== Apocalypse Of The Honeybees = By Mark Morford

How poetically appropriate that the End of Humanity should come from such a tiny, sweet source

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2007/05/09/notes050907.DTL&nl=fix

>From outta nowhere the tiny ones came, while humanity was busy trembling and sweating in the face of major global cataclysm, of global warming and nuclear war and rainforest devastation and melting ice caps and E. coli outbreaks and Ashlee Simpson and lethal hurricanes and the Apocalypse-hungry Christian right and a simply stupendously vile Bush juggernaut that has threatened all intelligent life everywhere. Onward they came, buzzy and calm and happy to be our very own adorable, unexpected harbinger of doom.

Yes, now we can see it clearly. Now we can be appropriately alarmed and now maybe we can even say, Oh holy hell, maybe we should have seen it coming all along: Of course the end of mankind should come from something as sweet and commonplace and unforeseen as the honeybees.

Have you not heard? Have you not read of the dire honeybee apocalypse and what it might mean for the majority of the delectable food crops in America, how we might soon face a very serious food crisis and might be eating little more than bread and pine cones in the near future, thus inducing widespread panic as we engage in violent bloody wars not for oil or land or God but over asparagus and avocados and those incredible Buddha's Hand fruits they use to infuse Hangar One Citron?

It's true. It's all because of the honeybees, those minuscule, absolutely essential, beautifully pollinating creatures that play such a vital role in our food supply, help nearly all flowering crops grow and therefore provide a simply enormous portion of the global diet including all citrus and many vegetables but excluding that goopy liquefied toxic meat crap they inject into McNuggets, these incredibly designed workhorse creatures that also make the world's sweetest stickiest natural substance next to Jessica Alba and maybe Shiva's own bubble bath, these lovely honeybees might, just might be a sign of our ultimate downfall. ...

No, this is not a joke.

A couple of companies have begun marketing socks and clothing that rarely need laundering. They use incredibly tiny particles of silver or other metals that interfere with the growth of bacteria, and therefore don't smell even after repeated wearings. As does everything, these things wear out over time and once laundered, the silver particles enter the water ecosystem, and eventually enter the external food chain in which the bees play a critical role. My friend believes (but has not proven or tested yet) that these particles interfere with the hives and either cause massive die offs, or confuse them so they can't find home.

If anything, levels should be dropping. The photoprocessing industry used to flush tons of it every year untill the evil government restricted the practice.

I am trying to learn more....

:kick:

"Of course the end of mankind should come from something as sweet and commonplace and unforeseen as the honeybees"

Even the worst realistic prognostications on this disorder does not = the end of mankind. It doesn't even = the end of bees.

Please read some of the current, scientific literature on this.

http://pestalert.ifas.ufl.edu/Colony_Collapse_Disorder.htm

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html

The perceived WORST case scenario is increased prices in certain goods. They suspect that at its worst, there will be less bees and less bees means higher prices for goods.

Very few crops rely ENTIRELY on honeybees. They are used as an ecnonomic choice mostly. If the bee population is significantly reduced, the bees would have to be used on crops that DO require honeybees, such as... well, honey and almonds and some others. The other crops that use them for economic purposes (blueberrys, etc..) will have to go with more expensive and less efficient insects for polination, driving up the price of certain fruits and vegetables.

Good situation? No. Let's do all we can to avoid it; however, lets not pretend it is the end of society as we know it.