Stop and smell the flowers
15th, April 2008
One more reason why pollution is bad: it’s destroying the fresh scent of flowers before they’ve had the chance to spread into the surrounding environment. The problem isn’t just that we like to smell pretty flowers. Without a strong scent, bees and other pollinating insects can’t find the flowers to eat the nectar. This kills the insects and stops the flowers from getting fertilised. Scientists believe that 200 years ago, scent molecules could travel around 1,000 metres. In today’s polluted air, it’s lucky to make it 300 metres.
