| A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 198210
Category: Book
Author: Michael Schacker
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Studio: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Label: The Lyons Press
Format: Illustrated
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: illustrated edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 1599214326
Dewey Decimal Number: 638.159
EAN: 9781599214320
ASIN: 1599214326
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Release Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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. 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 percent 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Excellent book, alerting the masses to a potential catastrophe December 8, 2008
I gave this book a 5 star review, because it accomplished giving a very good overview to the everyday person about the possible devastation caused by CCD. I have never raised bees and therefore, wouldn't have gotten nearly as much out of this book without the background information. He is thorough and it doesn't matter that he doesn't give the cause of CCD at the end. The point of this book is to alert the public to the fact that we don't HAVE a proven cause, but we have a few possible very strong contributors to CCD (varroa mites, IMD, pesticides, illness).
These obviously need a great amount of funding for research, so that we may find the cause and create a solution in time to save bees and agriculture as we know it. This won't happen without people creating awareness, expressing their concern to their respective senate/house representatives, and working towards these goals in their own communities. We can't predict how devastating CCD will or won't be, but it's potential to cause great damage should be enough reason alone to gain public support for following the precautionary principle (banning IMD, encouraging IPM & organic farming), while CCD is still being researched.
I don't think spraying neurotoxic chemicals on our food is a good idea to begin with anyways, regardless of its affect on bees. I like how these concerns about pesticides are be tied in with public health, as well. People often think about what levels of pesticides are safe for adults, children, and babies. The potential hazards to the unborn, tend to be less emphasized, even though they are the most vulnerable of all (and the future of our human race). I was delighted to see this connection made between the health of humans and the health of the environment in the book (even if it wasn't the main point of the book). No, bees aren't proven to be the "canary in the coal mine", but it should behoove us to consider how bioaccumulation of these same chemicals could affect us and our offspring, after watching how it may be causing devastating affects in other living organisms and particularly since not all of these chemicals undergo sufficient testing.
Ground breaking research! November 16, 2008
At this critical time with the honeybee populations in decline, A Spring Without Bees is a must read in the same league as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. It discounts various theories from cell phones to GMO crops and places the cause of honeybee die-offs on a increasingly common chemical found in agriculture pesticides and even doe fleas treatments like K-9 Advantix. I immediately stopped putting that on my dogs, but imidacloprid aka IMD, is persistent in the environment for years. I have honeybees and hope that it doesn't effect my bees, and doesn't pass into my water supply vie dog urination and rain drain-off into my well. So read this and act now!
Ending Colony Collapse Disorder July 16, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 July 15, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
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 July 11, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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 also recommend the website for the documentary-in-progress The Vanishing of the Bees.
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) 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.
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