Motus Mentis

Back in early March I called readers’ attention to Colony Collapse Disorder, which is the name given to an alarming development: bees abandoning their hives, never to be found. This ominous phenomenon, which presents a major threat to our food supply, is already a serious problem — here on the East Coast, it is estimated that 70% of commercial bee colonies are already depopulated. So far there has been no explanation, but now my friend Jess Kaplan has sent me a news item announcing that a European researcher, one Joachim Kuhn of Landau University, has identified a possible culprit: cellular phones. The idea is that the electromagnetic signals given off by mobile phones are interfering with the bees’ navigational systems, and that the bees, unable to find their way home, simply wander off into the wild, there to die alone.

It will be interesting to see how the Colony Collapse Working Group responds to this suggestion.

This is an extremely serious problem; Albert Einstein (who was, admittedly, not a trained agronomist) is quoted in the story as having said that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”. Well, they are indeed disappearing, and fast.

Read the article here.