The birds and the bees
By Cassie Doherty,
First, it was the honeybees. In a phenomenon called CCD (colony collapse disorder) honeybee colonies around the world have been mysteriously dying out for the past couple of years. Spooky enough, but now apparently the numbers of common birdlife are in fast decline. Spooky and worrying.
The whole bee shortage was odd but personally caused me little concern beyond wondering what I'll be putting on my morning toast in the future. But now that other species are suddenly disappearing (conservation expert calls birds our "environmental barometer" which surely does not bode well) I feel like I'm one of the unsuspecting public in some creepy old-fashioned sci-fi short story in which nature is slowly disappearing and we're oblivious to the warning signs ...
(Plus, I wish it was wasps that were vanishing—especially the ones that always seem to be hanging around my front deck now the weather's warming up.)
Comments
Jason Smith
There is that really old theory that if the honeybees die then all the food crops will be gone within three years, wiping us out with them. Bees (not wasps) are still the main pollinator for flowers that set seed for fruit/food.
And in the UK this year, there has been a major crisis and concern about the almost complete disappearance of the common house sparrow. In one year, almost all gone. No-one has the answer to that one yet, either.
Crikey, aren't things just swell ?
David Prosser
An Indian Summer has seen them all turn up in Gloucestershire. Wonder where they've been?
Annabel McAleer
On Sunday night Dr Who explained that bees are really alien lifeforms which have begun the exodus to their home planet.
Which made me feel better, for a while.
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