With our planet’s environmental crisis reaching critical status, just looking at the news or doing a quick Google search can make it feel as if you’ve landed yourself a starring role in The Day After Tomorrow.

But despite the overwhelming evidence, some people (ahem, politicians) are failing to treat climate change with the seriousness it deserves. And this is something which letterbox flower delivery service Bloom & Wild has decided to address with a series of hauntingly eerie pictures of what London would look like if bees became extinct. 

As a major player in the florist industry, the decline of many populations of bees and pollinators in the UK is a major issue to Bloom & Wild, and one which the company is keen to educate others on, too.

Bees have a huge effect on our environment, and the way our society functions. Their pollination is responsible for the way we grow food, affecting 35% of global agricultural land and particularly the success of the UK’s food industry. As well as assisting the growing of crops for food, bees are also important for pollinating plants which are used to feed livestock.

However, our supermarket shelves wouldn’t be the only things impacted by the decline of bees. In fact, we would – whether we’re based in the city or the countryside – also see a physical change in the world around us if bees were to become extinct.

Without bees, Hyde Park’s Serpentine would look considerably more grey, with no greenery or trees to frame it, as you can see in the interactive picture below. Even worse? Our air would be far dirtier, as there wouldn’t be any plants to clean it for us. Drag the arrows across to see how it changes.

Kew Garden, one of London’s most glorious green spaces, filled with hundreds of types of flowers and plant life, wouldn’t be able to grow its incredible floral designs without the help of bees.

The vivid colours which we currently know flowers for could drastically change without bees to pollinate them. 

As Caroline, lead florist at Bloom & Wild, says: “It’s surprising to think how huge an impact bees have on our health and wellbeing. From the crops that everyone needs for nutrition to the flower arrangements that we create at Bloom & Wild to bring joy to our customers, their role is vital.

“Bees are a key part of our ecosystem which need to be protected.”

If this article has inspired you to* help protect bees yourself, then check out these three easy things you can do to save the bees below:

1. Plant things that bees like

Encourage bees into your garden by planting flowers that bees like, creating a safe space for them. Some of the best plants, flowers and herbs you can try are clover, lavender, bee balm, buttercup and oregano. 

2. Buy your bees a home

As well as creating a lovely garden for your local bees to enjoy, you can go one step further and set up an actual bee home for them. Honey bees live in the waxy hives most of us are familiar with, but solitary or colony bees make their homes in pretty much anything from a piece of log to an old animals home. 

3. Support local beekeepers 

Small, independent beekeepers do an important job in protecting bees because they support and encourage the growth of a hive, creating a safe environment for them to thrive. Most people buy their honey from big, well-known brand names at the supermarket, but if you have a local beekeeper that you can buy from, do that instead.

You can see the full series of images on the Bloom & Wild website here. 

Images: Bloom & Wild / Lea Fabienne