Where Have All the Bees Gone?
I grew up in California’s Santa Clara Valley in the midst of cherry, apricot and almond orchards-way before the place was converted to Silicon Valley. I remember each spring and summer as a verdant green alive with swarms of honey bees actively pollinating the crops. Now it seems the bees are for the most part gone and nobody seems to know why.Why would anyone care about bees except as an exercise in nostalgia? Well to begin with, about 30% of our edible foodstuff requires their pollination. Then of course there are ecological concerns. In the natural world, everything is connected to everything else, so if the bees disappear what does this signal about the state of the rest of the ecosystem? We’re probably missing something major here, but as yet researchers have not been able to point to a single cause. Theories abound; electromagnetic radiation, insecticides, high CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, are all posited as possible lethal factors to bees. More frighteningly, what if their reduced numbers are due to additive but subtle causes which might also effect other populations, including ours? In any event, I can’t imagine a spring and summer without their glorious buzz. I miss them and I fear for us.Jeremy Myers is the owner of Lyssabeth’s marin county wedding officiants
