Sweet Smell of Flowers Is Being Polluted
[Quote:]
Air pollution is killing the smell of flowers, possibly eliminating the “scent trail” that helps guide those terribly important pollinators, like bees, to the plants that depend upon them for survival, scientists believe.
The discovery could be one of several factors in the “colony collapse disorder” that is wiping out honey bees around the world.
While it is still too soon to determine the full impact of air pollution on the symbiotic relationship between insects and the flowers they pollinate, researchers at the University of Virginia are confident they have shown that pollutants are killing the scent trail, and that could turn out to be extremely significant.
[Quote:]
The flowers are losing their scent
The buzz of bees is diminishing
The stock of the forest is spent
The banquet of fish is finishing
The glaciers are melting and dying
The frogs are all covered in mould
The birds have given up flying
The soil’s become sterile and old
Every colourful creature that flew or that crept
Will disappear utterly. Nobody wept
At their fading; no-one will notice until
Every path, every road grows silent and still
If you dwell on the scene, you’ll see the decay:
So put the pleasure back into driving by purchasing a new H2 Hummer today.