reported
throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. We still don't know for
sure what caused CCD. It was likely a combination of factors,
with disease, habitat loss, pesticide use, and intensive management by

(03:00):
beekeepers all potentially playing their part. What we do know, though,
is that disappearances like this aren't new. Beekeepers have documented
numerous similar events in the past, referring to them by
various names such as may disease and fall duint built disease,

(03:21):
among others. This time around, the cause of the problem
is less mysterious than CCD. Early research strongly suggests that
honeybees are dying of a virus transmitted by the varroa
mite it lives on honeybees. The mites are known to
cause harm and transmit disease, but they can usually be

(03:42):
controlled with chemicals. What appears to have happened recently is
that the mites have evolved resistance to these chemicals. This
scenario probably sounds familiar. The evolution of resistance is almost inevitable,
whether we're killing off plant and insect pests in crop fields,
using antibiotics against bacteria, or treating cancer. When we use

(04:05):
a particular agent like a pesticide time and time again,
genetic differences in the pests mean that eventually some of
them may be able to resist that agent better than others.
If these individuals survive and reproduce, then their offspring can
inherit their parents' resistance. Pesticide and herbicide resistance has become

(04:26):
a defining feature of modern farming, and it's the farming itself,
not just the chemicals, that's central to understanding what's happening
to honeybees. Globally, the overwhelming majority of honeybees live in
hives artificial nest cavities we provide for them. This way,
the bees live under semi natural conditions, allowing us to

(04:48):
easily relocate them and harvest the honey they produce. In
the UK, we tend to think of honey bee keeping
as a hobby, but around the world there are bee
keeping operations, may managing thousands or even tens of thousands
of hives. Commercial beekeeping is a highly technical and intensive
farming process involving artificial insemination, requeening of hives, feeding, moving

(05:14):
to nectar sources, artificial hibernation, conditions, and disease prevention and treatment,
often on an epic scale. There are some wild colonies,
but in the modern world the honeybe is very much
a farmed species. Headlines might shout about honeybee dieoffs, but
the numbers show otherwise. In twenty twenty three, the Food

(05:38):
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that honeybee
colonies had increased globally by forty five percent since nineteen ninety,
despite the effects of CCD. Another study showed an eighty
five percent increase since nineteen sixty. It's probably true to
say that there have never been more honeybee in the

(06:00):
world than there are today, and that's likely to be
true tomorrow too. Despite the challenges, beekeepers can recover numbers
and build up colonies, just like crop farmers recover from
bad harvests. Our deep cultural association with the honey bee
makes them one of the few popular insects. People care
about them, and stories of their decline resonate. Hearing the headlines,

(06:24):
people have naturally asked what can I do to help?
For many, the obvious answer is I'll become a beekeeper.
But to paraphrase well known bee expert Professor Dave Gulsen,
if you hear about declines in songbirds, do you think
about becoming a chicken farmer. These declines won't be addressed
by amateurs keeping honey bees. In fact, if you are

(06:45):
successful in keeping honey bees and it's harder than you imagine,
then they'll out compete wild species for nectar and potentially
infect wild bees with diseases. By trying to save the bees,
you might well do the opposite. So honeybees aren't the
problem here. They're having a few health problems, as is

(07:06):
common in farmed species, but they don't need your help.
Recent media attention around CCD has had a knock on effect.
It's led to a growing narrative that other pollinators are
declining too. Solitary bees, hoverflies, wasps, and butterflies have started
to gain popularity as people realize that they are also

(07:27):
essential pollinators. As these stories get more widely reported, they
become entwined with a growing bigger picture of more general
insect decline. In the UK, forty two percent of pollinator
species have become less widespread since the nineteen eighties. Despite
some insects faring better and local and short term variation,

(07:50):
the overall trend for pollinators is downwards. How can you
help these wild pollinators? If you have a garden or
any land you have some stewardship over, perhaps even a
patch at work, then you can make it an insect haven.
Growing plants that provide nectar and pollen is one of
the best things you can do. There are so many

(08:10):
species to choose from fruit trees, lavender, and more. Nectar
plant lists are widely available online from wildlife trusts, the
Royal Horticultural Society and others. You can also resist the
temptation to mow your lawn too often. Make sure you
avoid pesticides and leave some areas untamed. Bug hotels can

(08:32):
be effective, but it's just as good to leave dead wood,
clippings and other garden mess in a corner somewhere to
provide shelter and potential nesting sites. Another great thing to
do is to dig upon lay some sticks down the
sides so that thirsty insects can drink safely on warm days.
Honey bees get all the attention but it isn't them

(08:53):
that need our help. If you really want to save
the bees, then don't become a beekeeper, become an insect cheerleader.
And now we're going to turn to the Washington Post.
This article from August nineteenth is city food forests offer
a chance to experience nature and eat it. Dawn Taft

(09:15):
reached into a tangle of leafy branches, the top half
of her body largely disappearing from view. Oh my god,
pau Paus Taft explained, exclaimed, holding back large canoe shaped
leaves to reveal a cluster of smooth, light green fruit.
The tree bearing North America's largest native fruit, is one

(09:35):
of more than a dozen edible plants flourishing in a
roughly eighty six hundred square foot plot sandwiched between homes
and an auto repair shop. The space in Hyattsville, Maryland,
was converted from two empty residential lots about a decade ago.
It's now a well established food forest, like a community garden,

(09:56):
but featuring food bearing trees and shrubs, and intended to
to mimic the natural ecosystem. It provides residents with a
chance to harvest fresh, free produce and to connect with nature,
said Taft, the city's environmental programs manager and arborist. Quote,
when you live in a city, you sometimes don't get

(10:16):
to experience the forest or appreciate that the things you
buy from a grocery store were grown somewhere else. She says,
that's a really cool piece of what this place offers.
Food forest projects have been taking root in multiple US
cities in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle, and elsewhere. Groups

(10:37):
have partnered with local communities to cultivate layers of edible
plants on public parkland, in empty lots, and along road sides.
They're champions say that in addition to food, these forests
offer a host of climate and environmental benefits. Quote it's
the most hopeful form of land management that I've heard about,
said Lincoln Smith, founder of Forested. A ten acre experimental

(11:01):
forest garden in Buie, Maryland, just down the road from
a private golf course. Beyond a gate made of rough
hewn branches and chicken wire lies a dense thicket of trees.
A rustic fence obscured by greenery keeps deer from gorging
on the smorgus board of nuts, berries and other fruits.
And edible plants growing in Smith's forest garden. Quote it

(11:24):
is pretty wild, but it's actually pretty organized, too, said Smith,
a landscape architect by training who has designed urban food
forests for neighboring cities, including the one on Emerson Street
in Hyattsville, Maryland. Quote your targeting different crops and trying
to balance ecosystem restoration and food production, which I think

(11:45):
we can do in the same piece of ground. He added.
The property, which used to be a cornfield, is bursting
with native food bearing trees and shrubs, as well as
non native species that shouldn't count compete them. Some selections
attract pollinators or help put more nitrogen back into the soil.

(12:05):
Smith said he focuses on planting what naturally flourishes in
the area instead of trying to grow apple trees, which
don't always thrive in Maryland. He opted for per simons quote.
If it grows wildly without any help, you know it's
going to produce well for you. He said. He also
make sure to plant in multi layered arrangements, mimicking a

(12:26):
natural forest, but he cautioned creating a food forest isn't
just about the plants. Quote. Some of my early mistakes
in designing these spaces were just getting really excited about
all the plants and then forgetting to leave any access
for people, he said. Now grassy pathways, snake passed, leafy oaks,
per semon pau paul and native chickasaw, plum trees, and

(12:52):
mulberry and blueberry plants. While the vegetation is dense, there
are intentional sight lines that allow people roaming the forest
to see through the lush trees and shrubs. Similar principles
can be used to design food forests in more urban areas.
In Hyattsville, Smith designed in open space with wide paths,

(13:13):
creating clear sightlines and multiple ways to enter. Visitors can
take a break on benches scattered around the garden or
seek shade under a pavilion. Much of the food forests
offerings are widely recognizable pears, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, figs, pomegranates, walnuts,
and pecans. Quote. I have a bit of a bias

(13:37):
toward things that can be enjoyed raw for the urban
food forests, he said, adding that he tends to choose
plants bearing fruits and nuts that people generally know are
safe to eat. On a recent August morning, Alden Kendall
and his two year old son explored the Emerson Street
food Forest together, sampling beach plums and seed kale. Quote.

(13:59):
We're going to come back pretty regularly, said Kendall, forty
years old, a resident of New Carrollton, who hadn't been
to the edible forest before his son. He said, can
get to see things change over the seasons and can
gather things that were not able to grow outside ourselves.
Lisa Nelson, sixty one, who lives in Green Belt, stopped

(14:20):
by looking for figs and was excited to see that
trees and bushes were identified with small metal signs. QR
codes provide access to additional information about the plants, including
wind and want to harvest. Quote. I'm not seeing rotten
fruit on the ground, So there's evidence right there that
people are actually utilizing the space and it's getting better

(14:42):
and better, says Taft. The food forest's benefits can also
be gauged by the number of non human visitors. Small
butterflies and moths fluttered among the greenery, while birds chirped
from inside thick tree tops. Bumble bees and honey bees swarmed,
and anie hissop crawling all over the plants lavender stalks.

(15:05):
Beyond increasing people's access to fresh food and nature and
serving as wildlife habitats, these forest ecosystems can sequester carbon
and help improve water quality. According to the Forest Service quote,
you can see photos of this place from where it
was as a cornfield and know that runoff has been

(15:26):
drastically reduced and carbon is being accumulated in the soil.
Smith said of the Buoy food forest, there's been but
to start a food forest and keep it going requires
sustained attention. Smith said there's been a certain amount of
people online claiming zero maintenance, which is totally wrong. He said.

(15:47):
Even harvesting is a lot of work. Sometimes ten or
twelve people will spend a couple of hours processing acorns.
He said. Most recently, it took several people more than
an hour to pluck fox grapes off their stems. In Hyattsville.
Taff said cruise mow and weed the food forest every
two weeks for each piece of fruit. She took pleasure

(16:11):
in finding on that August morning there was an overgrown
plant aiming to be pruned or pulled that caught her eye.
Oh here's a weed, she said, bending down to pluck
the errant plant. I could spend a whole day here
and not be done. Now we have an article from
the Naples, Florida Daily News and the headline is who

(16:34):
is Taylor Stanbury Meet, the first woman to win Florida
Python Challenge. This is from August fourteenth, For the first time,
a woman won the Florida Python Challenge in July and
collected her ten thousand dollars reward this week. Where the
nine hundred people from thirty different states and even some
from Canada participated in the twenty twenty five Florida Python

(16:58):
Challenge last month, removing a record breaking number of two
hundred and ninety four invasive Burmese pythons in just ten days.
But there was one Florida native python hunter who removed
more of the gigantic snakes than anyone else who participated,
securing a ten thousand dollars prize that was awarded to
her by the FWC this week. Taylor Stanbury, who stands

(17:23):
at least at less than half the height of most
of the snakes she catches, pulled in a whopping sixty
pythons during the challenge. Here's what we know about Taylor
and what the Python Challenge is. If you aren't familiar,
we have a Q and A with the Florida Python
Challenge winner. How does the Florida Python Challenge work? The

(17:45):
Florida Python Challenge is one of many efforts the FWC
has in place to keep the python population in the
state as low as possible. It offers a cash prize
to the python hunter who removes the most pythons over
a ten day period. Although the event is usually held
in August, it was held in July this year and
included a broader range of hunting grounds this year. The

(18:07):
challenge began on Friday, July eleventh at twelve one am
and lasted through Sunday, July twentieth at five pm. Quote.
The event, hosted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
and the South Florida Water Management District, features an ultimate
grand prize of ten thousand dollars for the registered participant
who removes the most pythons. It's what it says on

(18:30):
the fwc's website. Quote. An exciting addition to this year's
event is the inclusion of Everglades National Park as one
of the eight official Florida Python Challenge competition locations quote
throughout the year Python Challenges more than a eleven hundred
Throughout the yearly Python Challenges, more than eleven hundred of

(18:52):
the invasive snakes have been removed. Last year's challenge alone
removed one hundred and ninety five invasive Burmese pythons. This year,
two hundred and ninety four snakes were removed. Taylor Stanbury,
a Naples native, was the twenty twenty five Florida Python
Challenge winner. She captured sixty of the invasive snakes, finding

(19:12):
thirty of those hatchlings in a single nest during one
night of the challenge. Stanbury told the Naples Daily News
that although she's been python hunting with her husband Rhett
for years, she has more than a decade of experience.
This was her first time participating in the challenge. The
biggest python Stanbury caught in this year's challenge was between

(19:34):
nine and a half and ten feet long, more than
double her height of four feet eleven inches. Don't worry,
She's aware that her height is one of the most
recognizable things about her. She's known to her almost sixty
nine thousand Instagram followers as Taylor Too Short. Stanbury said

(19:54):
that she also caught a twelve foot of the day
before the challenge kicked off, which obviously did not count
toward her to total of sixty since it was before
the official start of the challenge. Quote. I've been catching
pythons for over ten years. It's all about knowing what
areas to hunt, what habitat to look for, and just
putting in the time, Stanbury said. Some nights I go

(20:15):
out and won't find a single python. Then other nights
I find a nest of sixty babies. I would tell
newby hunters to just put in the time. I've heard
from some of them that they hunted for a few
hours and caught nothing. Stanbury is twenty nine years old
from Naples and the first woman to win the Florida

(20:35):
Python Challenge Grand Prize. She works at a Canon Canine
Physical Therapy Rehab Center, is a python contractor with the
FWC shown's a small Exotic Animal rescue, and posts online
about her adventures with her husband. It's the tune of
almost sixty nine thousand Instagram followers and two hundred twenty

(20:56):
seven thousand YouTube subscribers. I've been looking for wildlife since
I was a little kid, I used to go fishing
with my dad and we would catch toads and I
would bring them home and play with them. Stanbury said,
As I've gotten older, I've started traveling around the world
looking for wildlife, especially snakes, to video and photograph. She
told The Daily News that she plans to use the

(21:18):
prize money to expand her animals, enclosures, and pay for
gas to do more of what she does best, which
is python hunt. Since pythons are invasive and plentiful, you
don't need a license or permit to hunt them in Florida.
Hunting them in Florida is encouraged because Burmese pythons have
very few predators. That's why the f w C runs

(21:41):
the statewide Python Challenge to get the public involved in
the hunt for the massive invasive snakes. Although the chances
of completely eradicating pythons from South Florida are low, the
hunt helps control their numbers. Quote. Hunters, anglers, and outdoor
recreationists with experience removing pythons or other large constrictors from

(22:02):
the wild are encouraged to apply, with preference given to
Florida residents and military veterans. That is a quote from
the Fort Myers News Press last year. The FWC also
has a Python action team that hires contractors to kill
the invasive snakes. And now we'll turn to a story

(22:22):
from CBS News. Abrupt Antarctic climate shifts could lead to
catastrophic consequences for generations, experts warn this is Augustinia. Abrupt
and potentially irreversible changes in Antarctica driven by climate change
could lift global oceans by meters and lead to quote,

(22:45):
catastrophic consequences for generations in scientists warned on Wednesday. More broadly,
a state of knowledge review by a score of top
experts revealed accelerating shifts across the region that are often
both a cause and effect of global warming, according to
a study published in Nature, a peer reviewed international scientific journal.

(23:09):
The studies authors suggest that limiting CO two emissions and
in turn preventing global warming from exceeding at least one
point five degrees celsius quote will be imperative in quote
to reduce and prepare for the broad effects of abrupt
Antarctic and southern ocean changes. Quote. Antarctica is showing worrying

(23:33):
signs of rapid change across its ice, ocean and ecosystems,
says lead author and Australia National University professor Narrow Abram
told The Agent's France press quote, some of these abrupt
changes will be difficult to stop. Shifts in different facets

(23:54):
of Antarctica's climate system amplify each other and have accelerated
the pace of warming globally as well. Abram said. The
study looked at evidence of abrupt change or regime shifts
in sea ice, regional ocean currents, the continent's ice sheet
and ice shelves, and marine life that also examined how

(24:16):
they interact. Floating sea ice does not significantly add to
sea level when it melts, but its retreat does replace
white surfaces that reflect almost all of the Sun's energy
back into space with deep blue water, which absorbs the
same amount instead. Ninety percent of the heat generated by
man made global warming is soaked up by the oceans.

(24:39):
After increasing slightly during the first thirty five years that
satellite data was available, Antarctic sea ice cover plunged dramatically
over the last decade. Since twenty fourteen, sea ice has
retreated on average one hundred and twenty kilometers or roughly
seventy five miles from the continent's shoreline. That contraction has

(25:00):
happened about three times faster in ten years than the
decline in sea ice over nearly fifty By July twenty
twenty five, daily sea ice extent in both hemispheres was
at its third lowest in the forty seven year satellite record.
Data from NASA released in twenty twenty indicated that Antarctica

(25:22):
and Greenland had lost thousands of gigatons of ice between
two thousand three and twenty nineteen, indirectly contributing to more
than half an inch of overall sea level rise around
the world. Last September, scientists warned that the Antarctic ice sheet,
officially called the Thwayts Glacier, would deteriorate further and faster,

(25:45):
with the increased melting expected to trigger rising sea levels.
Research conducted by the International Thwats Glacier Collaboration, a collective
of more than one hundred scientists, found that the volume
of water flowing into the sea from the Thwaytes Glacier
and others nearby had doubled from the nineteen nineties to
the twenty tens. The overall evidence of a regime shift

(26:08):
in sea ice means that on current trends, Antarctica could
essentially become ice free in summer sooner than the Arctic.
The recent study published Wednesday in Nature found this will
speed up warming in the region and beyond, and could
push some marine species toward extinction. Experts worn over the
last two years. For example, helpless Emperor penguin chicks perished

(26:33):
at multiple breeding grounds, drowning or freezing to death when
sea ice gave way earlier than usual under their tiny feet.
Of five sites monitored in the Bellingshausen Sea in twenty
twenty three, all but one experienced a one hundred percent
loss of chicks. Earlier research reported unlike sea ice, ice

(26:56):
sheets and the ice shelves to which they are connected.
Of course, unlike sea ice excuse me, ice sheets and
ice shelves to which they are connected on are supported
by land. The world would need to heat up by
five degrees celsius compared with pre industrial levels to melt
the entire Antarctic ice sheet, which would lift global oceans

(27:19):
and almost unimaginable fifty eight meters or nearly two hundred feet.
Global warming to date on average about one point three
degrees celsius is fast approaching a threshold that would cause
part of the ice sheet to generate at least three
meters of sea level rise, flooding coastal areas inhabited today
by hundreds of millions. The study said, Well, that's offered

(27:43):
today's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor.
Now stay tuned for further programming on RADIOI