Would you give up your iphone for an apple?

First of all, to reiterate why no bees is a problem,

"Bee pollination of crops, something that most farmers heavily rely on, is responsible for as much as 30% of the U.S. food supply. Where bees are not available, they are called in, with apiarists (bee keepers) travelling around the country to provide the services of their hives.

According to the USDA, the number of managed honey bee colonies has dropped from 5 million in the1940s to only 2.5 million today. However, the demand for pollination service has continued to climb and honey bee colonies are being transported farther and more often.

Unless the cause and cure for Colony Collapse Disorder is found soon, the supply of many fruits and vegetables could be affected. The flow on effects are mind-boggling. It's not just fruits and vegetables, but also stock feed and grains."

Check out the full list of foods here: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/223/1/Bees-and-your-food.html#

Now, on to the WHY?

1) Bad Royal Jelly

What the hell is Royal Jelly you ask?

According to our friends at Wikipedia-
The young queen larva develops differently because it is more heavily fed royal jelly, a protein-rich secretion from glands on the heads of young workers. If not for being heavily fed royal jelly, the queen larva would have developed into a regular worker bee. All honey bee larvae are fed some royal jelly for the first few days after hatching but only queen larvae are fed on it exclusively. As a result of the difference in diet, the queen will develop into a sexually mature female, unlike the worker bees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bee

One conspiracy theory seems to be that the Chinese have been shipping bad royal jelly intentionally to kill of bee populations thus devastating food supplies.  I have not yet found any credible information to support this so it will remain in the conspiracy theory file for the time being.

2)  Workin 9 to 5.. Plus a night shift..

Are the bees simply being overworked?  With a growing population some bee keepers believe that the practice of shipping bees around the country to pollinate different crops is actually working them to death. 
Aside from some discussions on a couple threads I've found no actual proof or study to support this theory.  But I'll put it one slot ahead of the intentionally tainted Chinese Royal Jelly.

3)  Killing bees is not a new iphone app, but it may be a byproduct?

Are our cell phones killing the bees?  Researchers at the Punjab University in Chandigarh conducted a test to find out.  For the details check out the short story at http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20006445-71.html.  Basically, they found that in their bee hive that was surrounded by two cell phones that were active for 15 minutes twice a day the Queen bee produced less than half the eggs then the other two control hives and no honey or pollen was found. 

So why are the phones a problem? 

"The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up."  -http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/are-mobile-phones-wiping-out-our-bees-444768.html.
This article goes on to talk about why this causes Colony Collapse Disorder.

One slightly sensationalized statement that I'll allow because it comes from this dead scientist guy; "Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left". -from the link above.

Wait, don't go to those bunker websites just yet, let's keep going.

Here's a site that clearly goes through why cell phones are disorienting bees causing Colony Collapse Disorder.  Plus it has a bunch of pretty pictures.  http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/animals/news-how-your-cell-phone-slowly-killing-bees

With some legitimate studies completed I think we can clearly put cell phones in the possible cause category.

4) What list would be complete without a big business buyout?

Remember one word:  clothianidin.  In a world with no fruit or vegetables, I envision myself sitting down to another dinner of wheat porridge angrily muttering "clothianidin" over and over to myself.  (this is a joke, not sensationalizing!)

We've all heard this story before.  A big business somehow manages to attain the necessary registration to get their product on the market in spite of faulty studies.  This time it's the German chemical/pharmaceutical giant Bayer.  After Bayer came out with a request to use clothianidin on cotton and mustard this document was leaked:

Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

Does it sound like a good thing or a bad thing when an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) scientist conducting a study to test whether or not something is safe for commercial use comes back and says it is highly toxic on both a contact and oral basis which suggests the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees?  I'm no scientist, but that doesn't seem good...

A little bit further down the spiral a memo within the EPA was leaked stating:

This substance, sold in the USA as clothianidin, disrupts the nervous system of insects, and it’s been a suspect in the mass death of honey bees for years. It’s still available widely. Recent documents intimate that the EPA has known for a long time the chemical could be harmful to bees, but has kept it on the shelves while bee populations plummet.
This class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, attacks the nervous system of insects, killing them off, while having little effect on other animals. This makes them excellent pest control — so excellent that many seeds are sold treated with neonicotinoids. The plant grows with the pesticide inside it, allowing it to kill all the insects which attack it.

http://www.inquisitr.com/94860/leaked-memo-shows-bayer-product-killing-bee-colonies/

In case you're not totally distraught check out this article.  It talks more about the faulty study the EPA used to allow clothianidin in the first place.

http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2010/12/new-evidence-bee-killing-pesticide-never-should-have-been-registered/

Given the evidence the clothianidin and neonicotinoid theory gets a spot right in the front of the hypothetical file cabinet.

If you only open one link I've put up here open this one.  http://www.e-changesolutions.com/Beebook/ 
It's a 3 and a half minute video that very clearly lays out the situation and most importantly has some good ideas for a

CALL TO ACTION

Let's not whimper away and let this information become depressing, rather, here is something each one of us do about it.

1) Plant a bee garden!  http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/act-today-2/plant-a-bee-garden/#
Basically, plant flowers, native flowers, and lots of them!

2) Plant a Linden tree.  $7 from http://www.arborday.org/Shopping/GoSearch.cfm?MultiSearch=Linden&trackingID=101&gclid=CKGB_43a8acCFUVqKgodkmz6aQ

Who Knew How Much We Need The Honey Bee??

Thanks Brie!  This post of yours was kind of the motivation for this in the first place. 

I'm quite positive there's more than just a shred of truth to this one.

"Honey bees are important if you like fruits, if you like vegetables."

http://www.vanishingbees.com 

"...we know that over one-third of our food supply relies upon them for pollination services and we know that pollination is essential for the reproduction of the plants the bees service."  That's a problem..

http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-saving-the-bees-is-so-important-for-our-world_  

WHY? Mystery Bee Disappearances Sweeping U.S. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070223-bees.html

Beekeeper leaks EPA document

http://vimeo.com/18922870 

Colony Collapse Disorder - wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder 

JEREMY'S RESPONSE

"Yes Brie- that is worrying. I don't know much about the vanishing bee phenomenon. Does anyone have solid evidence about what exactly is causing it?"

OK, as for me, I'm going to search more into the why, how dire the situation is and what is being done about it.  

Why We Worry

The definition of "worry" that I like the best is:

to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret.

To torment oneself.  Hmm..  My mother, like most mothers, is a professional worrier.  She gave up her amateur status some 30 years ago.  While she'll never retire, rumors are circulating that she's cutting back on her schedule, down to 50 weeks a year.

I believe I learned a thing or two from her concerning this delicate art.

Worrying can be a debilitating depressing blanket OR an indicator of what we truly care about.

The purpose of this blog is to create a forum to discuss the latter.

The 24 hour news cycle, while creating a constant stream of information, doubles as an omnipresent voice in our ear peddling fear and, far too often, the agendas and bias from those who are paying the bills.

Blood leads, sensational sells, yada yada, bottom line is that there is a bottom line.

So here's how this is going to work.  Whenever I come across a story that immediately motivates me to look into buying a bunker for 2012 I'll know I've found a story worthy of discussion.  I'll take the inaugural wade through the bias and assuming there's a shred of truth hidden within the fear mongering I'll share my take on the story with all of the referenced links and then open it up.

But here is the catch!

While I do care what you think or feel, a response like "this has to be true, I just know it", or "this is so stupid, it's even worse then that gotta get down on friday song" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0  isn't going to be very constructive to the discussion.

SO...

The first rule of fight club:

1) A response must be accompanied by some information that is factual and is as objective as possible.

Objectivity can be difficult, but that's our goal.  I'll burst some bubbles right now and just go ahead and say it, Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck aren't credible sources.

And finally, notice the underlined accompanied by about an inch north of here.  I still want your personal thoughts, as long as they are coupled with some facts.  

That's it, away we go.