I'm a bit taken aback that anyone would think the demise of bees was not extremely important and worrying!!
I'd like to recommend Vanishing of the Bees which is narrated by Ellen Page.
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I wish there was more buzz about this, really.
It's quite alarming that so many people are not aware of this already.
If they are not, it is most likely because it is detrimental to corporate profit...money first, the world that we live in later...
There are SO many examples of this nature but I like to think that after the explosion of globalisation, mass production, mass consumption, that slowly people are realising the actual damaging effects and where possible curbing them. What is a shame is that it seems to be more driven by people than by governments and multi national corporations, both of which control our world...
I've been aware of the bee die off for quite awhile. I know there has been a lot of concern from the agriculture industry here. Several universities have been doing studies and trying to figure out how to counter the trend. Several think there has been some bee recovery in my region because so many people have been active in it.
The loss of bees would be devastating to agriculture and with the world's population exploding that would be disastrous, yet human overpopulation is part of the problem. Besides certain insecticides, another factor is destruction of habitat. Over development, exploding urban areas and suburbs invading bees' natural habitats. Also, many cities and towns have ordinances against bee keeping. As they expand their city limits as a ploy to collect more tax revenue, their city ordinances go with them, forcing bee farmers to either move or go out of business as far as bee keeping.
Insecticides and loss of habitat seem to be the two largest factors in the huge bee die off.
It's been a worry here in the Lower Mainland and Eastern Washington for several years now, Washington State University has been at the forefront of studying the organism causing the die-off. WA produces the most apples and I believe the most cherries of any state in the U.S., and without bees--no fruit. The cherry orchards have suffered the worst of it, both the ones growing Rainiers and the ones growing "regular" cherries, since a great many of the "regular" cherry crops are sold years in advance to the Japanese.
Oddly, in my own (suburban) backyard, I have a plethora of bumblebees and seem to have a more than adequate supply of honeybees as well, have two mature apple trees and a mature pear tree producing fruit with no issues. I don't keep bees personally but will probably set up an apiary next spring just on general principle.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
I have a Great uncle, that once swallowed bees. He was chopping wood, opened a Coke can, to take a sip. He then put it down, to chop more wood, went for another sip, and it was full of bees. Back to subject, we do need to do something about this
