Bees, Frogs and Bats

I'm concerned about the bees. The frogs and the bats, too. For many years now, we've noticed that certain species are dying. They are simply disappearing.

Studies of abandoned and dying honeybee colonies reveal that those who remain are ravaged by disease. They have large numbers of disease organisms present, including a certain kind of parasitic mite, in addition to opportunistic viruses. And nearby bees view the empty hives as if they were condemned and are reluctant to enter and take over. It's happening often enough now that we've coined a phrase for it - Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Bees play a critical role in the food chain: they help to pollinate our crops. No honeybees means more than no honey. The production of our food relies in great part upon the unheralded, hardworking bee.

The frogs are disappearing too. About twenty years ago, frog populations around the world started crashing. Their dead bodies were littered about in places such as the Sierra Nevada, California. Of the seven species native to Sierra Nevada, for example, five are under extreme pressure and for two, their populations are down by 95 to 98 percent. The frogs are being killed by a nasty fungus called chytridiomycosis that is decimating frogs around the world, including the rainforests. It seems significant, this frog demise. Amphibians have been around for over 250 million years and managed to endure even when the dinosaurs could not. But they aren't so hardy, really. Frogs are an indicator species; they're the first to die when the environment turns unfriendly.

And the bats are succumbing, it seems, from an incurable fungus. Bat colonies are being reduced to ten percent of their original size, an estimated hundreds of thousands of them claimed by "white nose syndrome" (WNS). The New York Times reports that bats perish and no one knows why, whether it's a bacteria, virus, toxin, metabolic disorder or indeed a fungus. Some even have what appears to be secondary pneumonia. It's a descriptive moniker, white nose, but it isn't quite correct. The white isn't limited to noses; the white fungus is found on wings and ears, too. The significance is potentially earth shaking. Bats have been around a long time as well. The first bat fossils identified date back fifty-three million years ago.

And Our Children?

Did anyone else hold their breath as they read about the bees, frogs and bats? They are sensitive and vulnerable, we're told. Their demise is meant to tell us something. Biologists and entomologists are paying attention. But are we? Is it just happening in the bug and animal world? Who else is vulnerable? As so many children are diagnosed with all manner of disease, infection, disorder, dysfunction, syndrome, imbalance, suppression and inflammation, could they be trying to tell us something? There can be no doubt that pathogenic microorganisms are plaguing people. We are wrestling with bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, too! How about the yeast, strep, clostridia, parasites, and Lyme? Why has it become acceptably commonplace to give our children antibiotics, antivirals, and antifungals? What does this dysbiosis and imbalance in our body ecology signify? Children are not little adults. They are more sensitive to environmental toxins and chemical pollutants. Here's why:

Children are smaller. This is obvious. But it also means that they have a heavier exposure to toxins than adults. On a proportional basis, they breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food. Children drink three times as much water per pound of body weight than adults. The standards used to determine health safety thresholds of chemicals are based on testing and impact upon adults. And they assume exposure to one chemical at time. It seems almost laughable to imagine this, as we are, all of us, bathed in a soup of chemicals every day.
The organ systems of children are still developing. Their livers and kidneys, for example, are different. Toxic environmental assault doesn't merely add to the body burden of chemicals that must be excreted. Pollution may impact the actual development of key processes and pathways meant to detoxify, metabolize and protect, now and later in life. Very small amounts of chemicals can have unknown, significant risks. As an example, adults require surgery and heavy duty hormones to achieve even a partial sex change. In utero, an embryo requires the merest hormonal trigger in the form of a chemical message from its genes to determine gender. During the key developmental window, through age three, infinitesimal levels of hormones and other substances have decisive outcomes, in areas such as numbers of fingers and toes, cognition, and socialization. Many toxins are endocrine disruptors. What impact do they have on embryos and babies?
Children live longer than adults. Or, more precisely, they are accumulating a greater concentration of toxins earlier in their life cycle than today's adults did when they were children. This makes them more vulnerable to chronic and degenerative diseases, such as cancer, that can take years and even decades to manifest after negative exposures.
Children play and behave differently. They put hands and objects in their mouths, making them more susceptible to contamination. They breathe air that is closer to the ground. When you spray Windex or Formula 409, a cloud of aerosolized spray remains, about a foot or two above the ground. Guess who's inhaling it all?

Some have taken to calling children the canary in the coal mine. Early mines did not sport ventilation systems to protect miners against methane gas and carbon monoxide. Coal miners would bring a caged canary into new coal seams. As long as the bird sang, the miners toiled on. A dead canary and the workers beat a hasty retreat. For the miners, the canary's life was sacrificial. No one thought much about the death of one bird against the lives of dozens of miners. And so, the aptness of the analogy ends right there. What society would tolerate the use of children as an early warning system to save adults? For parents, our children are the most precious cargo of all. They represent the very best parts of us. We have, in our children, our hopes, dreams and expectations that they will live better lives and collectively carry on a legacy of progress and prosperity.

Are we listening? In the words of Dietrich Bonhoffer: The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children. In the words of the actor Jim Carrey: We're asking industry to take a hit for the sake of our children. Is ours a society that can acknowledge what's happening to our children and act accordingly to protect and nurture them?

The Sixth Extinction

Back to the bees, frogs and bats. It's being called The Sixth Extinction. As reported in The New Yorker, there have been five great die-offs in history. This time, the cataclysm is us. This clearly isn't good news, that half of the world's species may disappear by the end of this century. Elizabeth Kolbert tells us that a third of all amphibian species, nearly a third of reef-building corals, a quarter of all mammals and an eighth of all birds are classified as "threatened with extinction." The history of life on earth has many tales of mass extinction, at least twenty of them. Five are big enough to be called, well, the Big Five. The fifth one occurred about sixty-five million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, when the dinosaurs and seventy-five percent of all species on earth disappeared. Kolbert shares that mass extinctions are notable because they cut a big swath through life, claiming both the fit and unfit. It then takes a very long time, indeed millions of years, for things to sort themselves out, usually with an entire new roster of creatures. Biologists seem to be in agreement that a sixth extinction is in process. And yes, that would mean, most probably, the extinction of us. Did that get your attention?

The New Normal

As we have plugged into the information age, with our cellphones, iPhones and Nintendos at the ready, the irony is that we have become increasingly disconnected. We are less connected with each other, with our families, with our communities and with nature. Read Nicholas Kristof's recent New York Times Op Ed piece "How to Lick A Slug" (it would be more aptly titled "Indoors, where all the outlets are." Perhaps this is why we are having such difficulty seeing what is happening around us. We text and email, Twitter and Facebook, all day long. Our kids text their friends, even when they are sitting next to each other. Try hiding your spouse's Blackberry and see what ensues. If it does not seem aberrant for our children to sit inside all day, glued to all manner of electronic screens and devices, then maybe we shouldn't be surprised that other things don't seem odd either. I often wonder why we are not up in arms that our nation's children are so sick. It has become the New Normal, 1 in 3 children diagnosed with some type of neurological impairment or chronic illness. Asthma, allergies, eczema, seizures, learning disabilities, palsies, arthritis, OCD, anxiety disorders, sensory issues and the list goes on. Instead of dutifully bundling up our children and trudging to the allergist or speech therapist, how about we muster up a bit of good old fashioned outrage? If we can't make it a priority to learn more, understand what is happening and insist on change, how on earth can we expect our politicians and industry to do right by us? It requires some effort, this work to protect our children and the world they will inherit. Subscribe. Volunteer. Donate. Our numbers are increasing and our voices are being heard.

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