Keeping Bees

In the latest New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert (author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe), investigates colony collapse disorder, or CCD, becoming a small-time beekeeper in the process. Kolbert's hives suffer repeated collapse, not due to any mysterious epidemic, but rather the brash intrusions of honey-obsessed black bears.

Meanwhile, her research into CCD arrives at the tentative conclusion that the disorder is likely caused by a virus. Moreover, she learns that CCD is, in the words of one entomologist, a "crisis on top of a crisis." She is referring to the decline of wild pollinators likely due to a range of factors, including habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change and disease. She quotes a report by the National Research Council on the status of North American pollinators, which states: "Pollinator decline is one form of global change that actually does have credible potential to alter the shape and structure of the terrestrial world."

You can read Kolbert's report in the August 6 issue of the New Yorker or listen to an audio report from her here.