NO BEES, NOBODY KNOWS WHY

Though previously reported here that the bee disappearance (colony collapse disorder) was caused by cell phones and not climate change, it turns out the cell phone theory doesn't hold up. It might be climate change, nobody knows. Reminds me of what Amory Lovins calls climate change: Global Weirding.

Suddenly, the bees are simply vanishing; Scientists are at a loss to pinpoint the cause. The die-off in 35 states has crippled beekeepers and threatened many crops.
Jai-Rul Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, June 10, 2007 (LA Times)

WHO
Dennis vanEngelsdorp, apiarist, state of Pennsylvania; Dave Hackenberg, Pennsylvania beekeeper; Dan Boyer, Ridgetop [apple] Orchards; Jerry Hayes, chief of apiary inspection, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services/president, Apiary Inspectors of America; Entomologist Jerry J. Bromenshenk, University of Montana; Diana Cox-Foster, Penn State entomologist/Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, Columbia University virologist;
Where have all the honey bees gone?
WHAT
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a drastic die-off in honey bee (Apis mellifera) population

WHEN
- 24% of 384 beekeeping operations lost more than 50% (some 90%) of colonies from September to March.
- $13,000 for 200 hives in 2007; the price for 300 hives in 2006.
- Other mass disappearances: 1869, possibly poisonous honey or a hot summer; 1923, a "disappearing disease" that went away without treatment; 1965, a fall dwindle in Texas and Louisiana.

WHERE
CCD is an international phenomenon. The article profiles Susquehanna River fielda in Pennsylvania.
Save the honey bees, save the world?
WHY
- Researchers stumped: internal organs swollen with debris and strangely blackened, intestinal tracts scarred, rectums were abnormally full of partly digested pollen, infection in the sting glands, eerily abandoned hives, honey and broods of baby bees left
- 35 states, 5 Canadian provinces, several European countries. cost U.S. beekeepers $150 million, farmers scrambling for bees to pollinate their crops
- Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of US food crops (almonds, cherries, blueberries, pears, strawberries, pumpkins). Incompletely pollinated blooms grow apples but the fruit is small and misshapen, only for low-profit juice.
- A new group of pesticides, neonicotinoids, have spiked in popularity but French beekeepers doubt that is the culprit because France banned a common neonicotinoid in 1999 and French hives are not better now.
- A theory based on German studies hypothesize cell phones as a cause but even the scientist who did the study doubts this conclusion.
- Though implicated, scientists have also not found any connection to genetically modified corn or terrorism.

QUOTES
- Hackenberg: "We've never experienced bees going off and leaving brood behind…It was like a mother going off and leaving her kids."
- Boyer: "I'm worried about the bees…The more I learn about it, the more I think it is a national tragedy."
- Cox-Foster: "We were shocked by the huge number of pathogens present in each adult bee…[the bees' immune systems had been suppressed, allowing the proliferation of infections]...
- Hayes: "It's as if there is something repellent or toxic about the colony…"