Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
And bees are now disappearing from Europe as they have from the US
Concern started in the US last autumn, and has now hit half of all American states.
The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, and the East Coast 70 per cent .
It is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers,
The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die individually far from their hives.
The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony collapses will not touch it
The implications of this spreading situation are alarming.
CCD is now occurring in many European countries from Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece and Italy with an English commercial bee keeper stating that 23 of his 40 hives had been abandoned as other bee keepers in Scotland, Wales and North East England have claimed losses as well
True to form the British Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
Sure
Leaving British officials aside elsewhere scientists have begun to suspect radiation from mobile phones and other hi-tech devices could be responsible
The theory holds that radiation from mobile phones interferes with a bee's navigation system,
German research has long shown that bees' behavior changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. .
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry in the Nineties on the hazards from mobiles, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
Time will show but as with many other things we may not have so much time leftPoor bees
Poor humans
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