Bees protect the planet

Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees died out, "man would have no more than four years to live."

We have known for a long time, but now even more compelling evidence that pesticides are the cause of the global bee decline. To some this may not seem important but to anyone who understands ecology and the web of life will know that this may be devastating to the human population if it continues on unchecked.

Compelling new evidence from the US government's top bee expert that modern pesticides may be a major cause of collapsing bee populations led to calls yesterday for the chemicals to be banned.A study published in the current issue of the German science journal Naturwissenschaften, reveals how bees given minute doses of the widely used pesticide imidacloprid became more vulnerable to infections from a deadly parasite, nosema.

Bees are vital to human survival. More than 70 of the 100 crops that provide 90 per cent of the world's food are pollinated by bees.

This may also help explain other major decline in world animal populations such as the Tasmanian devil. The Tasmanian devil has become susceptible to a cancer that is devastating the whole of the population and putting the population at the point of extinction.