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Colony collapse disorder (CCD), a name coined in 2006, describes a honeybee colony that has lost the vast majority of its worker bees, with only a queen, nurse bees and immature bees remaining. If CCD continues, it could be more than solely an animal ethics issue, but might be disastrous for us too: bees are workers who provide us with hundreds of billions of dollars in labour. We rely on honeybees for the fertilisation of some of our most vital crops. The Death of Bees Explained is an unsettling look at the factors that scientists believe might lead to CCD, and the gloomy future humanity could face if we can’t curb the damage soon.
Video by Kurzgesagt
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Nature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
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Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
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Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
13 minutes
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Fairness and equality
There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa
10 minutes
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Biology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes