where have all the flowers gone?

My mom used to sing that song “Where have all the flowers gone?” The lyrics are so beautiful and so sad. About how all the flowers end up by the graves of fallen soldiers. Now it seems they may disappear altogether.

Lately I’ve been reading up a lot on the disappearance of bees. The U.S. and much of Europe have both seen an almost 50% reduction in the number of bees and just today Thailand reported a 75% reduction.

There are numerous theories as to what is causing this. The bees are leaving the hive and never returning. Some say it’s due to pesticides, some say it’s due to interference in their navigation system that comes from cell phone frequencies. Whatever it is, it’s scary because bees are responsible for 1 in every 3 bites of food we take.

Albert Einstein once wrote that “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

We spend so much time talking about global warming that it’s shocking to me how underrated this problem is in the media and how unaware most of us are. Some people talk about being prepared for Armageddon when they watch news of natural disasters taking place around the globe, and that is reason enough to worry, but it’s something I’ve not gotten too worked up about. I just keep thinking about this bee thing, because it seems to be sneaking up on us, not many people are noticing it, and because it seems kind of unbelievable.

One journalist, writing about it said: “Instead of thinking of ourselves as consumers and competitive free agents, we need to start thinking of ourselves as passengers on a boat that is sinking...”--Dave Lindorff, of the Philadelphia Inquirer

I want to get on the party boat.