As we humans are quibbling, fighting, and even killing each other over matters mostly economic and religious in nature, bees around the world are hopping on the last hive out of town. According to a story from IranMania.com:
"In a rare phenomenon, bees have been dying or disappearing at an alarming rate in the western and northwestern regions of the country.
The Persian daily ’Iran’ reported on Monday that the reason for the unprecedented loss of bee colonies in Ardebil, East and West Azarbaijan as well as Kurdestan provinces is still unknown."
On December 4 1985, in a speech to a Maryland high school, President Reagan talked about his first summit with the Soviet Union's General Secretary Gorbachev, in Geneva. Reagan told the audience that during his private discussions with Gorbachev, he suggested that the Soviet leader imagine "how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe. We'd forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries." I ask you, wouldn't you just die for that kind of intellect from our president today? But, I digress. Back to the bees.
Here are some interesting facts about honey bees, from ebeehoney.com,
"In addition to gathering nectar to produce honey, honey bees perform another vital function; pollination of agricultural crops, home gardens, orchards and wildlife habitat. As bees travel from blossom to blossom in search of nectar, they transfer pollen from plant to plant, thus fertilizing the plants and enabling them to bear fruit.
Almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupes, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, watermelon and many other crops all rely on honey bees for pollination. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about one-third of the human diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants and that the honey bee is responsible for 80 percent of this pollination.
A 2000 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honey bee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14.6 billion."
And that just may be the problem. Check this out from a May 28 article in the Journal News (our local paper thing),
"After years of warning that commercial beekeeping practices would decimate the world's honeybee population, Gunther Hauk, program director of Pfeiffer Center for Biodynamics and Environmental Education in Chestnut Ridge, has decided to leave Rockland County in July to open a 330-acre honeybee sanctuary in southern Illinois.
Hauk, who said his natural methods have kept winter colony losses to a 15 percent average over 10 years, compared with the 40 percent reported by commercial beekeepers, opposes the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, along with taking too much honey from the hives.
"The bees have been terribly exploited, trucked around, all their honey taken. It's not surprising that their immune system is breaking down rapidly," he said. "We are in serious trouble. The bee is not a being that should be commercialized."
There are several theories buzzing around concerning the vanishing of the bees, ranging from the use of pesticides, and other agricultural chemicals, to the effects of genetically-modified corn, to the electromagnetic waves from cell phone towers. Unfortunately, a representative from the bee lobby was not available for an interview on Good Morning America to explain their position. They just picked up and left. To hell with us and our apples.
So, as America battles Iran for control of Iraq's oil, the bees are flipping everyone their middle stinger. Makes me think about what Reagan said about a threat to us "from some other species from another planet outside in the universe". Considering what we know now about Reagan's mental health, maybe that threat he was referring to is, in fact, us.
-Craig Gordon
I want to change the world, I want to make it well.
How can I change the world, when I can't change myself?
Try again tomorrow.
-Todd Rundgren
