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Spelling The End For Bees And Mankind

by | 10th, August 2007

THE bees are dying. Bees are important. The Government runs a National Bee Unit. And Ben Macintyre in the Times has seen bee numbers decline. He wants us to understand:

One creature, more closely compared to humanity than any other, is dying in vast and inexplicable numbers, and largely unmourned in Britain. It has been cultivated by Man for thousands of years, providing food and inspiration: we use it as metaphor for hard work as well as indolence, politics, love and the ideal society. No other animal, except human beings, uses a representational language, in the form of a complex dance, to convey information. And now that it is facing a threat to its very survival, we hardly care.

Harldy care? More words have been written on bees than Mr Macintyre imagines.

The economic contribution that bees make to agriculture and horticulture in this country has been estimated at £1 billion, yet the looming threat to the bee population has been all but ignored….

Our neglect of the bee is bizarre given the cultural affinity we claim with the insect. The hive has always been a paradigm for the hard-working Utopia. When Napoleon was crowned Emperor, Notre Dame was festooned in golden bees. At the end of the otherwise dire film The Swarm, in which killer bees threaten the world, Michael Caine observes: “I never dreamt it would turn out to be the bees. They have always been our friend.”

It has not been ignored.There’s a Bee Unit in the UK and in America there’s the National Bee Keeping Federation.

Might it be that he has ignored the problem until now..?



Posted: 10th, August 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink