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BySethBorenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON Many spe- cies of wild bees, butter- flies and other critters that pollinate plants are shrink- ing toward extinction, and the world needs to do some- thing about it before our food supply suffers, a new United Nations scientific mega-report warns. The 20,000 or so species of pollinators are key to hundreds of billions of dol- lars' worth of crops each year — from fruits and veg- etables to coffee and choc- olate. Yet 2 out of 5 species of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are on the path toward ex- tinction, said the first-of- its-kind report. Pollinators with backbones, such as hummingbirds and bats, are only slightly better off, with 1 in 6 species facing extinction. "We are in a period of decline and there are go- ing to be increasing conse- quences," said report lead author Simon Potts, direc- tor of the Centre for Agri- Environmental Research at the University of Reading in England. And it's not just hon- eybees. In some aspects they're doing better than many of their wild coun- terparts, like the bumble- bee, despite dramatic long- term declines in the United States and a mysterious dis- order that has waned. The trouble is the re- port can't point to a sin- gle villain. Among the cul- prits: the way farming has changed so there's not enough diversity and wild flowers for pollinators to use as food; pesticide use, including a controversial one, neonicotinoid, that at- tacks the nervous system; habitat loss to cities; dis- ease, parasites and patho- gens; and global warming. The report is the result of more than two years of work by scientists across the globe who got together under several different U.N. agencies to come up with an assessment of Earth's biodiversity, starting with the pollinators. It's an ef- fort similar to what the United Nations has done with global warming, put- ting together an encyclope- dic report to tell world lead- ers what's happening and give them options for what can be done. The report, which draws from many scientific stud- ies but no new research, was approved by a con- gress of 124 nations meet- ing in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. "The variety and multi- plicity of threats to pollina- tors and pollination gener- ate risks to people and live- lihoods," the report stated. "These risks are largely driven by changes in land cover and agricultural man- agement systems, including pesticide use." But these are problems that can be fixed, and un- like global warming, the so- lutions don't require coun- tries to agree on global ac- tion — they can act locally, said Robert Watson, a top British ecological scientist and vice chairman of the scientific panel. The solu- tions offered mostly involve changing the way land and farming is managed. "There are relatively sim- ple, relatively inexpensive mechanisms for turning the trend around for native pol- linators," said David Inouye of the University of Mary- land, a co-author of a cou- ple chapters in the report. One of the biggest prob- lems, especially in the United States, is that gi- ant swaths of farmland are devoted to just one crop, and wildflowers are disap- pearing, Potts and others said. Wild pollinators espe- cially do well on grasslands, which are usually more than just grass, and 97 per- cent of Europe's grasslands have disappeared since World War II, Potts said. There are both general and specific problems with some pesticide use, accord- ing to the report. "Pesticides, particularly insecticides, have been demonstrated to have a broad range of lethal and sub-lethal effects on polli- nators in controlled exper- imental conditions," the re- port said. But it noted more study is needed on the ef- fects on pollinators in the wild. Herbicides kill off weeds, which are useful for wild pollinators, the report added. The report highlighted recent research that said the widely used insecticide neonicotinoid reduces wild bees' chances for survival and reproduction, but the evidence of effects on hon- eybees is conflicting. CROPS UNsciencereportwarnsof fewer bees, other pollinators ROBERTF.BUKATY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A bumblebee gathers nectar in Appleton, Maine. ORLIN WAGNER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FBI agents look at evidence along Hesston Road outside Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan.,on Friday. By Roxana Hegeman and Maria Fisher The Associated Press HESSTON, KAN. A man who stormed into a Kan- sas factory where he worked and shot 15 peo- ple, killing three, had just been served with a protec- tive order that probably set off the attack, authorities said Friday. The assault at the Ex- cel Industries lawnmower parts plant in the small town of Hesston ended when the police chief killed the gunman in a shootout. Harvey County Sher- iff T. Walton described the officer as a "tremen- dous hero" because 200 or 300 people were still in the factory and the "shooter wasn't done by any means." "Had that Hesston offi- cer not done what he did, this would be a whole lot more tragic," Walton said. The gunman was iden- tified as Cedric Ford, a 38-year-old plant worker who was armed with an assault rifle and a pistol. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said prelim- inary information in- dicated that the officer was Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder, who did not wait for backup and "seized the situation." Schroeder has been on the job since 1998, accord- ing to his LinkedIn profile. While driving to the factory, the gunman shot a man on the street, strik- ing him in the shoulder. A short time later, he shot someone else in the leg at an intersection, authori- ties said. The suspect shot one person in the factory park- ing lot before opening fire inside the building, the sheriff's department said in a news release. Ford had several con- victions in Florida over the last decade. His past offenses included bur- glary, grand theft, fleeing from an officer, aggravated fleeing and carrying a con- cealed weapon, all from Broward and Miami-Dade counties. According to the Wich- ita Eagle, Ford also had criminal cases in Harvey County, including a mis- demeanor conviction in 2008 for fighting or brawl- ing and various traffic vi- olations from 2014 and 2015. A Facebook page un- der the name of a Cedric Ford employed at Excel Industries includes pho- tos posted within the past month of a man posing with a long gun and an- other of a handgun in a man's lap in a car. Federal law bars felons from pos- sessing firearms. Sheriff: Cop who killed gunman 'tremendous hero' KANSAS P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. 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