SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE CELL PHONES MAY BE CAUSING HUGE LOSS OF BEES
INDEPENDENT, UK - Some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile
phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile
phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more
bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt
disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. . . The theory is that
radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems,
preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back
to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back
this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly
disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so
many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought
to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that
normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies,
refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all
American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of
its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.