Honeybees are dying. In America, one in three hives was left lifeless at the beginning of 2008. In France, the death rate might be 60 percent. In Britain, a government minister has warned that honey bees could be extinct within a decade. A third of all that we eat, and much of what we wear, relies on pollination by honeybees. So if - or when - the world loses its black-and-yellow workers, the consequences will be dire. What is behind this catastrophe? Viruses, parasites, pesticides and climate change have all been blamed. As has modern mono culture agribusiness. In this timely book, two keen amateur apiarists investigate all the claims and counterclaims with the help of scientist and beekeepers in Europe, America and beyond. They ask the question that will soon be on everyone's lips: is there any possible way of saving the honeybees - and, with them, the world as we know it?
A World Without Bees
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
To bee or not to bee. Is that really the question?,
By Ashtar Command "Seeker" (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A World Without Bees (Hardcover)
Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum are two British reporters and amateur bee-keepers. Benjamin works for the British daily paper The Guardian. Their book "A world without bees" was published earlier this year, and deals with the mysterious mass deaths of honeybees all around the world, the so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). While some people belive that CCD doesn't really exist, for instance the current Wikipedia writer on the subject, others consider it a serious, global threat to bee-keeping. Benjamin and McCallum certainly belong to the latter camp, claiming that one third of US beehives and two-thirds of those in France have been wiped out by this mysterious condition. Most scientists seem to agree that CCD does exist, but so far no good explanation have been offered, at least none everyone agrees with. The two authors have interviewed researchers who blame pesticides, fungicides, the varroa mite, climate change, new viruses, or even mobile phones (that's a fringe position). Indeed, CCD could be a combination of several different factors. Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV for short) is a prime suspect, but correlation is not necessarily the same thing as causation. Perhaps something in the environment is causing bees to loose their resistance to killer viruses?
The authors own position isn't entirely clear-cut, but their favorite hypothesis seem to be loss of genetic diversity. Most honeybees around the world apparently belong to the same group of Mediterranean subspecies, and the same goes for feral honeybees. These have interbred with wild honeybees, creating a situation in which the honeybee gene pool is virtually the same the world over. When the varroa mite struck, and developed resistance to pesticides, millions of honeybees quickly succumbed - their gene pool was too narrow to develop defenses against the parasite. Benjamin and McCallum therefore strongly supports conservation efforts aimed at preserving local subspecies of wild honeybees. They mention a particular attempt in Denmark, and describe the conflicts this has created between different factions of bee-keepers (the local bees are less productive than the Mediterranean breeds). The bee-keeping industry seems to take the opposite position from that of the authors: the industry wants to genetically engineer a resilient, resistant and high-productive superbee. The authors fear that this will narrow the gene pool even more. What happens if (or when) the superbee is challenged by an equally resilient superbug? The book then describes the chilling effects of a world without honeybees. If you think only the honey would disappear, think again! Many important crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination, including alfalfa, apples, almonds, cotton, citrus, soya beans, onions, broccoli, carrots, sunflowers, melons, blueberries, cherries and pumpkins. A world without bees would be a world without fruit, vegetables, juice, health food (the soya) or clothes (the cotton). Alfalfa is used as cattle feed, so a world without bees would also be a world without meat! To drive home the point, the two authors have visited California, where the highly profitable almond orchards are pollinated by honeybees from all over the United States, driven there on enormous trucks. If the honeybees would be wiped out by CCD, an entire industry would be gone. Already today, food prices are going up, due to ethanol production and other factors. CCD doesn't exactly help... One solution to the crisis mentioned in the book is to use other insects as pollinators, including solitary bees and bumblebees. There are several research projects to that effect in the US. Meanwhile, habitat change have driven bumblebees to near-extinction in some areas, and other insects live too far away from agricultural land to be of much use. Once again, the authors feel that a more environmental-friendly policy is the bottom line. Is the author's alarmist perspective true? No idea. Until I picked up this book, mostly by chance, I never even heard of CCD. (Of course, I have heard of the varroa mite.) However, Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum have written an easy-to-read introduction to the issue, after talking to both scientists, migratory bee-keepers, almond growers, and even conspiracy theorists. I recommend the book, and call on everyone to continue researching the topic.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, valuable, objective. A fantastically GOOD book.,
By
This review is from: A World Without Bees (Hardcover)
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become. Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A World Without Bees,
This review is from: A World Without Bees (Paperback)
`A World Without Bees' explores the effects of the diminishing worldwide Bee population and possible causes. It is well written and easy to read, but it is also very America centric and focuses on the mass Bee industry in America a great deal. The initial chapters that explain how Bee's live are especially interesting and the latter chapters exploring possible causes for their decline make for sobering reading. You quickly realise that human intervention in Bee life and mass agriculture have played a huge part in Bee life and having read other books of an ecological nature, makes me want to use organic products and care for the environment all the more. Bee loss is classed as an environmental indicator (like the canary in the coalmine) and if this is true then the environment is in a very sorry state indeed. There is a middle colour photo plate section in this book and whilst not extensive, it does illustrate some of the points raised well. The authors come across as very enthusiastic about Bee's in general and this topic in particular and that leaps off the page at you and makes the book more engaging. It wasn't quite as good as I'd anticipated (I'm not totally sure why) and whilst I enjoyed it I didn't absolutely love it, but it is an interesting book and worth a read if you have passing interest in ecological issues, Bee's or the environment.
Dedicated to Stephen A. Haines whose reviews inspired me to read some amazing science books and who will be greatly missed. Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.
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