Colony Collapse

Colony collapse disorder is a very serious issue where nearly all of the worker bees mysteriously disappear and leave a very small fraction of primarily nursing bees behind to protect the queen. Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is not a new disorder. Since the beginning of beekeeping (or apiculture) which is known to have began as early as 9,000 years ago, there have been records of mature bees leaving the hive for reasons unknown. The problem is that CCD has been at an all-time high since about 2006. This is likely because of something like global warming, or something else that the human race unknowingly started and is now having to deal with. From 2007 to 2013, CCD claimed over 10 million hives. Compared to normal CCD rates, this is extremely alarming. It is twice the normal rate, and nearing three times higher.

The causes of CCD are not entirely clear, otherwise we could simply fix the problem. Chances are that this is a effect of several different problems. Among these causes are Neonicotinoids. Neonics are a new class of insecticides that have a similar chemical composition to nicotine, the main stimulating drug in cigarettes. As of the 1980s, neonics were simply a thought in the scientific minds of Shell (the oil company) and Bayer (the heart-attack medicine company). The most popular and widely used insecticide in the world is Imidacloprid, which is...you guessed it! A neonicotinoid! Unsurprisingly, recent studies have found that when neonics break down, they are actually extremely toxic. Due to the laws in place in the United States, the EPA (environmental protection agency) was only allowed to review and study the use and effects of imidacloprid as of December of 2008. Unfortunately, it was probably too late to fix at this point, especially since the United States and Europe are the only two regions in the world that monitor the use of these insecticides, so as I am writing this, there are probably hundreds of people still spreading this chemical.

In terms of prevention, there is not much to be done to reverse the effects that have already been found, as far as we know at this point. The only thing that we can really do is stop the usage of these neonics and hope that it isn't too late to save this crucial building block to our society. In March of 2007, the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC) gave these recommendations for beekeepers who notice signs of CCD:

• Don't combine a collapsing colony with a healthy colony
  
• When you find a collapsed colony, store the equipment used for that hive somewhere that bees cannot access in the future
• If you feed your bees sugar syrup, use Fumagillin (an antimicrobial agent) instead
• If you see a secondary infection in your currently collapsing colony, treat it with Oxytetracycline, not Tylosin (a gram-negative bacteria! ;)

So, in short colony collapse is a serious problem that has the potential to make life extremely difficult for everybody here on earth. Without bees, there is no pollination, and without pollination, there is no food. We as a human race, LOVE food, and we need bees to keep that food coming. So do your part and protect the bees!

Lake Nyos Disaster

On August 22nd, 1986 nearly 2000 people were killed by an unprecedented disaster. A man rode from Wum, his village in Cameroon, to Nyos, a nearby village. On the way there, he passed numerous dead cattle and a handful of dead rats. He simply assumed that this was because of a lightning strike, as dead animals were often times a result of lightning strikes. When we walked into the village, he was surprised to find that there was nobody around, and it was completely silent. He walked into one of the huts to find multiple dead bodies. He dropped everything and sprinted back to Wum. Whenever he arrived back in his home town, he realized that survivors from Nyos were starting to make their way back to Wum and telling their story. It turned out that Lake Nyos was a "crater lake". It had formed from water filling up in what was thought to be a dormant volcano. The volcano however, was and still is not completely dormant. It is constantly leaking massive amounts of CO2 into the water.

The Lake Nyos disaster was caussed by a gigantic bubble of CO2 shooting up out of the lake (up to 300 feet into the air) and spreading about 12 miles at an astonishing 45 miles per hour. The death toll was estimated to be about 1,746 people, however this is not an accurate amount since the survivors had started to bury the dead in mass graves. On top of the 1,746 people there were over 3,000 cattle killed and an unbelievable amount of birds and other wild animals.

Scientists now know that this disaster was a result of CO2 constantly being released from what was thought to be a dormant volcano underneath of the lake. As it turns out, the volcano is still relatively active, just without any major eruptions. Researchers in the area now make weekly trips to the lake to monitor the carbon dioxide levels and make sure that there isn't another major build-up in order to prevent another disaster like this one from happening again.