“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

This quote from Albert Einstein is quite chilling in light of the current crisis in the bee population.

In the past six months, bee populations in the United States have undergone the most massive decimation in history. Since last November, beekeepers on the east coast have lost more than 70 percent of their bees, while those on the west coast report losses of up to 60 percent. Some beekeepers have lost 90 percent of their colonies. The phenomenon is “gradually assuming catastrophic proportions,” reports Spiegel Online (March 22).

This plague has the potential to not only wipe out the beekeeping industry, but also to severely impact the country’s economy and threaten its food supply. Bee pollination is relied upon for 30 percent of the U.S. food supply, with $14 billion worth of seeds and crops being pollinated by bees each year. Spiegel Online reports that in the U.S., “bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire” (ibid.). “If we continue to lose honeybees at this rate,” Mike Adams, executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center non-profit group said, “we may find ourselves in a dire food supply emergency that will not be easily solved.” He calls the current food production situation a “food bubble.”

Though most extensive in America, decimation of bee populations is also occurring in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, some countries in Europe. The past winter in Britain—where bees contribute up to £1 billion to the economy annually—honeybee colonies have been wiped out at twice the usual rate or worse in some areas. It is estimated that two thirds of bee colonies in London have been destroyed. “It’s frightening,” says John Chapple, the chairman of the London Beekeepers’ Association. “The mortality rate is the highest in living memory and no one seems to know what’s behind it.”

Although scientists are indeed at a loss to explain what is causing the eradication of millions of bees—which are simply disappearing without trace—the use of pesticides on crops is seen as a major factor contributing to what is being termed Colony Collapse Disorder. Some believe genetically modified crops could also be a cause; the epidemic is greatest in the U.S., where genetically modified crops are the most widespread.

Whatever the specific causes, the mass death of bees is a curse brought on by mankind not living in accordance with God’s laws. It could yet become a much greater curse, contributing to the famines prophesied in the Bible to occur on an epidemic scale at the time of the end, shortly before the return of Jesus Christ to Earth.