This is big news for the scientific world, and more importantly,  for gardeners!

Have the flowers and fruit in your garden been less prolific due to lack of honeybee activity?

There is a reason for that.

Bees are under attack!

Colony Collapse Disorder

Millions of bees have been dying during the past few years from an unknown cause that has left the scientific world baffled, until today.

Have you heard of "Colony Collapse Disorder?"

Basically, no one understood what was going on with the bees but we were quick to offer up reasons for the problem!

Honey bees, who are the chief pollinators of flowers, food crops and provide us with honey and wax have been missing in action in our gardens in large numbers since 2006.

Early speculation on Colony Collapse Disorder implicated pesticides, global warming, genetically modified plants and other human-introduced elements including cell phones!

Is your cell phone killing the bees?

The media had a field day!

The Telegraph Newspaper in UK ran these headlines in May 2010 :  "Mobile Phones Responsible for the Disappearance of Honey Bees" .

CNN picked up the story as did Yahoo news. 

Any gardeners out there read the stories and felt guilty about using their cell phone?

Genetically modified plants were also spotlighted as a contributor to the epidemic:

UK newspaper the Guardian printed this story, PBS broadcast a beautiful documentary, "Silence of the Bees" and a host of other media sites picked up the story.

Breakthrough Information Reported!

In an article by the New York Times posted today  titled, "Honeybee Killer Found by Army and Entomologists", the deadly syndrome seems to be the result of a combination fungus and a virus that have teamed to provide the fatal blow to honeybees. The NYT cited as a source, a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One.

According to the scientific team:

 "Both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised."

Also from the NYT article:

"Research at the University of California, San Francisco, had already identified the fungus as part of the problem. And several RNA-based viruses had been detected as well. But the Army/Montana team, using a new software system developed by the military for analyzing proteins, uncovered a new DNA-based virus, and established a linkage to the fungus, called N. ceranae."

Nature is resilient

Human Nature Reaction

 Fungus and a virus.

So, do you  think we jumped the gun in blaming the woes of nature on human behavior?

Certainly, we are not an innocent lot but I do observe the tendency to link natural devastations to our impact as human beings on the environment.

There is  an article written in the NYT earlier this year titled,  "What’s Behind the Honeybee Decline? Perhaps Not What You’ve Heard"   that sites reactionary behavior on behalf of well meaning environmentalists as a stumbling block to truth.

In the article, the writer, James McWilliams points to the work of lauded environmental steward, Rachel Carlson whose book, "Silent Spring" ignited the passion and call to action of legions of now active environmentalists.

 "As such, an unintended consequence of Silent Spring was to encourage the emerging environmentalist movement to rely heavily on the power of relatively simple cautionary tales to engage grassroots action.  Ever since Carson, when an environmental problem has been identified, no matter how complex the underlying ecological factors, it’s often packaged as a morality lesson highlighting the impact of a single, human-driven environmental sin."

The article also added:

 " Since 2006, when American farmers and beekeepers began to lament drastic declines in hive populations, environmentalists have been packaging CCD as a cautionary tale confirming our excessive reliance on—once again—harmful pesticides."

Now that I know about the role of fungus and virus in Colony Collapse Disorder, I'm curious about what other issues have been too quickly blamed on human behavior.

Apparently, mysterious illnesses can strike any living organisms including humans, plants, and insects.

If so, maybe there is good reason for it but I  prefer to tap into empirical studies and not be satisfied with entertaining the "who's to blame" rhetoric that is prevalent today.

Have we become cynical? 

I just want to enjoy my garden and relax a little.