NYTreports in February 2007 that honey bees across North America have been dying off in droves, or just missing in action and not returning to the hive, affecting not only production of honey, but all things bee-related including agriculture, like the fruit and nut crops. The phenomenon has been labeled "colony collapse disorder" or CCD.
CCD has honey bee "farmers" in a dither and the worry is spreading.
According to this YahooArticle , our whole lifestyle, table of plenty, FOOD is in jeopardy by the problems facing honeybees. New Zealand reported fears about CCD spreading to their shores, and Australia had a bit of a panic upon finding a nest of Asian honeybees (known to carry a problematic mite that might be causing the CCD) in the mast of ship in Cairns harbor, Queensland. ABCNews
Then in April, a prominent scientist released his report closing in on a fungus found to have affected Asian bees and discovered in the corpses of American bees. JoeDiRisi'sDiscovery But not all scientists agree this is the sole cause of CCD.
THE BEST ARTICLE is this from Guerilla News Network. And the answers don't seem simple, but of course, at least some of the the problem's cause seems to lie with humans.
So now what I really want to know is where are all the yellow sulphur butterflies in Saipan? We used to have so many, and they flocked across Chalan Monsignieur Guerrero in droves so that I thought of getting a bumper sticker that read "I brake for butterflies." Now I've seen a few this year, but usually in groups of two or three, not the twenty or more that was common.
Can someone educate me? Are they disappearing due to habitat loss (my suspicion) or something else?
3 comments:
It is the fault of the previous administration.
Very funny! But which previous administration?!
I remember when there were lots of butterflies everywhere you went. Now, they are so few it's an occasion to see one. And I live in the middle of nowhere in Maine and still don't see many. Except luna moths. We get a lot of those.
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