Saturday, August 25, 2007

Bees, and other apocalyptic stuff...

The bees are locking up shop. This collapse of colonies of honey bees has beekeepers fighting to survive and farmers wondering whether there will be bees to pollinate their crops. One professor in Germany has suggested that it's the cells – not anything in your cellphone, but those poles with blinking lights and broadcast equipment on them – that are emitting signals that disorient the bees. There are also reports of organic bee colonies surviving where ‘industrial’ colonies are collapsing. It's apocalyptic stuff: no bees means no pollination; no pollination means no crops; no crops means no other-than-flesh- fish-and-fowl food, except mushrooms and seaweed, I guess. Is there anyone doing anything about this? Can you or I do anything about this? I told my friend, Thomas, the other day, that the jet streams from airplanes were major contributors to pollution, and that I intended to travel as much as possible by train in future, and by boat, if I needed to cross an ocean. He seemed very surprised by the info about the polluting effect of jet streams. It's true, though, as it's also true that there are limits... We can bend things to our wills thus far, and no further, except with devastating effect. We are not entitled. We don't have rights, except perhaps the right to fiddle while the planet burns...

2 comments:

FSJL said...

Don't you know that literature is a foolish frivolity in hard times? Just ask any West Indian ministry of education........

clarabella said...

I see, fsjl, that you agree with fellow university don, Elaine S., who said to me, "Don't expect literature to change anybody." Or with W.H. Auden, who said, "In the end, art is small beer. The really serious things in life are earning one's living so as not to be a parasite, and loving one's neighbour." Since writing is how I earn my living, and have done for twenty years or so, I have to disagree with the West Indian ministries of education. And literature has, I believe, helped me to love my neighbour... Enjoy labour day, and make sure you do some honest labour – in other words, don't you go reading any novels!