The Great Bee Mystery

Posted by Edge on April 15th, 2007 filed in Nature

Where are all the bees going? Since last autumn, bees have been mysteriously disappearing, endangering our agriculture. Bees are required for pollination in many crops. If this continues, it could be devastating to our economy.

Strange thing is, they’re not just moving to other areas of the country. They are disappearing, never to be seen again. The thought is that something is interfering with the bees’ navigation system, so they are having difficulty finding their way back to the hive. Alone and lost, they soon die.

So what is the cause of this strange phenomena? Evidence is now pointing to wireless devices such as cell phones. That’s right, as bizarre as it may seem, cell phones may cause massive food shortages across the world!

This phenomena of disappearing bees started in the United States and has spread to Europe and now Britain.

Colony Colapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive’s inhabitants disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and immature workers. CCD has spread to Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Greece. Now, one of London’s largest beekeepers had had 23 of his 40 hives abandoned.

Most of the earth’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein was quoted to say that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”.

So, why is this happening? Some studies have shown that bees’ behavior changes near power lines. Landau University, in a limited study, has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby.

Let’s hope studies on this phenomena are accelerated. This situation has some serious ramifications and must be fixed ASAP. Imagine wireless devices causing the fall of civilization!