Many environmentalists are preoccupied with proving that global warming isn’t a hoax, but there is another important issue to focus attention upon as well. It’s time to be concerned about the honey bee. The UN has noted serious collapses in populations across the world. Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa are all seeing honey bee numbers drop. It’s not a gentle downturn either. The falls are sudden and significant.

Reports are coming in from all over the globe, and most of them say the same thing. Rather than populations being reduced, whole honey bee colonies are disappearing. Declines have been noted for the last 50 years or so but, since the turn of the century, the problem has gotten a lot worse. Northern Ireland has reported losses of up to 50%.

The phenomenon has been given a name: Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. It seems to affect both wild and domestic bees but that’s no real surprise. Even those kept in commercial hives are usually at least partially reliant on the surrounding landscape for their food, so domestic bees are not insulated from environmental changes in the way other agricultural animal species are.

Like a lot of things that are given a name and an acronym, we don’t actually understand CCD or what’s causing honey bees to suffer so much. It could be down to an increase in parasitic mites or a disease; it could be air pollution, chemical fertilizers and pesticides; or it could be loss of habitat. Keeping large numbers of bees in commercial hives probably has an impact and there is some speculation that electromagnetic radiation is playing a part.

Nobody really knows, but the consensus opinion amongst experts seems to be that a range of different factors are at work. It might be a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back. Honey bees are under such intense environmental pressure and even a small change in conditions can push a whole colony off the edge.

The loss of the honey bee would be catastrophic. A species in trouble is always cause for alarm (and immediate action) but it’s difficult to overstate the importance of bees to human life. Far from being controlled and commanded exclusively by humans, agriculture still relies on insects like honey bees. 70% of plant crop species are pollinated by honey bees. No bees means dramatically reduced pollination rates. Agriculture would be hit hard.

The honey bee is far from extinction, but the sudden-death nature of CCD means that’s not necessarily a guarantee of population safety. We do need to be seriously concerned about their fate — it’s tied up with ours.

Source:  GO MEDIA - Written by Jess Spate - Images via Robin24 & CarbonNYC

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