beemused

Honeybees in Ohio are endangered.

I wonder, sometimes, if the bullet that finally does us in is a lot closer than terrorists from the other side of the world. Could it be the bees? Without pollination, we lose a significant amount of our food supply. We know that, or at least many of us read it in our textbooks. But do we really care? How many of us actually have gardens of our own? How many of us actually think about our food supply any deeper than clipping coupons or zipping through the drive-thrus? When I taught, I had students who had no idea what beef was. It just came wrapped in plastic, don'cha know?

I think about disease in our bodies, how bacteria and germs can make us sick, then we get better. We'll get sick again sometime, and recover again. Except not always. One day, unless we get run over by a truck, we'll die from a disease, most likely, because we're old and unable to ward off the disease any more, even with help.

How healthy is our environment?

That's what concerns me. I don't think we know enough yet to know which straw is the last one. And, I don't think, as a population, we're mature enough to care.