Beekeeping For Beginners: 8 Nov 2011

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Central Beekeepers Alliance : The Hidden Beauty of Pollination

Posted: 07 Nov 2011 07:06 AM PST

Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg has spent 35 years watching the natural world through a camera. His film Wings of Life, inspired by the plight of the honeybee, is a remarkable celebration of pollination and the tiny pollinators who keep our world alive:

Rarely seen by the naked eye, this intersection between the animal world and the plant world is truly a magic moment. It’s the mystical moment where life regenerates itself, over and over again.

Here, from his presentation, recorded March 2011 at TED2011 in Long Beach, California, Schwartzberg presents some of the his film’s extraordinaryhigh-speed images of pollinators in action:

If you’d like to watch at full screen size — highly recommended! — just click on the icon in the upper-right of the embedded video player.

(Note: If you’re reading this in an email and can’t see the video player, please visit http://cba.stonehavenlife.com/2011/11/schwartzberg-pollination-film on the Central Beekeepers Alliance website.)

From the filmmaker’s introduction:

Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with. Their relationship is a love story that feeds the Earth. It reminds us that we are a part of nature, and we’re not separate from it.

When I heard about the vanishing bees, Colony Collapse Disorder, it motivated me to take action. We depend on pollinators for over a third of the fruits and vegetables we eat. And many scientists believe it’s the most serious issue facing mankind. It’s like the canary in the coalmine. If they disappear, so do we. It reminds us that we are a part of nature and we need to take care of it.

You can learn more about Louie Schwartzberg and the film Wings of Life at www.MovingArt.tv.