St. Pauli Install Beehives at Ground to Produce Their Own Honey

According to Greenpeace, the world's bee population has been in serious decline since the late 1990s. The widespread use of pesticides, the industrialisation of agriculture and man-made climate change have all contributed to mass bee disappearances. Either the bees have hidden themselves away deep in the earth in protest at our capitalistic exploitation of the planet – which is unlikely – or there's been some kind of mass bee expiration and lots of bees are now properly, irreversibly dead. Either way, it's a fucking disaster for humanity.

As it turns out, bees are instrumental in pollinating the world's flora. Without them, all our crops are going to pack in, the globe will become a barren crag, and we're all going to starve to death en masse. Or that's the gist of it, anyway.

To raise awareness of this impending bee-death apocalypse – and to show their solidarity with the bees – German second division side FC St. Pauli have just installed two beehives at their home ground, the Millerntor-Stadion. Famous for their fan activism and progressive vision for future football, they have decided to produce their own honey and sell it in their club shop. It will be called "Ewaldbienenhonig" (translation: Ewald Lienen honey) in honour of their current manager, Ewald Lienen.

Wir haben ab sofort zwei Bienenvölker am #Millerntor & produzieren den ersten Bundesliga-Honig! #fcsp 1/2 pic.twitter.com/P1ypNAmAv8
— FC St. Pauli (@fcstpauli) April 4, 2016

"Other cities have balconies to celebrate titles, and we have them for the bees", club executive Andreas Rettig has said. The club are also encouraging supporters to install bee-friendly window boxes at home. As footballing eco projects go, it's a creative and commendable effort.

Unfortunately, in itself, the installation of two hives at FC St. Pauli will probably postpone the bee-death apocalypse by about five minutes. However, the club's gesture will hopefully inspire the rest of humanity to, you know, stop hurtling toward our inevitable doom by spraying lethal chemicals on everything. Just a thought.