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The clamor of alarm bells set off by colony collapse disorder this
past winter should have been ringing some time ago. Given that the
rise in harrowing natural catastrophes and ecological upheaval and
the looming escalation in both their frequency and ferocity are
(finally) bringing an uphill battle against climate change to the
fore, a wave of inexplicable carnage probably shouldnt come as such
a shock.

After all, honeybees are hardly the developed worlds first species
to suffer a quick, curious demise in their number. The Achilles heel
of modernity is that we rarely look before we leap and we rarely
stop leaping until weve landed ourselves in some degree of
magnificent chaos, usually at another species expense.

Were the ultimate cause in that weve changed the planet to suit our
needs. Were running it to suit our needs and not to the benefit of
all the organisms around us, explained Jeffery Pettic, leader of the
USDAs honeybee research lab, during a salon.com experts round table
when asked if he thought people were the ultimate cause of CCD.
Honeybees arent totally domesticated, but we have tried to
domesticate them. Weve tried to make bees more gentle and make more
honey. In enhancing certain traits, we make the bees more
susceptible to other things.

That list of other potential things has become quite bewildering:
The encroachment of urbanization, toxicity from pesticides and
genetically modified crops, tracheal and Varroa mite infestations,
Nosema ceranae and other fungi, African honeybee genes, bacteria
from small hive beetles, poor nutrition from fructose-spiked corn
syrup, stress from unprecedented migration, immune deficiencies and
as widely misreported cell phone radiation. Moreover, as another
eminent honeybee researcher, Eric Mussen, noted in that same online
round table, youre going to find that in most cases, there is not
going to be one factor that did them in; its going to be a
combination. This is the perfect storm for honeybees.

Herein lies the crux of the quandary: our impulse to determine a
causal relationship between CCD and something other than our own
voraciousness. Perhaps the most disturbing symptom of CCD is its
rapid tenacity, but this trait has largely skewed discussion,
especially in the conventional media. Lost in the kerfuffle are
telltale aspects of the issue such as that offered by two
Pennsylvania-based researchers, whose recent paper traces colony
collapses that are reminiscent of the present situation as far back
as 1869.

While close to a third of the USs 2.4 million colonies have been
lost this past winter, about three quarters of those losses are
attributable to previously established threats. Far more
disconcerting is the fact that the number of managed US honeybee
colonies has been gradually cut in half since the early 70s or that
the North American diet has come to rely so inherently on a
pollinator that isnt even native to the continent.

The commercial beekeeping industry is just a cog in the big
industrial wheel, says Sharon Labchuk, leader of the provincial
Green Party in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and a small-scale
organic beekeeper. The industrial agriculture model has destroyed
pollinating insects through its chemicals and through its clear
cutting of forests and plowing under the prairies. Its destroyed
habitat for not only insects, but for everything else that would
normally live in those kinds of ecosystems. Weve destroyed the
natural world within the area that weve killed, and weve also
destroyed the vicinity through chemical use.

Labchuk also points to a little known peculiarity that bodes ill for
the health of the honeybee: the super-sized wax foundations used in
commercial beekeeping operations. Whereas the combs created by
natural worker brood are about 4.6 mm in diameter, manufacturers
have increased the size of wax foundations beginning about a century
ago, according to Labchuk to 5.4 mm wide in an effort to create
larger honeybees and, in turn, more honey (and, tellingly, more
money). Given the way honeybees use their combs to reproduce, the
Frankenstein-esque result has been a species that is half as large
again as is natural, and an increased vulnerability to mite
infestations due to the extra space in the combs themselves.

Youve got bees that were made to be bigger the same way weve made
cows, pigs and chickens bigger, because bigger is better in the
industrial model, quips Labchuk. We produce everything using an
industrial model which is insatiable, which is one in which economic
growth is the mantra and in which economic growth is seen as a good
thing.

As an indicator of how potentially overbearing that mantra can be,
take the almond farming industry in Californias Central Valley,
which supplies 80 percent of the worlds almond crop. The states
almond acreage has grown by 40 percent in the last two decades, and
is projected to grow by another 30 percent by 2010. More than a
million hives are required for pollination in February and March of
every year, and that number is expected to surge to a point where
the entire commercial honeybee population will be needed to do the
same job within the next five years. Its also worth noting that once
the almond crop has been dealt with, those same bees embark on a
migrate-and-pollinate mission that reaches most of the continental
US all told, the USDA estimates that pollination has improved crop
yields and quality to the tune of $20 billion annually.

Honeybees are in effect six-legged livestock that both manufacture
agricultural commodities honey and wax and, more importantly,
contribute agricultural services pollination. Close to 100 crop
species in the US rely to some degree on pollination services
provided by this one species collectively, these crops make up
approximately 1/3 of the US diet, including the majority of
high-value crops that contribute to healthy diets, Dr. May Berenbaum
one of the authors of a National Academy of Sciences report from
last October about the declining state of North Americas pollinators
told the US Congress in late March. It is difficult to think of any
other multi-billion-dollar agricultural enterprise that is so
casually monitored.

Beyond shoddy surveillance, the big issue here is the free markets
complicity in not recognizing or respecting the complexity of our
natural ecosystems. That weve elevated the honeybee to a keystone
role in our food chain may yet become the ultimate irony when the
worlds greediest consumers begin to truly understand the prospect of
colony collapse.

A surprising number of news reports (elite media among them) about
CCD relayed a quote attributed to Albert Einstein about the fact
that humans would die out in four years if bees were to disappear an
attribution that bears absolutely no evidence. Perhaps, given the
potentially greater implications of colony collapse disorder, the
verifiable words of Harvard biologist and author E.O. Wilson are a
bit closer to the mark: So important are insects and other land
dwelling arthropods, that if all were to disappear, humanity could
not last more than a few months.

_Eric Rumble

COMMENTS:

Yes, this article is informative. So what if the opinion is wrong,
should we error and probably hurt our world and the future? I think
NO! We have to do is stop wasting. It is up to us.
bike
I like Dustin's comment... so what are the world's ecological
problems? So quick to shut others down for bringing up any specifics
in the world, and yet you yourself will not raise awareness, beyond
perhaps ensuring that we the people know that we can just shit on
people. not to hell, but instead to school with an open mind to
anyone who maintains close-minded oppression of humans exploring
actual thoughts. i reserve my right to seek any answer to any
question i may pose in my life, respectfully, and so should you too,
you lethargic disinformant you. smiles and gumdrops.
Dashiell
Gar Hoover delivers a straw man: the article does not blame humans
for all the world's ecological problems. Honeybees are not
indigenous to N. America, and they support up to 1/3 of the N.
American diet. All of the factors surrounding their existence in N.
America are anthropogenic. Bee keeping is about human-insect
interactions, plain and simple.
RMB Hoffman
But, then again, claiming that an article says that it blames humans
for all the world's ecological problems when it actually states that
humans through industrial processes are one of the largest factors
in climate change is also ridiculous.
J.R. Dobbs
It is totally true, we are destroying all around us and leaving us
more vulnerable when we depend only in a little bunch of things,
some live another depending on finites resources. The more doom
thing is that till exist many people who wish to believe we are not
guilty, and so delay the urgent process to a social change that must
to be NOW to can keep human beings on the earth in next generations.
fcalabi
Although I generally tend to agree with the content of the article,
I must admit there is a fair amount of bias contained. I prefer to
read a summary of the data and resulting projections or trends. One
thing I want to bring up is what I consider the inappropriate use of
the statement "ecological problems." What exactly does this mean,
problems for whom, other species, us? What would the solution
entail, and as other entries have illustrated, where does the blame
lie and how do we hold those accountable? All important questions to
consider before we make judgements and take action.
Santiago Velez
Biased reporting means that the writer has an opinion, and a good
writer backs up opinion with factual evidence. The facts stated in
this article are generally true statements. However, many people are
so programmed by the machine they are inclined to think that the
destruction cause by mass commercialism and consumerism is not
destructive. To blame humans for all the world's ecological problems
is to put the blame where it lay. When people destroy the ecosystems
of the planet, people are creating the ecological problems of the
planet. But the irony is that people are effected by these
ecological problems they've created. The Earth will manage just fine
with or without us, humans don't fare as well in this respect.
Pollute the air with noxious poisons, then say, well don't blame
humans for all the respiratory diseases that so mysteriously
develop. Wake up!
Revin Floyd
The real reason that there had been so many bee colonies dying out
is simple. The hillbilly farmers who kept them took all their honey
and didn't leave anything for the poor bees to eat during the winter
and they starved to death!
Mike Smith
Just another example of the brick wall humans are about to (at full
speed!) crash into.
scott.s
I don't recall the author of this article speaking on all of the
world's ecological problems. Seems pretty evident you're simply
looking for something to complain about.
Dustin
This article is very informative, but a biased piece. Obviously,
humans are contributing to climate change. To blame humans for all
the world's ecological problems is egotistic and ridiculous.
Gar Hoover
to Gar Hoover.....so you state that "to blame humans for all the
world's ecological problems is egotistic and ridiculous." I am
curious to know WHO EXACTLY WOULD YOU BLAME? I'd really like an
answer. Thanks.
zoi
'We are the ultimate cause in that we've changed the planet to suit
our needs' Bullshit. We've changed the planet because we've lost
touch with our needs.
Japo Spesh
Re: comment by Mike Smith about "hillbilly farmers": That is a
ridiculous statement and suggests that Mr Smith has never
encountered a beehive or a beekeeper in his life.
Matt Z
It must be the bee's fault then. Billions of humans and their
continuing encroachment on wild land and associated pollution of the
air, land, and water with petrochemical fertilizers and insecticides
can't be to blame! Perhaps the bees just don't have a strong enough
will to live.
crazy chester
Why do we keep arguing over and over about nonissues?? Who cares if
the article is biased or the statistics are not 100% accurate? What
are ecological problems? The fact of the matter is that WE ALREADY
KNOW what needs to be done, WE ALREADY KNOW that ecological problems
exist in every level of our planetary ecosystem. Whatever is good
for other species is good for us. It's so damn easy to stop wasting!
Reuse, start trading things you don't need instead of throwing them
in the garbage. Just buy and use what you need, and no more.
MatM.
I see a trend with the articles and comments. Writers rarely use
substantiative facts/numbers/reporting/DATA and readers continually
comment on the desire to see this. There'd be a bit more credibility
to adbusters.org/the mag. if we saw more data along with the
opinion. I'm sure this would broaden the reader base and make a
greater impact.
Big Picture ADbusterz
In the end, we're exploiting the natural world so a few thousand
people in the world can enjoy lifestyles that totally don't jive
with natural law. All on the backs of immigrants, honeybees, trees,
hard-working bluecollars, 3rd world countries. I guess it's hard to
blame your average consumer when he's so confused by so many
different messages be thin, be happy, look cool, take a cruise, get
an iPhone, have a Heineken, work hard, you can do it to have even a
spare minute to figure out how his actions are connected to the rest
of the world. And then you have those superrich motherf$#%s who are
like are essentially a cancer to the rest of the world, grow richer,
bigger, more exploitative at the expense of bees, peace, and
humanity.
jen
cut to the chase and give the info. every body reading this knows we
are in deep poo so cut the rant and get to the story. my god your
preaching to the choir just lay of the venome SHIT!
david Lee Smith
I'm sure once we have killed off our own bees we will with out a
doubt invade other countries and steal their bees. We are disgusting
people with no shame and no morality.
Jacob
What can we, consumers, do in this situation? Consume less. Consume
only local produce. No packaged food?
himanshu
The thesis Advertising is Brain Damage is solid and is strongly
supported by all of the ideas presented. However are there any real
statistics about this, or any research done in this field? How do
we, as consumers, know that this is just another advertisement
telling people to not buy the products of certain companies for
other reasons? Do we really get brain damage from these ads? Also, I
believe that advertising has become part of our culture. We can't
deny it. It's everywhere. Wherever you lay your eyes, there are ads
that try to grab your attention. They've got a living to do as we
all do. They HAVE to advertise so that their company can survive the
competition between themselves and be successful. They try to make
it as eyepleasing and appealing; eventually leading them to make
catchy phrases and graphic scenes to grab our attention. But
ultimately, it is up to us whether we decide to buy these things or
not. So you can't really blame the advertisings that are all over
the place; IF they DO give us brain damage of course.
s.k