A new report has been published earlier this month where all the ideas about why the bees are disappearing have come together. May Berenbaum (an etomologist) and others think they now know why: some viruses prevent the bees creating proteits and protiens help the bees fight of infection, detox from pesticides, repair their cells and meet the worl head on.
Apparently Swine Flu for humans and Colony Colapse Disorder for bees have grown from the same underlying cause: stuff moves further round the world and almost immediately now, more than it ever did, and it all get's mixed up together in one great multiple onslaught and our bodies, and the bees too, haven't built defences against them yet. Splat!
This from the New York Time article:
If anything, this latest news about CCD makes the problem more relevant to the future, because it confirms what every holistic systems thinker has been telling us. Honeybee health is inextricably linked to the health of the entire environment, including our own. If we can create systems of domestic food production that take their cues from the cycles of nature, and let honeybees play the roles they evolved to play, then the system will take care of itself. But if we continue to push the system farther and farther out of equilibrium by relying on chemical shortcuts and fossil fuel intervention to fix the inevitable breakdowns, then we will never get off the crisis treadmill.
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