Colony Collapse Disorder
It's not quite clear why the honey bee has seen a rapid 33% decline in the past decade. Some initial theories included cell phones disrupting the bee's orientation. Most recently, researchers attribute the mystery to a combination of factors - the little murders that build up until exsanguination is inevitable. Parasites, disease, pesticides, malnutrition, migration shift, lack of genetic diversity, change in habitat. Because honey bees have few genes for innate immunity, they are more likely to suffer with multiple stressors.
Did you know that the human diet is 30% dependant upon bee pollination? And this doesn't even consider the food supply for the animals on our planet. Where will we be if our honey bees continue to die off? No one knows for sure but it seems like simple science to me. Yet, we continue to dump pesticides on our plants and in our rivers – contaminating our food/water sources to conquer bugs that attack crops. We treat diseases with antibiotics to quickly attack disease rather than treating the illness as a sign of something bigger that is failing. We mass farm and produce product to meet the demands of a culture consumed by immediacy. How could anyone be baffled by what is happening? Cutting off the nose to spite the face.
In steps Newton's law of energy... For every action, a reaction.
I can't help but think of the macro and micro implications here about humanity. When have we ever ruled our reality? In the here, in the now, I suppose. Fragments of reality.
When did we forget? That our thoughts, our relationships, our communities, our environment, our world is interdependent? That we are not autonomous? Call it karma or a whole host of other man-made concepts, but the basics are glaring at us straight in the face. We are responsible. For our own lives and to the world around us. Simple. We are not just a fragment of society. We are a species and part of a giant system. We need each other. We depend on one another. We depend on our environment. Maybe not right where you are, right now, but in the whole. The threads that bind all life are breaking away and it seems we have thrown our hands up in the air in silent surrender. Surrendering to our self.
Colony Collapse Disorder via the circle-jerk..
I’m looking forward to the two hives that I’ll bring to our property next month. Why do I want to keep bees? Raise a cow? Tend a garden? Clean up our land? Be cautious about what I put in my body and in the water? Be careful with my daughter? Maybe this life that Dan and I have created is an offering. An offering that we’ll do our best, despite the odds. That we hope to resurrect the memories of grand simpleness and the remembering of the circle of life.
(Read more on the subject of the breakdown...)
Did you know that the human diet is 30% dependant upon bee pollination? And this doesn't even consider the food supply for the animals on our planet. Where will we be if our honey bees continue to die off? No one knows for sure but it seems like simple science to me. Yet, we continue to dump pesticides on our plants and in our rivers – contaminating our food/water sources to conquer bugs that attack crops. We treat diseases with antibiotics to quickly attack disease rather than treating the illness as a sign of something bigger that is failing. We mass farm and produce product to meet the demands of a culture consumed by immediacy. How could anyone be baffled by what is happening? Cutting off the nose to spite the face.
In steps Newton's law of energy... For every action, a reaction.
I can't help but think of the macro and micro implications here about humanity. When have we ever ruled our reality? In the here, in the now, I suppose. Fragments of reality.
When did we forget? That our thoughts, our relationships, our communities, our environment, our world is interdependent? That we are not autonomous? Call it karma or a whole host of other man-made concepts, but the basics are glaring at us straight in the face. We are responsible. For our own lives and to the world around us. Simple. We are not just a fragment of society. We are a species and part of a giant system. We need each other. We depend on one another. We depend on our environment. Maybe not right where you are, right now, but in the whole. The threads that bind all life are breaking away and it seems we have thrown our hands up in the air in silent surrender. Surrendering to our self.
Colony Collapse Disorder via the circle-jerk..
I’m looking forward to the two hives that I’ll bring to our property next month. Why do I want to keep bees? Raise a cow? Tend a garden? Clean up our land? Be cautious about what I put in my body and in the water? Be careful with my daughter? Maybe this life that Dan and I have created is an offering. An offering that we’ll do our best, despite the odds. That we hope to resurrect the memories of grand simpleness and the remembering of the circle of life.
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