Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “If the honey bee disappears off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.”
Beekeepers started reporting the deaths of thousands of honeybee colonies. Bees have been disappearing – So in 2006 they started to call it Colony Collapse Disorder (C.C.D.).
Some facts:
- 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out.
- 80 percent of the bees in Netherlands are gone.
- Wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent.
- In the US some beekeepers are losing as much as 80% of their colonies.
The bees pollinate 80 percent of our flowering crops which constitute 1/3 of everything we eat. Losing them could affect not only dietary staples such as apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries and cucumbers, but may threaten our beef and dairy industries if alfalfa is not available for feed. Essentially, if honeybees disappear, they could take most of our insect pollinated plants with them, potentially reducing mankind to little more than a water diet.
So what is killing them? Are they joining the birds that fall from the sky and the fish that wash up on shore? Scientists are baffled. They think it may be ……any one or combination of these. Pathogens One or more pathogens remain scientists’ most likely choice as the cause or partial cause. Parasites A parasite is the other perennial suspect, either by itself or in combination with one or more pathogens. Pesticides There are many classes of pesticides to which honey bees can become exposed. Monoculture Wild honey bees forage on a wide variety of nectar sources. Genetically modified crops Genetically modified (GM) crops, most commonly Bt corn, have been offered up as the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder. Global climate change Weather changes, such as unusually warm winters, earlier springs, drought, and flooding, can lead to changes in flowering times. Cell phones and cell phone towers
The idea of cell phones causing CCD began with the study in which a cordless home phone, was shown to have some impact on honey bee navigation.
Here is another consideration….
- What comes first is the natural body (Natural), then the spiritual body comes later (Spiritual) 1 Corinthians 15 v 46.
- Amos 8 v 11. “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
In the Hebrew the two words are from the same root – devarim (םיִרָבְדּ, words) and devorim = bee (םיִרוֹבְדּ, bees). So a bee has the same root meaning as a word…Physical bees are symbolic of the Word of God! Ps 119:103: How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I suggest that the disappearance of the bees (Hebrew – Devorim) and with them most of our fruits and vegetables is a forerunner of the famine of the word (Hebrew – Devarim). A side note is that grapes and wheat and olives are not pollinated by bees. They are wind pollinated and all three relate to the festivals of the Lord, but that is another discussion…..