Where Have All The Bees Gone?

Months ago, there were reports of bee colonies with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It seems that CCD occurs "when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers... The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives."

Theories of what causes CCD have ranged from global warming to mites and pesticides. Now a new study is causing scientists to claim that radiation from mobile phones may be the problem for bees.

In the U.S., 60 % of the West Coast commercial bee population has been lost and 70% has been lost on the East Coast. But the problem has reached global proportions. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

It's a little more alarming than trivial because most of the world's crops depend on bee pollination, exposing the delicate balance that we take for granted. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".