<strong>The</strong> <strong>Welsh</strong> <strong>Beekeeper</strong> #182 34 Autumn 2013
This film is to be released in cinemas on 23rd August - having had a preview, I recommend seeing it for the fantastic photography and insight into the hive and the drama and violence reeked by man’s interference. DVD’s may be available. Sue A production by <strong>The</strong>lma Film and Ormenis Film, zero one film, allegro film In co-production with SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / SSR SRG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ORF With the support of Office fédéral de la culture (DFI) Switzerland, Bundesamt fur Umwelt BAFU, Aargauer Kuratorium, george foundation, Fonds culturel SUISSIMAGE, G + B, Schwyzer-Winiker Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Zurcher Filmstiftung, Fonds REGIO Films with the Loterie Romande and the Canton of Jura, Succès Cinéma, Succès Passage Antenne and Frenetic Films SYNOPSIS Over the past fifteen years, numerous colonies of bees have been decimated throughout the world. <strong>The</strong> causes of this disaster haven’t yet been established. Depending on the regions of the world concerned, between 50% and 90% of the bees have disappeared. This epidemic, of colossal violence and breadth, is spreading from beehive to beehive all over the planet. Everywhere, the same scenario is repeated: billions of bees leave their hives, never to return. No bodies are found in the immediate surroundings. No visible predators. In a few months, the bees have thus literally been vanishing in the US, where the latest estimates are that a total of 1.5 million (out of 2.4 million total beehives) have disappeared in 27 states. In Germany, according to the national beekeepers association, one fourth of the colonies have been decimated, with losses reaching up to 80% in some farms. <strong>The</strong> same phenomenon has been observed in Switzerland, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Poland and England, where the syndrome has been baptized “the Mary Celeste Phenomenon”, after the name of the ship whose crew had vanished in 1872. Scientists have found a name for the phenomenon that matches its scale: “colony collapse disorder”. <strong>The</strong>y have good reason to be worried: 80% of plant species need bees to be pollinated. Without them, no pollinization, hence practically no fruits or vegetables. Three thirds of the cultures that feed humanity depend on them. Apis mellifera (honey bee) appeared on Earth 60 million years before man and is as indispensible to the economy as it is to man’s survival. Should we incriminate pesticides and the medication used to combat them? Parasites such as varroa mites? New viruses? Travelling stress? <strong>The</strong> multiplication of electromagnetic waves disturbing the magnetite nanoparticles found in the bees’ abdomen? It seems that it is rather a combination of all these agents that has been destroying the bees’ immune defenses. Fifty years ago, Einstein had already insisted on the dependence relation that bound the pollen gatherers to mankind: “If bees were to disappear from the globe,” he had predicted, “mankind would only have four years left to live.” <strong>Gwenynwyr</strong> <strong>Cymru</strong> #182 35 Hydref 2013
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