Whither the honeybees?
Driving through California’s central valley along Interstate 5 and side roads, one can’t help but shudder at the thought of the increasingly dire prognosis for honeybees, which pollinate California’s vast orchards of all kinds of nuts and fruits—it’s stunning really, with mile after mile after mile of blossoms, with each blossom representing a latent nut or fruit, and the aggregate representing future food for untold millions of people.
From 1992 through 2007, I have personally observed a thousand-fold decline (estimate) in the number of honeybees in my own backyard garden—the reports I’ve seen on Colony Collapse Disorder only confirm my personal observations. Wild populations are now all but extinct. Where I once observed a dozen honeybees on every single one of my Russian Giant sunflowers, I might now see a honeybee here and there on each sunflower head.
Without pollination, the massive fruit and nut industry collapses—what will we eat? (And what do the displaced workers do? (the human ones)). No one knows for sure why the honeybee colonies are dying (the root cause that is)—viral and mite infections are some direct causes of death. Could it be the incessant damage to the environment with millions of tons of “harmless” chemicals emitted by short-sighted industries to our air and water (not just agriculture)?
One of these years I’ll stop and photograph the orchards in their glory, before all the trees are cut down for firewood when the honeybees can no longer fulfil their crucial role.
An extensive orchard with its temporary bee “condos” — February 2008
(Nikon D3 + 14-24G)
