Spring without Bees: How Colony Collapse Disorder Has Endangered Our Food Supply

More than a century after the birth of Rachel Carson, the world faces a new environmental disaster, from a chemical similar to DDT. This time the culprit appears to be IMD, or imidacloprid, a relatively new but widely used insecticide in the United States. Many beekeepers and researchers blame IMD for Colony Collapse Disorder, which has wiped out 23% of America’s beehives. Since honeybees are essential to the production of major food crops, their demise could spell catastrophe. In a riveting detective story that melds science and politics, Michael Schacker examines the evidence and offers a plan to save the bees. Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, A Spring without Bees is a compelling cautionary tale and a clarion call for action.