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DCL
Let's start with the scoop from Rowan Jacobsen, author of Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis: "Many people will remember that Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, but she also warned of a fruitless fall, a time when 'there was no pollination and there would be no fruit.'" That fruitless fall, Jacobsen warns, "has nearly arrived as beekeepers have watched a third of the honey bee population mysteriously die over the past two years."
We take honeybees for granted. But, as we learn here, a fair portion of our food relies on bees?specifically commercial honeybees?at the "critical early stages of its development." This is why the sudden disappearance of honeybees, a.k.a. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), is all the more alarming. TreeHugger.com tells us: "The bee losses are especially distressing in light of a study last year that concluded that pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world?s crop production, increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide."
Learn more about CCD and what you can do here.
