If you thought this had been a rough winter across large
parts of the US, and you are correct it was, it was less than a cakewalk for
bees, from spelling and quilting through knitting and honey. But whereas we
have the spring and summer to look forward to and enjoy, the same cannot be
said for that star-spangled bumbling pollinator, the honeybee.
This, my friend, is a bad news story-but
upon closer scrutiny it’s actually a worse
news story. Not because it’s in the New York Times, far from it-but rather, because
it’s buried somewhere in the bowels of America’s Newspaper of Record instead of on the front page above the fold.
We are talking about a situation, not intending to create
panic, that should cause us to RUN WILDLY IN ALL DIRECTIONS SEEKING AN ESCAPE
THAT DOESN’T EXIST. Sorry about that. Damm Caps Lock.
Seriously-the food we eat, and if you’re not
a vegetarian or vegan, the food your food eats, very much depends on bees to be
fruitful and multiply. And that ain’t happening like it used to.
Some are blaming Colony Collapse Disorder (which sounds like
something that would have happened to bees in the British Empire, but what do I
know?), others a parasite and still many others much of what man(kind) hath
wrought to the environment and planet we share with the winged beasties. And no we don't know exactly why, but simply
put there are 40% fewer bees than this time last year.
I don’t have the answer and admit I have trouble fully
grasping the question but 40% less of anything we need to sustain ourselves (and
all other life forms) is quite the attention getter. I’m not a melittologist but I’m no fireman, either, and when
I see a blaze burning where there shouldn’t be one I have an instinct that says
“find somebody to help.” This time, too.
I’m not sure what needs to be done or even if we can do
it-but we need to knock the Kardashians off the front page of our news feeds and worry a lot more about
Honey and Hereafter or there will be very little of either very
quickly.
-bill kenny
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