Albert Einstein speculated that "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."
FROM NPR NEWS:
Health & Science
Alarm Over Missing Bees Prompts House Hearing
by Andrea Seabrook
March 29, 2007 · The disappearance of bee colonies across North America, which endangers the pollination of fruits and vegetables, prompts a hearing by the House agriculture panel. Alarmed beekeepers, farmers and scientists voiced their concerns at the hearing.
The scientists and farmers spoke of the magnitude of the problem, which, they stressed, went far beyond a few bees here and there.
It's not just the honey industry being talking about, they said — although it is getting hit hard, too.
At issue is practically the whole of American agriculture. Most orchards, fields of grain and vegetable crops are pollinated by honeybees. And both milk and meat come from cows that eat grain.
If honeybee populations continue to disappear in such huge numbers, the witnesses said, it could have a dramatic effect on crop yields — and ultimately the nation's food supply.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9213661
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Isaiah 7:17-25
17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
Matthew 24:7-8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
