On the most recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the ever acerbic Mr. Maher devoted his final segment to the mass disappearance of bees around the world and the potentially devastating implications of such. Here’s an excerpt, courtesy of the Huffington Post:

Here’s a quote from Albert Einstein: “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Well, guess what? The bees are disappearing. In massive numbers. All around the world. And if you think I’m being alarmist and that, “Oh, they’ll figure out some way to pollinate the plants…” No, they’ve tried. For a lot of what we eat, only bees work. And they’re not working. They’re gone. It’s called Colony Collapse Disorder, when the hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, and all that’s left are a few queens and some immature workers — like when a party winds down at Elton John’s house. Also, if your stinger stays up more than 48 hours, call your doctor.

But I think we’re the ones suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder. Because although nobody really knows for sure what’s killing the bees, it’s not al-Qaeda, and it’s not God doing some of his Old Testament shtick, and it’s not Winnie the Pooh. It’s us. It could be from pesticides, or genetically modified food, or global warming, or the high-fructose corn syrup we started to feed them. Recently it was discovered that bees won’t fly near cell phones — the electromagnetic signals they emit might screw up the bees navigation system, knocking them out of the sky. So thanks guy in line at Starbucks, you just killed us. It’s nature’s way of saying, “Can you hear me now?” [full text]

Earlier this month, the Christian Science Monitor published the following news report on Colony Collapse Disorder:

What’s happening to the bees?

Beekeeper James Doan first began finding empty hives last fall. Entire bee colonies seemed to have up and vanished, leaving their honey behind. Noting the unusually wet fall in Hamlin, N.Y., he blamed the weather. Unable to forage in the rain, the bees probably starved, he reasoned.

But when deserted hives began appearing daily, “we knew it was something different,” he says. Now, at the beginning of the 2007 pollination season, more than half of his 4,300 hives are gone. “I’m just about ready to give up,” says Mr. Doan from his honeybee wintering site in Ft. Meade, Fla. “I’m not sure I can survive.”

The cause of the die-offs has yet to be determined. Its effect on the food supply may be significant. Longer-term, it may also force a rethinking of some agricultural practices including our heavy reliance on human-managed bees for pollination.

Scientists call it “colony collapse disorder” (CCD). First reported in Florida last fall, the problem has since spread to 24 states. Commercial beekeepers are reporting losses of between 50 and 90 percent, an unprecedented amount even for an industry accustomed to die-offs.

Many worry that what’s shaping up to be a honeybee catastrophe will disrupt the food supply. While staple crops like wheat and corn are pollinated by wind, some 90 cultivated flowering crops – from almonds and apples to cranberries and watermelons – rely heavily on honeybees trucked in for pollinization. Honeybees pollinate every third bite of food ingested by Americans, says a Cornell study. Bees help generate some $14 billion in produce. [full text]

Since the above report was published, word began to spread about a possible link between Colony Collapse Disorder and the proliferation of cellular telephones, as reported by The Independent in an article entitled “Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?” Whatever the cause(s), there is little doubt that something is dangerously amiss in the insect world. Indeed, there is much amiss in the global environment. And we ignore (or minimize or deny) such at our own peril.