To Bees or Not To Bees

I am the type of human who secretly wishes my race would go extinct. When I watch a movie about the slaughter of dolphins or drive by an unsightly bald spot on the side of a mountain that once shimmered green with old growth trees, I pray for bubonic plagues to happen sooner than later. It’s not that I’m a misanthrope; on the contrary, I tend to like people. The problem is that I loathe having to witness and contribute to the widespread destruction we routinely wreak on our planet and all of its inhabitants.

I’ve often heard my fellows equate our species to a virus, but I think that’s far too generous an estimation. Viruses don’t usually kill their hosts, their own kind, or themselves- but we kill all three, gleefully. And in the rare instance a virus does behave like a human, it’s considered maladapted.

The Famous Mr. Ed!

Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This change happens very slowly over thousands of years, and increases an organism’s chance of survival. The long, slender neck of a giraffe and the big, square chompers of a horse are both delightful examples.

But what happens when the habitat changes too fast, or too much, for a species to adapt?

 In 2007, the avian census reported that over 25% of the U.S. songbird populations are in deep decline. The reason for the birds’ dwindling numbers is widespread loss of natural habitat coupled with a deafening increase in noise pollution. Interestingly, songbirds have always been a great indicator of an environment suitable for human prosperity: where they thrive, we thrive. Yet, despite their best efforts to adapt, the artificial environment we’ve created is killing them.  

Likewise, we’re in the middle of a bee crisis akin to a mass suicide in the Apis mellifera world. A mysterious ailment called Colony Collapse Disorder is causing agricultural honeybees to abandon their hives and disappear. The frightening thing is that 80% of crop pollination is accomplished by honeybees. Without them, we starve. Albert Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live.” (Oh, if only the planet could be so lucky.)

Why the exodus en masse? Well, everything from intensive pesticide use, genetically modified crops, and climate change has been recently linked to the increase in collapse of bee colonies around the world, but the most compelling reason is that factory farmed honeybees (and that’s virtually all that’s left) are much more susceptible to stress from environmental sources, such as viruses and fungus, than organic or feral bees. In other words, the bees- like the songbirds- cannot adapt to the travesty of progress.

Forty percent of the earth’s organisms are endangered. If our way of living is making them sick, how do we feel? Are we adapting or maladapting?

To bees, or not to bees- is that not still the question?

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to maladapt to

The slings and arrows of progress,

Or do we take arms against overpopulation, coal burning, plastics, pesticides, 

Honking horns, Xanax, Zoloft, suicide,
Military testing, industrial farming, deforestation,

Dupont, BP, Walmart, and Monsanto-

And by opposing end them?

Well, you know my vote. -Stevie