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What in blazes is going on with the world's bees? I keep reading all these stories about how a significant percentage of the world's beehives are failing and that all the bees are dying.
In territories across Canada, Europe and more than 25 states in the U.S., around 40% of bees have simply disappeared. There are no dead bodies left behind to tell the tale; they’re just gone. “Colony Collapse Disorder” or “Vanishing Bee Syndrome,” is thus far an unexplained phenomenon. No one seems to know why, but there are explanations aplenty, ranging from global warming though malnutrition, pesticides, pathogens, immunodeficiencies, mites, fungus, genetically modified crops and electromagnetic radiation have all been cited as possible causes. Even cell phones and aliens have been blamed!
The bees have disappeared before, of course, but never to this scale. So what’s the big deal? First, there’s the pocketbook factor: the U.S. produces more than $15 billion in crops every year that depend solely on bees for their pollination.
More frightening still is the idea that bees are a cornerstone of our cycle of life. An (unverified but infamous) quote from (possibly) Albert Einstein: “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 plants, no more animals, no more man.”
Is there anything we can do about this? If the bees all die, are there any substitute pollinators we can use? Or is Einstein right and we're all doomed?
In the meantime buy this :laugh:
In territories across Canada, Europe and more than 25 states in the U.S., around 40% of bees have simply disappeared. There are no dead bodies left behind to tell the tale; they’re just gone. “Colony Collapse Disorder” or “Vanishing Bee Syndrome,” is thus far an unexplained phenomenon. No one seems to know why, but there are explanations aplenty, ranging from global warming though malnutrition, pesticides, pathogens, immunodeficiencies, mites, fungus, genetically modified crops and electromagnetic radiation have all been cited as possible causes. Even cell phones and aliens have been blamed!
The bees have disappeared before, of course, but never to this scale. So what’s the big deal? First, there’s the pocketbook factor: the U.S. produces more than $15 billion in crops every year that depend solely on bees for their pollination.
More frightening still is the idea that bees are a cornerstone of our cycle of life. An (unverified but infamous) quote from (possibly) Albert Einstein: “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 plants, no more animals, no more man.”
Is there anything we can do about this? If the bees all die, are there any substitute pollinators we can use? Or is Einstein right and we're all doomed?
In the meantime buy this :laugh:
