It began with a phone call from a very concerned citizen named Patrick Burke. He got my number from a mutual friend - Sara Laimon, founder of the Green Ambassadors.
Patrick had been following the Bee’s steady decline over the last 6 months and was alarmed that the (up to) 70% drop in some populations had only been covered scantly in the news - late night on NPR.
Eight days later, we have a volunteer organized Pre-EARTH DAY press conference with 9 astounding panelists ready to roll. When Patrick called I had no idea what this Bee Syndrome was, or where the Bees came from or where they were going.
Soon after sending out the mass Press Release announcing our event with the title, “To Bee or Not to Bee” we received the first peanut gallery e-mail remark. Since the honey bee was actually introduced by European settlers, and native and African bees are thriving, we are “mistakingly” using the “Bee” as the “poster child” for Biodiversity loss. GOOD POINT! Now, if only more of the public were so well informed of the Bee’s origins, and the likely causes of their immune deterioration.
Indeed, the honey bee is as native as Pizza. But it is part of our ECO-SYSTEM!! And Blog me if I’m wrong, but it is A SPECIES, and most likely a natural, Non Genetically Modified one at that! The bottom line is that as my respected friend Jay Levin once wrote, we have no mass culture identity when it come to Sustainability.
But we all (or at least too many of us) know about Brittney’s recent wagon ride, hair cut, etc. See, you KNOW EXACTLY what Brittney I’m talking about!! Even though you are reading a blog about Global Sustainability & Bees - a particularly non-TV Junky subject, YOU KNEW about it, and you might even know about Anna Nicole Smith’s baby’s paternity test results. Its Ok. It’s not your fault. It is everywhere, teasing you.
What does Sustainability look like any way? Where does a society begin that is struggling to create it, but has no picture of it, no icons, celebrities attached to it, or methods to confidently follow in arriving there.
Well this is where the Bee can be a bridge builder.
Just as EW’s Responsible Media series seeks to answer the eternally evolving question, what is the “responsible” role of Journalism in highlighting questions of public “importance” vs. public “interest” (i.e. food security vs. paternity tests), we as a global society - and community of educators, students, consumers, businesses, artists, art-lovers, readers and writers, can begin to answer - what is OUR ROLE in co-creating a sustainable world. The Bee is an entry point and magnifying glass, allowing our revved up human species a glimpse of the interdependence that truly surrounds us, but we don’t talk about, write about, sing about. Well folks, the Bee is still buzzing, and we’re doing it now.
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April 12, 2007 at 6:21 pm
inspiredcitizen
Melanie,
I am sorry I cannot use my real name, but I work for the NY State Department of Agriculture and do not want to be quoted.
I have kept bees for most of my life, more than 30 years by now. I love the honey bee but it is a kept species, like cattle and pigs.
Wild honey bees are already gone in most northern localities, wiped out by the varroa mites.
Domesticated bees have to be kept alive by chemical treatments.
The only thriving population of wild honey bees in the US is the African bees in the South, which includes southern California. You will find very few people who will sign on to the preservation of the African “killer bees”.
The problem is not agribusiness, or the chem companies, or the government, it’s us. There are too many of us. To have real biodiversity on this planet would require rolling back the human population to one billion or less and letting nature restore itself.
Instead, wild nature has been pushed into corners like northern Alaska and the bottom of the sea.
You may write to me if you want the real facts on honey bees. Or contact Tom Glenn, in Fallbrook, CA.
pb