birds and the bees

Dear Diane,

Whenever I talk to Bonny about how unfair the world is, she responds by sadly shaking her head and saying "the bees are dying." It's kinda her catch-all for the pile of shit shitted upon us by bureaucrats and politicians but yeah it's TRUE the bees are dying, and this trend has been on a downward spiral since the winter of 2006.

When they say bees, they mean the European honeybees, which account for 80% of all insect pollination (convenient list of crops pollinated here), literally pollinating one-third of all the yummy foods you eat.

 In $$$$ that's more that's $200 billion a year in the states alone. Einstein even maybe possibly (Snopes says unknown but perhaps a political ploy) said, "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left." Dun dun dun. Pretty prophetic if you ask me.

In the winter of 2006, North American beekeepers suddenly started reporting 30-90 percent in losses of their hives. Typical losses? Usually 17-20%, which is considered stable loss due to mites or diseases or stress. So an average of 1/3 of all bees lost during the winter? Crazy and drastic. These bees are just disappearing, thus the term colony collapse disorder, or CCD. In response to both the drastic winter losses in 2006 and 2007, the USDA released its "CCD Action Plan" to come up with a solution to these disappearing bees, thus beginning surveys and data collection with the beekeepers and beginning serious research.

Here's how they look for CCD:

• Low / no adult honey bees left in the hive but a live queen and no dead honey bee bodies

• Still honey and an immature brood
• Often there are Varroa mites (virus-transmitting parasites) found in the hives

Thus far, no truly effective solutions have been implemented. Here's a really aesthetically displeasing graph (o m g the font / color coordination) to show the drastic losses that have continued up to 2013:

source

As you can see, winter of 2012 looked pretty ok. 22% losses!!!! But then this year, mortality went up to 31%.

According to the USDA, scientists have four categories of causes:

• Pathogens (Nosema or other unknown pathogens)
• Parasites (Varroa mites)
• Management stressors  (transportation of bees to different locations)
• Environmental stressors (e.g. pollen/nectar scarcity, limited access to water)

However, there's much speculation about the impact of pesticides, namely neonicotinoids, the most effective and wide used insecticides. The European Commission recently banned this class of pesticides for two years in an attempt to create time to take a breather and come up with a solution. Pesticide companies naturally responded lividly, saying "the proposal was based on poor science." This statement may be true, given recent research has suggested more study is needed:

In general, the few reported residue levels of neonicotinoids in nectar (average of 2 μg kg−1) and pollen (average of 3 μg kg−1) were below the acute and chronic toxicity levels; however, there is a lack of reliable data as analyses are performed near the detection limit. 

However, two studies done in 2012 by the journal Science suggest that these pesticides have a significant effect on bee colonies. 

It's definitely a serious challenge to scientists to pinpoint where to even begin solving this upheaval of bees. I read one (idk if sarcastic) commentator who said "why not just put video cameras and see where they go / what happened to them?"

The name colony collapse disorder itself sounds horrifying, as if a whole society is collapsing. Agriculture so readily depends on bee pollination and bees are such a positive externality: working to generate honey to feed their mini bee society and at the same time unintentionally HOLDING UP MANKIND. That's a lot of weight for one little bee to carry and yet they are such efficient little creatures and do their job so generously. In northern China, bees have already declined so significantly that apple farmers are doing what bees typically do and pollinating by hand.

job of the year

So is this how far we've sank? Or should I say risen? Society is so anthropocentric that humans are replacing the bees. It's hard to imagine society in the eyes of anybody but the humans, but when we take a step back, this PLANET is not ours to rampage. We are here only to preserve the planet we have been generously given an allotted time to roam and discover its wonders and beauties. We can only hope to leave behind something just and good for the future generations.

That said, another poem. 

xoxo, 

Elina

The Moment

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the center of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round. 

Margaret Atwood

P.S.

swear I saw this after I began researching this topic. can anybody say "TRENDSETTER" 

next week's cover