W
BUZZING
HEN THE STORIES we tell about nature are subject to their own climate changes, ecology becomes a thing stuck between nature and language. The same can be said about our bioethics. In California, for instance, honeybees are a controversial subject, under fire for the competition they pose to native pollinators. Yet, it wasn’t that long ago when “Save the honeybees” was all the buzz. You might remember hearing about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a phenomenon where, suddenly, honeybees were mysteriously disappearing en masse from their Langstroth boxes. This made international news and sent shivers through the U.S. agricultural sector in 2007ish, particularly in the Golden State, where many high-value crops rely on pollination from the European honeybee ( Apis mellifera ), a species responsible for pollinating 35% to 40% of global food crops. What followed was an outpouring of public sympathy for these wondrous critters, as natureniks and DIY homesteaders everywhere beelined toward apiculture as a hobby. Apiaries started popping up in the most unlikely places, from suburban backyards to the rooftops of downtown high-rises. But times, my friend, have a-changed, and there’s a new bee panic in town — this time directed at native pollinators. Saving honeybees, once the bee’s knees, is now considered so 2007. I’ve even heard folks refer to European honeybees as “rats of the sky,” as these farmed bees get blamed for the endangerment of native pollinators. The irony is almost poetic — the bees we once sought to save are now the villains we need saving from.
TOWARD
“SCIENCE HAS GRABBED THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE 20TH CENTURY, AND IT HAS DONE SO IN A WEIRD WAY — IN THE SAME WAY CAPITALIST PRODUCTION HAS DONE IT, BY CREATING A MYTH EVERY TEN YEARS AND SAYING, ‘HEY, THIS IS THE REAL STUFF, WE’VE GOT THE NEWS.’ IT’S A WAY OF GENERATING AN ILLUSION OF THE REAL BY PRODUCING, JUST LIKE YOU DO WITH NEW CARS, A NEW SCIENTIFIC STORY EVERY YEAR. SO, YOU TURN ON YOUR TV... AND YOU WATCH THE ORIGIN OR DEATH-OF- THE-UNIVERSE STORY OF THE WEEK.”
AN
PLAN BEE
ETHICAL
EXAMINING THE SHIFT FROM SAVING HONEYBEES TO PROTECTING NATIVE POLLINATORS.
by Christian Cummings
illustrations by Peter Oumanski
Peter Warshall “Squirrels on Earth and Stars Above”
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ISSUE 02
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