On June 20 the White House issued a presidential memorandum creating a Pollinator Health Task Force and ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to "access the effect of pesticides, including neonicotinods, on bees and other pollinator health and take action, as appropriate."

 

Why the buzz over bees?  Is the US in the midst of a bee pocalypse?  The science says no.  Bee populations in the US and Europe remain at healthy levels for reproduction and the critical pollination of food crops and trees.  But during much of the past decade we have seen higher-than-average overwinter bee colony losses in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as cases of bees abruptly abandoning their hives, a phenonmeon know as "colony collapse disorder"

 

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