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April 26, 2007
Bees and black boxes disappear, while Bush avoids the gallows!
Bee season has arrived early in Las Vegas, and because of the fear of "killer bees," exterminators are busier than last year: Our warm Spring has brought beautiful flowers to the valley. Unfortunately it's also brought an early bee season, and the big concern is killer bees have now colonized in Las Vegas.Not so for Philadelphia, I'm afraid. The only bees flying around right now (at least in my yard) are carpenter bees, bumble bees, ground bees, and an occasional smaller bee species with which I'm unfamiliar. Of course, last week there was a snowstorm severe enough to close local schools, which shut down my power and caused the governor of New Jersey to declare a state of emergency, so the bees may be delayed. Doubtless Colony Collapse Disorder is wreaking havoc with bees, but weather is a different matter. At this stage (at least on the East Coast) the bee season is messed up because of the persistent winter cold which lasted into Spring. According to New York beekeeper Shane Gebauer, right now the weather issue is the problem: ...Gebauer, who manages Greenwich's local beekeeper supply company Betterbee, is not worried about colony collapse disorder, at least for the moment.Thus, while Colony Collapse Disorder has been depleting bee colonies, the existing colonies are subject to the influence of weather-related delays as they would be even absent CCD. But that has not stopped Philadelphia area journalist Dave Lindorff from prounouncing that there are not only no honeybees, but no pollinators at all! This is beyond strange. It's downright scary.Lindorff is about to tell the Inquirer's readers what he thinks is happening, but I have to interject. Yesterday I saw several different kinds of bees in my yard, and where I live (Villanova) is about a half an hour's drive from Maple Glen, where the editorialist lives. Lindorff claims that there the native bees -- "ground bees and bumblebees" are "gone." Now, I am not a bee expert, but not only have I already seen bumble bees, but I have never seen so many ground bee burrows in my yard as there are right now. They look like this, and seriously, there is no way to walk around the yard without stepping on one of their characteristic holes. [While I haven't seen so many little holes before, these solitary bees apparently don't sting.] What the heck. I'll offer proof. Whoever took the photo for the last site placed a nickel next to the burrow for comparison purposes, but after checking, I didn't have any nickels in my pocket, so I had to borrow a couple of endangered nickels from a styrofoam cupfull of numismatic oddities I keep upstairs. I hope readers will indulge me; it is not my intent to make any comparison between the Indian and the bee (or the buffalo on the nickel's reverse, for that matter):
Nevertheless, claims Lindorff, the potential causes are as dire as the consequences: There are a lot of possible culprits: climate change, ubiquitous microwave radiation, overuse of herbicides and pesticides, stress, and lowered immunity to fungal, viral, bacterial and mite infections, or perhaps a combination of all of the above.Well, according to Lindorff, we've been in big trouble for some time. Even before the bees were "gone." Writing on April 11 for CommonDreams.org, Lindorff declared that we're about to be killed off entirely, and that only a revolution can save us: It wasn't too long ago that the death of socialism, the triumph of capitalism and the end of history were being widely hailed.Why he didn't mention the bees on April 11, I don't know. Perhaps it was so cold that he wasn't taking critical nature walks. However, he was critical enough to make it abundantly clear that the truth is not merely inconvenient; it's terrifying! And "green" measures will not save us! Our salvation will come only when we recognize that capitalism is over! The so-called "green" politicians who talk about instituting carbon-trading schemes, about driving hybrid automobiles, about buying fluorescent light bulbs, and about turning down the thermostat and wearing sweaters, are deceiving us or themselves.Yes, and the oceans will boil! We're not just merely doomed, we're really really doomed! Does this mean there's no hope for humanity at all? Actually, there's a slight possibility of hope -- provided we replace capitalism with, um, "communalism": That all has to happen, but it doesn't mean people have to starve. We as a society need to demand a government that will help those who are displaced by the crisis to relocate and to find new productive ways to earn a living. A huge government program of investment in alternative energy systems would be able to hire many of those whose jobs are lost by the shutdown of the carbon economy.Who's going to be in charge of this sinking ship? Lindorff doesn't specify exactly, but he uses the word "we" a lot, and his "we" seems to consist of the people who will be dismantling "the whole capitalist system and the freemarket ethos": But before we can start making the huge changes that are called for-really the dismantling of the whole capitalist system and the freemarket ethos-we need to start hearing, and demanding to hear, the truth-from scientists, from politicians, from business leaders, from the media, and ultimately from ourselves.There's more, of course, including dire warnings about submerged methane which will soon start pouring into the atmosphere. I've mentioned Lindorff before because of his Mumia abu Jamal activism. I guess if we start by freeing Mumia while blocking Bush's attempt to avoid the gallows for war crimes, and holding 911 hearings we'll move ever closer away from capitalism and towards communalism. (Lindorff's widely circulated claim that firefighters recovered the 9/11 black boxes seems to have been deflated by the fact that one of the "firefighters" turned out to be a fraud. More here. Can't find the update from Lindorff.) I know it's not related to bees, but Lindorff calls the U.S. troops in Iraq "baby killers" although in an interview he allows that they are at least "alleged soldiers," and says it's "nice to know" they are "reading my columns." (The latter claim is not as fantastic as it might seem. I'm sure a lot of soldiers read the Philadelphia Inquirer.) Considering what Lindorff usually writes, what's remarkable about today's bee editorial is that it's as moderate as it is. (I've had too much fun to be disappointed, though.) UPDATE (04/28/07): I'm not alone in bearing witness to bees. Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that Mickey Kaus's mother says her garden is "absolutely buzzing" with bees. But the revolution is still on, isn't it? posted by Eric on 04.26.07 at 09:44 AM
Comments
anyone else see a conflict in him wanting to bring back private farms and at the same time ban large trucks for personal use, in my experience the 2 end up going hand-in-hand, unless you want to try to tow a tractor with a hybrid. William · April 26, 2007 06:06 PM Actually, I just loved that stress sits by itself as a possible cause of CCD. Stress. I guess that the bees are worried about global warming. Jon Thompson · April 27, 2007 04:45 AM Post a comment
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Jeeze, that type of hyperventilation is scary.
The terms "National Socialist Party" come to mind when I read what he wrote.