We set aside the second Sunday in the month of May to honor all mothers, including Mother Earth. This year, she is particularly unhappy because her honey bee children are dying by the millions, which will lead to a reduction in the country's nutrient-necessary fruit and vegetable crops. Many studies now suggest that almost 90% of the feral bee population could already be dead due to a condition called Colony Collapse Disorder. An amazing documentary called Vanishing of the Bees is in the works. Please, please check out the trailer http://www.vanishingbees.com/
Let's honor Mother Earth and Mother's Day 2008 by making a commitment to use our voices, our votes, and our purchasing power to address global warming, the amount of environmental toxins we are willing to tolerate, inaccessible health care for too many Mother's children, and the personal and corporate greed responsible for so much of earth's destruction.
Albert Einstein supposedly once remarked, "If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years." I can't verify that quote, but the honey bee may very well be the canary in the mine.
The hillside color pallet below is Mother Nature's "Ode to Spring." We can collectively honor her on this day by vowing to protect her art and her honey bees for future generations. Simply click on the photo to view an enlargement.
21 comments:
In the name of children all over the world, I will no longer vote for any political candidate that does not let the public know where he or she stands on environmental issues, nor will I purchase anything from companies without a green management policy.
I just read that over one third of all honey bees have died. If we think the commodidies market is playing havoc with corn and all food prices, just wait until we see the coming price of fruits and vegetables.
World wide hunger may be the bottom line if Mothers everywhere don't step up and immediately demand a solution to this problem.
I agree with Ellen, we do this best with voices, votes and purchasing power.
This is the second year we have measured honey bee colony deaths and bees are dying at unsustainable levels of one out of three.
Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were suddenly dying.
It will help prevent world wide hunger if caring Mothers raise emergency funds earmarked for research on honey bee colony collapse disorder(CCD).
University of Massachusetts released a list of the top 100 corporate air polluters in the U.S. in April 2008. They are:
1. du Pont
2. Nissan Motor
3 Archer Daniels Midland
4 Bayer Group
5 Dow Chemical
6 Eastman Kodak
7 General Electric
8 Arcelor Mittal
9 US Steel
10 Exxon Mobil
Just though mothers might want to have this information in case they missed reading the report.
There is a symbiotic relationship between all life on the planet. When any one part of the global body suffers, do does the whole body.
Honeybees may just be the beginning, and Mothers all over the world need to pay attention. This is happening everywhere, not just in the United States.
I'm not sure the Einstein quote is accurate, but honey bees could be the carary in the mineshaft.
All Mothers, and Fathers, need to put
more focus on protecting the planet for their children.
Hey ET,
Have a great Mother's Day. Glad to see you put the wild flower photo I sent you to such good use.
Harry
Good for you for calling attention to a real disaster in the making. I appreciate the blogs expressing concern, and I wonder how many are willing to speak out where it will make a difference. As a scientist and a student of history, I wonder:
How many remember the near disaster of DDT and the loss of thousands of birds and the near extinction of the Atlantic gray pelican and other birds because of the effects of this multimillion dollar product of the chemical industry? How long did the chemical industry deny any link?
Why is the link between the death of honeybees and billion dollar money maker neonicoinioid (imidacloprid) from the German chemical giant Bayer being denied? The answer? Money. It's being sold as "Provado", a great insecticide, and being promoted as the "ultimate insecticide".
Some day the truth will be revealed and we will ask, "Why didn't someone point this out?" Well, bees are insects, and the insect neurotoxin contained in this chemical is doing what it was intended to do - kill insects, including the honeybee.
In my blog (above) i made a typographical error, leaving out the t (with an extra i) in the chemical name (neonicotinoid). Please accept my apology. the name of the chemical is "neonicotinoid", and it's a potent neurotoxin to insects.
Thank you Dr. Thornton for daring to speak truths that most folks don't want to hear.
The bee shortage has already dramatically affected the most productive agriculture region in this country; the Central Valley of California.
If you think corn prices have soared, pollination fees rose from $30 per hive per acre to $140 this past winter for Almond farmers. Hive poaching is not uncommon in the central valley.
Other than vote what else can we do to help protect the bees.
Great question:
You can write letters to your elected officials, and you can encourage every person on your email lists to do the same.
You can also send a few bucks to the talented young filmmakers who are researching, writing and filming the www.Vanishingbees.com documentary mentioned in the "The Power of Mothers" piece above. Check out their bios, I think you will be impressed.
One-third of our nation's food supply depends on bee pollination and bees are vanishing in massive numbers.
In my view, the collapse of the honeybee population is just one sign of many that humans have pushed Earth's ecosystems over the edge.
There is a tipping point where Mother Nature will simply refuse to cooperate, and this honeybee collapse is one sign that we may have already crossed a threshold, beyond which balance will only be achieved by a sharp decline in human population.
Thanks Mike,
You could be right about this being the tipping point that causes Mother Nature to unleash her pent-up rage over what we are doing to our planet.
However, I've observed that Mothers with character never throw their families under the bus, so I'm betting Mother Nature will probably use the plight of the honey bee to teach her children about the dire need to respect and cherish every living thing on earth.
"A mother's sorrow is more true, honorable, and beautiful than the detachment of the sage."
Edward Abby
Jackie,
Mothers do most of the shopping, so they can collectively make a huge difference by refusing to purchase one thing from the 10 leading corporate air polluters on the Angry Mom U Mass list.
Ellen and Dr. Thornton,
Good for you two for bringing up another science-based Inconvenient Truth.
Here is a link to an educational cartoon Youtube video that children and adults who care will enjoy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lzWVk2eKmA
Ellen, I read your blog and Dr. Thornton's and UC Davis Research Director's responses and agree wholeheartedly with your concerns, but I wonder why nobody is aware of the chemical industry's responsibility in all this.
Our attention has been misdirected to things like global warming, deforestation, etc. but as far as I know, no one (certainly not our political leaders) has had the courage to confront the all-powerful chemical industry.
Whoever said it was right. "Money is King."
Each one of us can make a difference just as though one bee can make a difference, as quoted below.
We need to make sure that all political canidates we support have a strong understanding of environmental concerns and, along with us, are fighting to make a change.
Emily Dickinson wrote, “To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee."
Thanks Biosyntrx (Ellen) for educating us with this "blog".
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