The Death of Bees By Brian Simpson

     As reported at:
http://collapse.news/2018-01-09-double-threat-may-wipe-out-the-honey-bee-scientists-warn-pesticides-killing-them-off.html
https://naturalpedia.com/clothianidin-toxicity-side-effects-diseases-and-environmental-impacts.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5195389/Pesticides-food-shortages-killing-honey-bee.html
the honey bee is facing extinction:

“For many years now, scientists have been warning us of the decreasing honey bee population. A new research reveals that honey bees could soon go extinct due to the increased uses of chemical pesticides and the severely low amount of food supplies for these poor creatures. A University of California, San Diego study shows that chemical pesticides, as well as a lack of food for honey bees, are threatening their already low population.
Clothianidin and thiamethoxam are two of the neonicotinoid pesticides that are killing off these vital insects. Researchers found that these chemicals, combined with low nutrition, highly impact the life span of honey bees, and severely increased the number of bee deaths by 50 percent. The effect of both these lethal factors are the same as giving poison to a person suffering from malnutrition – both are lethal individually, but together accelerate mortality. The chemicals as mentioned above affect honey bees by decreasing their hemolymph (bee blood) sugar levels and cause the insect to lose energy.”

     The situation is grim and getting grimmer, as the bee is very much the canary in the coal mine of the modern world. I do not know enough about bees to suggest what can be done, given that the little fellows seem highly sensitive to a wide range of agricultural chemicals. This is probably a good argument for organic farming and permaculture, but we still have the problem of modern farmers making the transition to this, without going bust in the process. It is not an easy one to solve. Yet, solve it we must because time is running out, and the horseman of famine can still come riding in.