A Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply

A century after 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 researchers blame IMD for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out 23% of America’s beehives. Even trace amounts make bees unable to fly back to their hive. Since honeybees are essential to the production of most major food crops, their demise could spell catastrophe.
 
In a riveting, scientific/political detective story, Michael Schacker examines the evidence and offers a plan to save the bees. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, A Spring without Bees is both a powerful cautionary tale and a call to action.

Michael Schacker is an investigative science writer and is the founder of The New Earth Institute, a lifelong learning center on the Internet. He has served as a strategic consultant and contract writer in the field of regenerative agriculture, and believes that there is a solution on this Earth for each of our many problems if we but look for them.