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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14855 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-03
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Review

“At last an authoritative account of the vanishing bees: one of the most puzzling environmental problems of recent times. . . . at once a great detective story and an object lesson of how to live in harmony with the living planet, our home.” --Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and Environment

"Who could imagine a spring without bees? One might say this is impossible, especially the kids. Michael Schacker's eye-opening story A Spring without Bees is a must-read for all of us who want to live in a sustainable and regenerating world for many generations to come." --Anthony Rodale, Chairman Emeritus, The Rodale Institute

"The loss of the bees is a four-fold tragedy: for the beekeepers, the growers, the consumers and of course for the bees themselves. Michael Schacker's fascinating and enlightening book is an important new look at the great mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder." --Dr. James Amrine, President of the Acarology Society of America, Medical Entomologist, West Virginia University

"In a debate clearly underpinned with political and commercial positioning and controversy over scientific fact and assumption, Michael Schacker’s multi-faceted review of the dispute to date, and its possible consequences, helps us clearly understand what is needed to reverse the bee decline threatening world food supply." --Dr. Kurt Johnson, ecologist and ethicist; co-author of Nabokov’s Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius "A Spring Without Bees is an object lesson in just how delicate the web of life is. It sounds an urgent call to action on behalf of one of our economy's tiniest laborers but also asks that we re-think the environmental consequences of the entire way we do business." --Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

“Michael Schacker offers another important rationale for organic farming methods as a way to protect the fruit and vegetable supply.”--Dr. Timothy J. LaSalle, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, The Rodale Institute

From the Back Cover
On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson, the world faces a new environmental disaster, from a chemical similar to DDT. This time the culprit appears to be IMD, or imidacloprid, a relatively new but widely used insecticide in the United States. Many beekeepers and some researchers think IMD is the new prime suspect for the devastating syndrome known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, which has raised the annual die-off rate of honey bees to 30% of all the beehives in the United States. They say even trace amounts of IMD make bees lose their desire to feed, which would quickly lead to the collapse of their colony. After several days, there are few or no bees left in the hive. Since honey bees are essential to the production of fruit, nut, and vegetable crops around the world, their demise could spell catastrophe for our food supply and global economy.
In a riveting detective story that melds science and politics, Michael Schacker investigates the case of the missing bees, examining the many theories on the cause, including cell phones, mites, new pathogens, and bee management. He then examines the evidence against IMD. The book does much more than illuminate the scientific research, however. Using CCD as a metaphor for our own human hive, Schacker asks: Are the bees trying to tell us something? Could this be the warning sign of a much larger crisis looming directly ahead? Might humankind suffer someday from “Civilization Collapse Disorder”? And how must we change our human hive in order to ensure its survival?
Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, A Spring without Bees is a compelling cautionary tale and a clarion call for action.

About the Author

Michael Schacker is an investigative science writer and is the founder of The New Earth Institute, a lifelong learning center on the Internet. He has served as a strategic consultant and contract writer in the field of regenerative agriculture, and believes that there is a solution on this Earth for each of our many problems if we but look for them.

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Customer Reviews

Ending Colony Collapse Disorder


Ending Colony Collapse Disorder

Following in the footsteps of Rachel Carson, Michael Schacker again sounds the alarm that the normal functioning of the natural world is still being disrupted by man-made substances. In A SPRING WITHOUT BEES: HOW COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER HAS ENDANGERED OUR FOOD SUPPLY, he carefully investigates the plight of the European honeybees, many of which have died or been unable to find their way back to their hives. In the process of solving this disturbing mystery, Schacker examines the numerous theories that have been proposed as causes of CCD and reveals a new one--which is most probable, partly because it is supported by what has been known for decades about how products used to control harmful insects can also destroy helpful ones.

Schacker presents convincing arguments, including the experience of French beekeepers which point in the direction of neurotoxins that have changed certain pesticide formulas in the past five years. These poisons build up with repeated applications and remain in the soil for years. When the honeybee collects the flower nectar, it can "intoxicate" the bees to the point where they can no longer find their way home, causing the mysterious disappearance of whole hives. Partial exposure or eating poisoned winter stores of honey can weaken or kill the bees as well. The pervasive use of these pesticides, not just for agriculture but for lawns, golf courses, and parks makes it impossible for the honeybee to avid contamination. He further explains that human exposure to these pesticides is also a health risk, especially for children who play on these contaminated lawns.

But Schacker also offers hope for the honeybee, for humankind, and for the planet if we begin to act quickly. He presents strong arguments for avoiding the mechanistic approach of attempting to engineer nature for our own purposes, since that usually backfires into worse problems than what we intended to prevent. Instead, he advocates and describes numerous organic methods which everyone, including farmers, homeowners, golf course managers, and beekeepers, etc. can use to restore the natural balance to the planet and save the honeybee. This book is a call to action, backed up by extensive scientific data that needs to be heard by everyone one who cares about the future. This is a must-read that definitely deserves five stars!

Save the Bees from Colony Collapse Disorder
Michael Shacker's book is a wake-up call to the world. It is by far the best told, best researched and most passionate of the published accounts about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), laying out in vivid detail CCD's devastating, life-threatening effects on bees and on the human food supply. Bees are indispensible to the natural reproduction (pollenizing) of crucial plants we all rely on for food.

One reviewer here asserts this book contains woo-woo science (it doesn't; everything is documented). The same reviewer then suggests we might genetically engineer bees that can tolerate the neuro-toxin that France and Germany have banned. Excuse me? That's worse than woo woo. It's irresponsible. Genetically engineer bees to withstand neurotoxin so chemical companies can continue to put it in the ecosystemime ? This reviewer clearly does not get it. Five more years of tests and proofs before suspending the use of the suspect substance and there will be no hive populations left to resuscitate.

European bans on the neurotoxins in question are based on simple tests that vested lobbies in the US have managed to avoid so far. Would anyone suggest we engineer songbirds to withstand DDT and bring DDT back into mainstream farming? How about breeding people to tolerate eating sewage and sate their hunger at land fills? An equally nutty idea.

Schacker has clearly done his research and answers each speculation as to cause with the facts on the ground. By citing conclusions reached by scientists in Europe, Schacker issues a call to the United States to look seriously at these causes and perform the same tests.

If you're looking to inform yourself thoroughly on this agricultural disaster in the making, you're first stop, and your best, is here, at "A Spring Without Bees."

People can also help spread the word about CCD at Schacker's website: http://www.planbeecentral.com

Not perfect, but a great resource
Schacker's book is an excellent resource for the well-educated person who wants a broad and detailed review of Colony Collapse Disorder. It is not, however, the final word on the cause: Schacker takes one theory -- that CCD is caused by the pesticide imidacloprid (IMD) -- and, while making a convincing case, fails to account for some reported CCD die-offs that are *not* consistent with the pesticide theory. The work also wanders into topics that are arguably not related to CCD, as mentioned in other reviews. That said, the book is timely and well-researched, and presents an array of suggested responses to CCD that regular people can implement, from planting bee-friendly gardens, to keeping bees, to challenging government inaction/incompetence.

I bought this book as a new hardback because I feel the need to be as well educated as possible about CCD. I am one of the organizers of the 2008 San Francisco Bee-In on September 21st at the Randall Museum, which will serve both as a fundraiser for the documentary-in-progress The Vanishing of the Bees ([...]) as well as a public education event.

Schacker reviews some of the CCD theories that have made cameos in the news media over the last two years, including a thorough and amusing dismissal of the "cell phones are killing the bees!" story. After rejecting many theories, he presents the story of CCD in France (a story we've heard relatively little about in the U.S.) and explains why French beekeepers came to suspect the pesticide IMD. It's a compelling narrative, and there is data in the U.S. that supports it. However, one of our country's top bee researchers, Dr. Eric Mussen of UC Davis, recently recounted in his newsletter (repeated by apiarist Kim Flottum in his "Catch the Buzz" newsletter, available via [...]) that the pattern of CCD's spread looks more like a disease than pesticide misuse.

My point is, it's too early in the crisis to settle on one hypothesis. In the meantime, yes: let's invoke the "Precautionary Principle" and suspend IMD use. And yes, let's include the French research; to not do so would be anti-scientific and arguably criminal. But let's continue to do the science. More research is required, and the public can help by supporting funding for a broad research effort on CCD, both through private donation and pressure on government funding sources. (Funding earmarked for CCD by the USDA in early 2007 is only becoming available this August, almost a year and a half later; the severity of the crisis demands more timely and responsive leadership -- anything less is incompetence.)

I don't agree with everything Schacker argues in this book, but I do relate to the sentiments he expresses in Chapter Nine, "Civilization Collapse Disorder" (which includes the sub-chapter heading "The Public Has To Wake Up"). I am glad to see this book on the shelves: it's a thought-provoking and helpful -- if not quite perfect -- resource.