Bee Gone!

The following article from "The Independent" caught my eye:


Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross

Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause. ........
______________________________________

My first reaction to the headline was that it's one more flaky angle from the Global Warming Camp. However, after reading the article, I'm not so sure. First, we don't really know everything about this wonderful creation that we live on, or all of it's inhabitants. It is certain that what each of us does has an impact on the things around us. That is a basic rule of operation within this created order. It is certainly logical that this causal effect applies at all levels. It is something that we innately know -- our actions cause reactions. That innate knowledge is part of what motivates many to quickly accept the idea that Global Warming is a manmade phenomenon. On the surface, it makes sense. When we dig a little deeper, the arguments begin to unravel a bit. Perhaps this theory about the cause of declining bee populations will unravel as more research is completed, or perhaps not. Second, I do wonder where all the bees have gone. I just don't remember seeing as many in the last few years as I remember growing up.

Besides the potentially devastating implications to food production worldwide due to the lack of pollinators for our crops, I have a personal interest in this issue. What would my wife's fresh homemade sourdough biscuits be like without honey?!