The diminishing population of bees is an even greater risk! Whether or not Albert Einstein actually said that after bees disappear the human race could survive for just four more years, it is obvious that they are an integral part of the ecology.  Authorities and scientist have up until now given assurance that safety measures make nuclear power stations virtually fail safe.   We know how wrong those assurances were.   Can we be any more confident about the assurances of manufactures that insecticides are safe if you follow the instructions on the containers?  If you google “neonicotinoids killing bees” you will get enough evidence of the risks of using this and other chemicals in insecticides.

What can we do?  For a start, we can avoid the chemicals and brand names listed at http://www.beecharmers.org/Pollination2.html and mentioned in the panels of that screen.  Notice that many insecticides kill earthworms also. And we need them as well to survive.

We can draw the attention of others to this major threat.

All of us are being served by the beekeepers lobby. The threat is not only to their income, but to the income of farmers and orchardist as well.  More than that the threat is to our very existence.  Sustainable, Green. Organic. Companion planting.  There are very strong arguments for these sorts of practices

What can be done to save others from having to experience such pain? What can be learned from this tragedy?  Young people tend to make wrong decisions more often than older people do. They tend not to consider possible consequences and to be attracted to the thrill of danger. The path from childhood to adulthood is precarious. How can young people be given more resources to keep themselves and others safe?

Young Tini gave in to strong peer pressure to act against her better judgement. If adolescents constantly experience being told what to do and being ordered around by those in authority then they will more easily surrender to the pressure of their peers. There are communications skills that can influence our young more effectively than using power as a first, rather than as a last, resort. These skills are more important than literacy and numeracy … probably more important.

My prayer is that Tini will be helped to recover from this trauma, learn from her experience and make something of her life.

In responses to the recent international monetary crisis governments encouraged people to keep buying more stuff and injected more liquidity into the economy so they could do so.  Doesn’t it make more sense to find ways to use fewer resources. Do bigger and faster necessarily increase the quality of life?

Even if sources of energy are developed that have no adverse effect on the atmosphere of the planet, the problem remains that the materials that are being mined are not renewable and pollute the land and the ocean, and deforestation both removes carbon sinks and increases erosion of the earth.

What about providing incentives to planting trees and planting trees on every piece of land not being used for other purposes.  Isn’t it of highest priority to develop fast efficient public transport to decrease the need to use materials to build more roads and power more vehicles.

I regret that the big polluters of the atmosphere are not given greater incentives to find more planet friendly ways of producing.  I regret that the that the present government has pushed through such important legislation in such a hasty fashion.  At the same time I believe solutions will come when sufficient people care about depleting the planet and robbing future generations of the necessities of life so we of the present generation can use more than our share of resources on luxuries that we could live  without.