Does This Freak Out Anybody Else?
Because it's starting to freak me out a little.
The unprecedented honeybee die-off, that is:
...if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.
"This is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.
Why? Because:
...about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination...
The backstory:
U.S. beekeepers in the past few months have lost one-quarter of their colonies - or about five times the normal winter losses.... The problem started in November and seems to have spread to 27 states, with similar collapses reported in Brazil, Canada and parts of Europe.
Even before this disorder struck, America's honeybees were in trouble.
Luckily, it should be easy to solve:
The top suspects are a parasite, an unknown virus, some kind of bacteria, pesticides, or a one-two combination of the top four, with one weakening the honeybee and the second killing it.
Putting A Price On Congestion
Every once in a while there's a truth that everybody knows, but that no one will acknowledge. And when someone finally says it aloud, it sounds shocking. Like this:
...what we're doing now isn't working. Not for drivers, taxpayers or the environment. We can't tax and build our way out of this.
That's Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat in his column today, talking about what most people in Seattle already know: the area's freeway system is flat broke and busted. Even the biggest package ever to go before voters -- this fall's $16 billion roads-and-transit measure -- won't pay for the biggest infrastructure problems, like 520, and is only a fraction of the estimated $40 billion needed over the next few decades. Moreover, even that full $40 billion isn't expected to reduce congestion much anyway. So what can we do?
Enter the occasion for Westneat's column: King County Exec. Ron Sims, who has stepped up (big pdf), yet again, with a remarkably visionary plan: regionwide congestion pricing. Wow. Without getting into the details here, Sims is proposing what is perhaps the only thing that could simultaneously generate the money, reduce congestion, and ease environmental impacts -- all without raising taxes. (In fact, that's why Sightline has been preaching congestion pricing for years.)
If it all sounds too good to be true, it is.
