COAL-MINE CANARIES

Bees dying by the millions

Honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate from US states with losses ranging from 30% to more than 70%.
American bee colonies have been hit by regional crises before, but keepers say this is the first national crisis.
The mystery disappearances highlight the important link that honeybees play in the chain that brings fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables.

“I have never seen anything like it,” California beekeeper David Bradshaw, 50, told the New York Times.

[“Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”]

Italian bee deaths signals woe for environment

Italian bees are been killed off by the millions and environmentalists and honey producers warned today this was a sign of a worrisome turn for the environment.
The National Beekeepers' Association UNAAPI said the country was witnessing a silent "slaughter of bees" and that Italian honey production would plummet by at least 50% this year.

"Bees are our 'sentinels of the environment', very much like butterflies and fireflies. Unlike ants, termites or coachroaches they are extremely delicate and will not adapt to a negative environment," UNAAPI Chairman Francesco Panella told ANSA.

"A bee does not survive contact with toxic substances and dies before it even reaches the hive. Pure honey, in fact, is nature's real wonder product," said Panella, distressed that the shocking mortality rate has not yet shaken the authorities and the public out of their complacency.
He claims the situation in Italy is far worse than in neighbouring France where in June environmentalists and the influential daily Le Monde drummed up a campaign highlighting the plight of French bees, claiming they were being felled by a new high-tech pesticide being marketed by a major multinational.