Disappearing Bees, Dying Bats, And Endangered Polar Bears
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 08:22PM 
There are several stories of science and nature that have been featured in the national news over the last few months. For scientists, an explanation for disappearing bees and dying bats still remains elusive. The risk to the polar bear is a function of continued global warming with the potential for its extinction still over a century away. However, each of these stories has vast potential economic ramifications for the United States and the energy and agricultural industries of the future.
It is now estimated that the honey bee population continued to decrease in the United States in early 2008. The first survey of bee health after the last winter season revealed a dismal picture. In fact, it appears that about 36 percent of the nation's commercially managed bee hives have collapsed. This represents a 13.5 percent increase over 2007. (The Apiary Inspectors of America survey included 327 operators, or 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives.)
In total, there is now a more than a 30% decrease in the honey bee population in the last several years in the United States. The cause of the bee deaths is still a mystery, though scientists are looking at pesticides, parasites, and a virus not previously seen in the country. In many cases, entire hives have collapsed as bees never return and just disappear (Colony Collapse Disorder) .
Indeed, the diminishing honey bee pollination could have a dramatic economic impact on the country's future. It is estimated that $14 billion in U.S. crops are dependent on bee pollination. Also, consider a study funded by the National Honey Board that shows that about 1/3 of Americans' diet is dependent on bees' pollination.
The recent discovery of dying bats is another new national scientific mystery to consider. Consider that bats in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Vermont are dying off by the thousands. The bats often have a white ring of fungus around their noses, called "White Nose Syndrome", and scientists in hazmat suits can now be seen crawling around in bat caves to find out why.
It is not clear if the fungus around the bats' noses is a cause or a symptom of the problem. The fungus could be caused by bacteria or a virus or the bats could be reacting to some toxin or other environmental factor. Whatever it is, sick bats are burning through their winter stores of fat before hibernation ends in the spring, and appear to be starving to death. Some biologists fear that 250,000 bats could die from the problem during this year alone.
Many researchers are calling it the gravest threat in memory to bats in the United States. Bats feed on insects that can damage dozens of crops, including wheat and apples. Therefore, a significant decrease in the bat population would certainly have negative ramifications for United States agriculture. Bats also feed on mosquitoes and a drop in the bat population would lead to an increase the mosquito population which could well result in more cases of West Nile Virus in humans.
While the beekeeping and agricultural industries are in the middle of a crisis concerning disappearing bees and dying bats, a crisis that may soon threaten the United States food supply, the U.S. Department of the Interior was taking a much more proactive approach to the potential future problems of the polar bear. In fact, the Department of the Interior has just added the polar bear to the list of threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. To preserve the habitat of the polar bear as an endangered species will make it even more difficult to explore for oil and gas in the state of Alaska in the future.
The Interior Department concluded that the past and projected future melting of sea ice in the Arctic poses an immediate threat to the polar bear's habitat. It pointed to greenhouse-gas-induced climate change as a primary cause for the recession of the sea ice. Although the species is not currently endangered, its future may be at risk. If global warming were to continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears may disappear in the next century due to melting Arctic sea ice.
Of course, concern over the future of the polar bear may well prove premature. Last winter was the coldest winter seen in the Arctic in many years with temperatures averaging well below normal. In addition, the earth has dramatically cooled during the last year and now many scientists are predicting at least an interruption in the trend of global warming for the next several years.
There are many different theories for the problems of the bees, bats, and polar bears. Some speculate that all of the problems may be linked together by the recent warming of the planet. Conspiracy theorists say that the disappearing honey bee may really be a sophisticated terrorist attack or out of control government experiment. Some blogs on the Internet suggest that the bees are really being called home to God and that the end of the world may be near.
However, the ramifications of all these problems of nature seem very clear. Consumers should be ready to pay more money for food and gas in the years just ahead. There will be a price to pay in the supermarket due to the lack of pollination of the disappearing bee and the reduction of natural insect control due to dying bats. There will also be a price to pay at the gas pump since an attempt at U.S. energy independence could be compromised because of the future endangered habitat of the Arctic polar bear.
Reader Comments (4)
I find a quote from a new book I just read to be very relevant to this article and may be of interest to your readers:
“Other research, from North Carolina, showed that when fungicide is combined with IMD, the effects of the poison are increased a thousand-fold. Fungicides and IMD are often used together now, a particularly lethal brew. And in the April 24 issue of NW Michigan’s Horticultural Research Station Weekly Update, beekeepers were warned directly about IMD, telling them to beware of neonicotinoid pesticides being the cause of CCD:
As we mentioned last week, we have reported cases of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in our honey bee hives in the region. We also reported that neonicotinoid insecticides have been found in nectar and pollen in hives where bees have disappeared. The following recommendation has been issued from Dr. Zachary Huang, the MSU honeybee expert: Avoid using neonicotinoid insecticides near honeybees, if possible. If growers must rely on these chemistries, avoid using them during bloom or before bloom, as the pesticides are systemic and can be transported into nectar and pollen. As we do not use these insecticides around bloom time in cherry, this recommendation can be easily followed. In the case of apples, we recommend other chemistries that are more effective for first generation codling moth and oblique-banded leaf roller control when we would have potential contact with honeybees. Recent evidence suggests neonicotinoids can impair honey bee learning and disrupt their homing abilities. ”
--A Spring Without Bees, How colony collapse disorder has endangered our food supply”, by Michael Schacker
IMD is a widely used pesticide that has only in the last few years been introduced in this country. IMD was banned in France and their colony collapse disorder stopped and the bees returned.
-- Barbara Dean
did anyone think that hmmmm..."bats eat insects-maybe one ate a bee and liked it so he tolld his buddies-and they ate bees and they ate bees -but there was somthing in the bees that poisoned them-slowly and they are dying from that'
According to the documentary, France still has CCD, even though they've banned IMD. So although it's a contributor, it looks like it's not the sole cause. (I would like to see IMD banned in the USA and everywhere else, but I don't think it will solve CCD.)
As was mentioned in Michael Schacker's Book, "A Spring Without Bees", neonicotinoid pesticides are systemic and have been found in the "nectar (ie, honey) and pollen in hives where bees have disappeared." Unless the French beekeeper destroys his expensive, now-devoid-of-bees beehives, he suffers the same CCD fate when he reuses his contaminated equipment to house a new honeybee colony. This, plus the recent discovery by researchers at Cornell University that once treated, nectar and pollen from apple trees continue to exhibit traces of the nicotinoids in future seasons, may account for some French beekeepers continuing to experience CCD.