Dan Rather

There is so much about the natural world that we take for granted. And why wouldn't we? To say that something is 'natural' is often just another way of saying that it's normal, that it is part of the everyday order of the world. Like the birds and the bees.

Unfortunately, it seems that the bees are at least one part of nature that we can no longer take for granted. And though it can be all too easy to tune out yet another piece of environmental bad news, this is a story that merits our full attention.

Bees are fascinating creatures, with a highly complex social system. They are also vital to much of the Earth's plant life and, by extension, to agriculture. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), about one-third of what Americans eat depends on pollination by honeybees, especially those foods - such as fruits, nuts and vegetables - that lend variety and nutrition to our diets. So when beekeepers start reportingthat large numbers of their bees have simply vanished - well over 70 per cent in some places - it is cause for genuine concern.

Scientists mystery

Concern and bafflement. Because the phenomenon of the disappearing bees has been a mystery to scientists. It's not that beekeepers are finding thousands of dead bees in and around their hives - they're not finding the bees at all. One week the hives are full; the next, some hives are all but empty.

Officials at the USDA regard Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as it has become known, as a crisis and have made solving the mystery a top priority, with scientists from multiple disciplines being enlisted in the search for an answer. Though many questions persist, researchers are investigating the possibility that pesticides might be part of the problem.

Or, more specifically, compounds called neonicotinoids that are found in one form or another in most commercial and home-use pesticides. One tentative theory holds that increasing use of these pesticides in this country, particularly in large quantities when plants are flowering, may be contaminating pollen - which, in turn, may be compromising bee immune systems. Bees with weakened immunity are then succumbing to a variety of parasites, fungi and diseases, much as with people suffering from AIDS. If this is indeed the case, it might also explain why the cause of CCD has been so hard to pin down.

Or perhaps it is bees' ability to find their way back to their hives that is being affected. The scientists studying CCD stress that there are no sure answers as of yet. But the immunity theory, if correct, would raise some troubling questions. Perhaps the most obvious one is, if these chemicals compromise the immune systems of bees, what effect might they have on other living things, including humans? Could bees be the 'canary in the coal mine' that is warning us of some greater danger?

To ask these questions is not to imply that your reporter knows the answers. Even scientists are uncertain at this point. But one might further ask whether there is adequate testing and regulation of chemicals that are used to raise our crops and keep our lawns green. We might further ask whether having green lawns is worth any potential risk to insects so vital to our food chain.

Modern agriculture, with its capacity to feed so many, is one of the miracles of our age, employing technology to augment the ways of nature. But we may be learning painful lessons in just how precarious that balance between technology and nature is, and how quickly it can be thrown out of whack. Now we can only hope that technology will help us regain this delicate equilibrium, and quickly.