The Buzz on Disappearing Bees Grows Louder

There's no denying the wave of horror that washes over you at the moment you finally connect the dots and realize that there's a crisis looming — and no one is listening. Case in point: the plight of the humble honeybee. It's no secret that colony collapse disorder, viruses and even exceptionally hard winters are clipping the wings of hives worldwide. Nobody's quite sure what's behind such a catastrophic decline; a new USDA bee survey hopes to uncover the cause.

"It's all very well to be worried about the fuzzy little fellows," you may be thinking, "but with all this oil spilling into the Gulf, don't we have bigger wildlife crises to worry about?" Consider this: A huge proportion of the food that humans eat — figures cited range from one-third of the food supply to a whopping 90 percent of commercial crops — is made possible by honeybee pollination. The terrifying corollary: For the third year in a row, more than one-third of U.S. bee colonies have not survived the winter. Lose our bees, lose our next meal.

So what's being done about the situation?

The USDA's not the only one taking a stab at researching the causes of colony collapse disorder. As CNN reports, cell phones may be part of the problem: "In a study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, northern India, researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two 15-minute periods each day. After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced."

Projects to support bee populations stretch around the globe. Bees for Development,  the go-to info center/research body/development partner devoted to promoting beekeeping for "sustainable livelihoods, food security, and biodiversity," promotes beekeeping in developing countries. With its two-in-one punch, it's no wonder that celebrities such as Sting are rallying around the organization's efforts.

Back at home, even the Boy Scouts of America are getting in on the action. An enterprising young man in Oklahoma is leading the buzz to bring back a beekeeping merit badge. The organization discontinued the merit badge in 1995 based on the lack of appropriately qualified merit badge counselors for this particular badge.

Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of those good people and projects, I fear I must close on a more pessimistic note. Just weeks ago, The Society for Invertebrate Conservation and University of California at Davis entomologist Robbin Thorp petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Franklin's bumblebee under the Endangered Species Act. Thorp found 94 Franklin's bumblebees in 1994 — but he's seen none since 2006.

Photo credit: cygnus921