How Will We Save the Bees?

Bees are an integral and necessary part of our agricultural and ecological systems, producing honey, and more importantly pollinating our crops.

Yet they are dying off at a scary rate.  When I moved to LA I noticed dying bees on my back porch. I didn't have a bee trap or evil poison flowers, they just flew in, and died. If I've noticed this in one of the biggest cities in America, imagine what's been happening in farm towns and rural areas. 

The UK Observer wrote in 2010: "The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers." 

Until now...Two different studies have concluded that cell phone signals severely hamper the normal functioning of bees. From decreased egg production to unnecessary swarming to bees getting lost on their way back to the hives, our cell phone signals are killing off the bees. CNN et al.

"A recent three-year study analyzed the geographic distribution and genetic diversity of eight species of bumble bees in the U.S., the relative abundances of four of the eight species analyzed have declined by as much as 96 percent and that their surveyed geographic ranges have shrunk by 23 to 87 percent.   Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

As it is unlikely that the world will learn to forgo the convenience of cell phones, it is unclear how catastrophic the impact of the loss of bees could become.