Silence of the Bees
Watched Silence of the Bees, on PBS’s Nature. Looks like there may be a virus involved in Colony Collape Disorder. As an ex- and probably future-beekeeper, people always ask me what I know about CCD. Not much of course, but I have never subscribed to the idea, even early on in the discovery of CCD, that there was one cause. “Death by a thousand cuts” is what one person interviewed on the program said.
Honeybees pollinate 1/3 of the US food crop. Without beekeepers, there would be essentially no honeybees. Imagine losing 1/3 of crops, whether they directly feed humans or livestock. And I’m not just talking about an increase in prices. One of the most striking parts of the program was the report on an area in China where, because of pesticide use in the 1960’s, there are no honeybees left. None. Asian Pears are now being pollinated by hand, by humans, one flower at a time. Imagine that in the US. Not a chance. And not for much longer in China, as people move to the cities for jobs that pay better than hand pollinating flowering trees.
Of course, my take is that the human race, by its own hand, is experiencing death by a thousand cuts. We will hit many walls at once this century. As we destroy wetlands, amphibians, who are at least one of the canaries in the ecological mine, are mutating, dying off. As we use antibiotics indiscriminately, we’ll hit the many walls of many resistant infections. As we use up fossil fuels, not only will we hit that wall, global warming is ramping up. Fresh water and the fights over it. Genetic engineering of crops and animals causing unknown ecological ramifications. Loss of diversity of human languages and cultures. And so on.
Back to the bees. A possible virus, the classic Nosema, the Varroa and tracheal mites, various fungi and bacterial infections, even domestication all weaken bees. After several of these, all you need then is another one to break the camel’s back. And of course, for better or worse, some peoples “solution” is to genetically engineer a stronger honeybee. Maybe. Maybe not.
Basically, we’re screwed. I just hope we don’t take too many other species along with us.
