What happens when the bees die?

Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!” He wasn’t an entomologist, but entomologists around today agree that the sudden and mysterious disappearance of bees from their hives poses serious problems!

Bits and pieces of information about farmers’ concerns for bee disappearance (or colony collapse disorder) in 24 states around the U.S. have bubbled up to the surface, over the last year and a half, but hardly any large-scale media attention has been drawn to this potentially serious problem. Recently bees have gone missing from hives around Europe as well. The East Coast of the U.S. is reporting a 70% loss in commercial bee hive habitation, the West Coast 60%; these figures are staggering.

An article in The Independent discusses a theory that cell phone radiation seriously interferes with bees’ ability to navigate through the air. Regardless of the cause, the implications of this phenomenon are enormous – and it is alarming how rapidly this is occurring. From a NYT article on 2/27/07: “…one study says that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in US, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts.”

Short answer:

Bees allow pollen to get from one plant to another so that the plants can reproduce and more new plants can be formed. If bees died, they would be a great decrease in pollination (pollen can still travel with the wind) and plants might die off, which would mean animals would die because they eat plants and fruits and so would we because we eat plants and fruit and some of us eat animals.

"Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!” He wasn’t an entomologist, but entomologists around today agree that the sudden and mysterious disappearance of bees from their hives poses serious problems!"

Einstein never said this. Sorry.

I agree with the rest of the answer though, but I had to correct that fake citation that's been floating around the internet for far too long now.

Although bees and other insects aren't necessary for many plants and flowers, most of the plants we eat do need them and thus without them it's going to be more difficult to regrow them.

Yes it would **** up the whole ecosystem and flowers would cease to exist