蜂之殤

陽(yáng)光、空氣，開(kāi)花、結(jié)果，蜜蜂、蝴蝶。

這些都是多么美好的東西，隨處可見(jiàn)，而且分文不取。但如果說(shuō)，有一天，這些美好可能會(huì)不再唾手可得、理所當(dāng)然，你會(huì)說(shuō)這是天方夜譚嗎?

現(xiàn)在，全球各地都在討論全球變暖，我們不得不承認(rèn)陽(yáng)光和空氣可真要出狀況了。如今又說(shuō)，一直籍籍無(wú)名、無(wú)私奉獻(xiàn)的小蜜蜂也面臨危機(jī)了，我們還能坐得住嗎?

It’s a tiny animal making big headlines. The honeybee. It’s a 1)cornerstone of the environment， essential to our food supply. But around the world， the honeybee is disappearing.

November 2006. David Hackenberg opened his hives to find 70% of his bees had vanished. David rushed several dying colonies to Pennsylvania’s acting state beekeeper， Dennis van Engelsdorp.

By early spring， the phenomenon has a name—Colony 2)Collapse Disorder， CCD.

As CCD wipes out hives across the U.S.， reports of similar mass bee losses pour in from overseas. Bees vanish in Italy， Poland， Portugal， in Central and South America.

The case of the vanishing bees is at the 3)forefront of a much larger crisis. Not just bees， but all 4)pollinating animals have been disappearing for decades.

Bees and butterflies don’t usually make the headlines. But scientists warn that the steady decline in bees and other pollinators could trigger a crisis bigger and more immediate than global warming.

Dennis and his team conduct 5)forensic 6)autopsies on up to 100 bees a day. Right from the beginning， they’re stunned by what they discover. The investigations lead to another stunning 7)revelation—fungi growing in the bees’ tissue are similar to samples found in humans with suppressed 8)immune systems. It could be that bees have been weakened by an insect virus similar to AIDS.

9)Pesticides are another key suspect in the CCD investigation. And one country in Europe provides a perfect case study into how bees are affected by these 10)controversial chemicals.

The French battle over pesticides began in the early ’90s， when farmers used a new brand of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Not long afterward， the bees began to disappear.

Studies have proven that many pesticides are highly toxic to bees. But even in areas where no pesticides are sprayed， bees are still disappearing.

Andalusia， Spain. Spain has the highest number of commercial beekeepers in Europe， with the most businesses at risk from CCD.

The Spanish team doesn’t believe the CCD investigation will isolate a single cause of the outbreak. They contend that a whole 11)conspiracy of forces， from pesticides to 12)parasites to poor nutrition， have created a 13)perfect storm， weakening the bees， leaving them vulnerable to 14)infection.

And back in New York， the CCD working group has had a breakthrough. DNA tests have isolated a single suspect. It’s a virus that until now was found only in Israel， called IAPV—Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. The group believes they’re found the 15)culprit.

Scientists will now begin working to understand the virus， and to develop a way to fight it. One plan is to use 16)aggressive “17)Africanized bees” to engineer a new breed of superbee， resistant to all kinds of disease.

Whatever methods they develop to fight the virus， scientists stress that bees are up against more than a single threat.

Although the bees’ future is uncertain， Colony Collapse Disorder has ensured that this extraordinary animal will no longer be taken for granted.

Diana Cox-Foster (Entomologist): I think we should be concerned， as a world， about what is happening. People are saying， “Well， we could get by， eating wheat and corn and that， ” but yes， but that， we would lose everything else that makes life so special.

小動(dòng)物要成為大新聞了。那就是——蜜蜂。蜜蜂是環(huán)境的基石，是糧食供應(yīng)的根本。但在全球各地，蜜蜂卻日漸消失。

2006年11月，大衛(wèi)·哈肯貝格打開(kāi)蜂箱，竟發(fā)現(xiàn)7成的蜜蜂消失無(wú)蹤。大衛(wèi)趕緊將若干垂死的蜂群送交賓夕法尼亞州蜂農(nóng)協(xié)會(huì)代理主席丹尼斯·范·恩格斯多爾普。

到了初春的時(shí)候，這個(gè)現(xiàn)象有了一個(gè)名稱——蜂群衰竭失調(diào)癥(CCD)。

CCD橫掃美國(guó)蜂群期間，海外也傳來(lái)大批蜜蜂消失的類似報(bào)告。意大利、波蘭、葡萄牙和中南美洲也有蜜蜂消失。

蜜蜂消失的案例揭開(kāi)了更為重大的危機(jī)的序幕。不只是蜜蜂，各種授粉動(dòng)物也在這數(shù)十年間逐漸消失。

蜜蜂和蝴蝶很少成為新聞?lì)^條。但科學(xué)家們警告，蜜蜂和其他授粉昆蟲(chóng)數(shù)目的持續(xù)減少，會(huì)引發(fā)比全球暖化更為重大、更為迫切的危機(jī)。

丹尼斯及其團(tuán)隊(duì)每天對(duì)多達(dá)100只蜜蜂進(jìn)行解剖化驗(yàn)。在實(shí)驗(yàn)之初，他們就對(duì)研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)深感震驚。調(diào)查還有另一項(xiàng)驚人發(fā)現(xiàn)，蜜蜂體內(nèi)組織里生長(zhǎng)的真菌與人類免疫系統(tǒng)不全病患體內(nèi)的真菌十分相似。蜜蜂體弱多病可能是由一種類似于艾滋病毒的昆蟲(chóng)病毒所引起的。……