Where Have All The Bees Gone? By Steve Culver



As World Focuses on Long-Range Hazards of Global Warming More
Immediate Environmental Dangers Virtually Ignored.
Or Where Have All The Bees Gone?

By Steve Culver, 4/14/2007


As the nation’s and the world’s attention is distracted by “Step It Up 2007", an international event touted to force the United States government to address the issue of carbon emissions as being the primary cause of Global Warming, a more pressing environmental catastrophe is unfolding all around us.

Bee populations have been in steady decline for the past six years. A precipitous rise in incidences of Colony Collapse Disorder, CCD, has occurred since October, 2006.This is not only a U.S. problem, but is fast becoming an international one, as hive desertions and die-offs are also being reported in Canada and nine European countries. Beekeepers have been reporting alarming loss rates of 30-70%. Normal losses can be as high as 20%.

CCD has been characterized be the nearly complete desertion of the beehives. In the article The Sudden Disappearance of Honey Bees , by Louise McCoy, March, 26, 2006, at “The Epoch Times.com”, Jerry Hayes, Chief of the Apiary section of the Florida Department of Agriculture states that, “The interesting thing about Colony Collapse Disorder is that bees are leaving the colony and not coming back, which is highly unusual for a social insect to leave a queen and it’s brood or young behind. They are seemingly going out and can’t find their way home.” Stranger still, once the hives inhabitants have wandered off in some bizarre state of insect Alzheimer’s disease the unguarded hives, ripe with honey, are not plundered by other bees and scavengers. This is extremely unnatural behavior occurring in nature. Hayes points to insecticides as a possible cause for this alarming phenomena.

In her detailed article, Collapse of Honey Bees in U.S., Canada, and 9 European Countries , April 6, 2007, at “Earthfiles.com ”, Linda Moulton Howe, presents compelling testimonials, evidence, and interviews regarding this issue. She reveals that, while attention and funding to study CCD, and bee research in general, has waned over the years, the problem has not gone completely unnoticed. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Chicago, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are attempting to isolate the genetic footprint of the culprit through a comparative study using micro-array analysis of healthy bees versus the few victims of CCD that can be found.

Howe’s article also reveals that the problem has been recognized by Washington, as evidenced by a House Agriculture Subcommittee investigation of Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder, which was held on March, 29, 2007. A brief summary of the issue and a list of witnesses, as well as links to their testimony, can be found at “News from the House Agriculture Committee”. The full transcript will be available 4-6 weeks from the date of the hearing.

A more detailed examination of probable causes and possible solutions can be found by reading Professor Joe Cummins paper, The Mysterious Disappearance of Honey Bees . Professor Cummins states:

The Cogent point is that the bees in the colonies appear to have lost their immunity to viruses, bacteria and fungal diseases. The loss of resistance to disease may be caused by parasites, virus infections, or pesticides (both applied and present in GM crop).

Cummins laments the fact that none of these issues were addressed in an October, 2006 report by the United States National Research Council’s Committee on the Status of Pollinators in North America. His paper is a self-professed effort to widen the discussion to include these very serious and pertinent issues. He concludes his report by offering some possible solutions:

The most significant factor in this decline may be the...well documented inflexibility in the genes of the bee’s immune system. Immune inflexibility was not discussed in the NRC report (and) is, most likely, the primary hurdle in an ultimate reversal of the decline.

He goes on to say:

Bees need to be protected from the agents that interfere with their immunity or behavior.
The impact of pesticides and GM crops requires fuller attention as does a program to create honey bees with robust immune systems.

And to further muddy the waters, the April 15, 2007edition of “The Independent”, features an article by Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross, Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? , which reveals a Landau University study which found that bees refused to return to their hives after mobile phones were placed nearby. Therefore, we can now add cell phone transmission radiation to the list of possible causes of CCD. Which leads one to question, “If cell phones are found to be the culprit would people voluntarily stop using them? Probably not, for they would want the convenience of calling each other to discuss how hungry they are.

And hungry we shall be, for one constant among all of the articles on this topic, is the fact that these busy little pollinators are directly responsible for one third, 33.3%, of the food supply. Best case scenario for this issue will be food shortages and inflated prices. Worst case scenario is that the people will continue to be distracted, current trends in the decline of worldwide bee populations will continue, and the horrific events predicted in conjunction with Global Warning will be a Godsend, as they will end the suffering and starvation brought about by the loss of these crucial insects.

God save the bees.

Sources:

Professor Joe Cummins, The Mysterious Disappearance of Honey Bees , March 5, 2007, “Permaculture mailing list”

Linda Moulton Howe, Collapse of Honey Bees in U.S., Canada and 9 European Countries , April 6, 2007, “Earthfiles.com”

Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross, Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? , April 15, 2007, “The Independent”

Louise McCoy, The Sudden Disappearance of Honeybees , March 26, 2007, “The Epoch Times"

U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder, March 29, 2007

Posted: Sun - April 15, 2007 at 07:11 PM            

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