Hell's Bells, Save the Bees

A bumble bee, pollinating the Tulip Tree in our back garden - photo from 2009

I think all gardeners love bees, don't they?  There are few things more pleasant than sitting in a warm spot in a sunny garden, with a long, cool drink, and the sound of bees going about their business, pollinating everything in sight.  We used to have some lovely, tall pink foxgloves outside the kitchen window, and I'd happily while away the time watching the bees work their ways methodically up the plant, from flower to flower, looking like busy little postmen delivering welcome parcels in flowery blocks of flats.

They are so very important, too.  There is a quote, attributed to Einstein (while presumably taking a break between coming up with the Theory of Relativity and the Quantum Theory of Light), that if the bees go, all life on earth will end within four years.  Even the cockroaches.  Now, it turns out that Einstein probably didn't say this - at least, there is no evidence that he did and the quote first came up several decades after his death if memory serves - but clever people with large grants have calculated that there is more than a grain of truth in the saying, so the recent significant decline in the bee population is more than a little alarming.

All sorts of theories have been posited for why this decline may not only have come to pass, but to be giving no sign of slowing down or reversing.  Theories from tiny parasites to atmospheric conditions, from astroturf lawns to aircraft increases have all been put forward, then filed in a deep dark archive somewhere on the lower levels.  The latest theory, which has been tested and seems to be bearing some serious fruit, however, is that the bees are confused and disturbed by the electronic pulses given off by mobile phones, to the extent that they will abandon their hives, disband, and die.

The evidence is not yet conclusive, but it is looking pretty damning.  

I find this incredibly alarming.  Mobile phones have become such a fundamental part of all of our lives that I really cannot see enough people abandoning their phone to make any kind of a difference to this problem.  Quite simply, many people will not care at all, others will not care enough, still more will care but their busy lives will make it incredibly difficult if not impossible for them to bin the phone.  There will of course be a band of people sufficiently committed to the wellbeing of the planet to ditch their technology and campaign for us all to do the same.  I fear, however, that the usual will happen.  Despite the fact that we know in our hearts that they are right, and even deeper down we realise that on some level they are better and less selfish than the rest of us, we will mock them, denigrate them, and generally call them Swampies.

Meanwhile, the bees will continue to decline, and what shall become of us all?