The Bee-pocalypse: Another Scare Story the Media Got Wrong

Have you heard about the “bee-pocalypse?” My new video explains. Honeybees are dying! It’s another environmental crisis we’re supposed to worry about. The media call it “bee-pocalypse” and “bee-mageddon!” A YouTube video with 15 million views says bee-mageddon “could lead to millions of people starving!” Even Fox News shrieked, “Do you like to eat? The disappearance of honeybees could have a drastic impact on our nation’s food supply!” It’s nonsense. Now, it’s true that, about 20 years ago, many American bees did die. Beekeepers opened hives and found their bees gone. Scientists called it “colony collapse disorder.” No one knows what caused it. After the initial dramatic reports, it’s steadily diminished. But media hysteria hasn’t. Beekeepers adjusted to colony collapse. They divided remaining colonies to make new hives. Bee numbers increased by millions. “We’re not in any way facing an apocalypse,” says Science journalist Jon Entine. “Things have never been better in terms of the numbers of bees.” Entine runs the Genetic Literacy Project, which challenges scientific misinformation. I remind him that the media continue to run scare stories. “Bees are dying at an alarming rate,” says NBC. CNN headlines: “Bee Population is Dying ... the food we eat is at risk.” It’s so stupid. “They could have just Googled bee population and they would’ve seen them going up?” I ask. “Absolutely,” responds Entine, “it’s farcical.” In 2013, Time Magazine’s cover predicted “A World Without Bees”! “I don’t remember seeing Time apologize,” I tell Entine. “Time has not even written a new article that puts this in science perspective,” he responds. Nor did The New York Times magazine correct its cover story on “The Insect Apocalypse.” They just “skipped on to another ‘crisis.’” “There’s always a scare,” I point out. “Catastrophe, exaggeration,” he says, “That gets the clicks.” Entine complains that the media rarely interview serious scientists for its scare stories. “They have the Environmental Working Group or Pesticide Action Network framing these issues ... Hysteria generates donations. The oxygen for these organizations is money.” Sadly, “Many of these (environment) groups harm people.” How? By convincing gullible politicians to ban fertilizers and new pesticides even though the new chemicals are usually safer. For example, even with worldwide honeybee populations at record highs, the European Union prohibited the use of noenicitinoids, a common insecticide, out of fear they might kill bees. That means farmers use older, more dangerous chemicals that actually do kill bees.  But why use these chemicals at all? I push back at Entine, “‘Natural’ food advocates say: ‘Organic! You don’t have to have chemicals! Buy organic and you don’t get them!” Entine laughs and says, “They use chemicals extensively! It’s not like organic farmers can sprinkle organic fairy dust to get rid of insects and weeds.” Instead, they use “natural” chemicals “like copper sulfate,” he says, “one of the most toxic chemicals in the world!” Sri Lanka’s president listened to activists and banned chemical fertilizers. Suddenly, farms produced much less food. Prices rose 80%. Sri Lankans invaded the presidential mansion and the president fled his country. The new government re-legalized chemical fertilizers. Only then could the crisis end. “This attack on industrial chemicals,” says Entine, “is really a way for the environmental industry, industry is what it is, to go after what they call big (agriculture), big corporations. It’s an anti-capitalist movement.” The anti-capitalists oppose genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They’ve persuaded most European countries to basically ban GMO crops. But genetic modification allows farmers to grow more food on less land. It creates plants resistant to disease and insects. That allows farmers to use fewer pesticides. That’s good for everyone, especially poor people. In Bangladesh, scientists invented a GMO eggplant. “It decreased use of chemicals by 85%,” says Entine. “Allowing women and children who do most of the farming to live a much more viable life. We have to be smart about these things!” “We’re not being smart,” I note. “No,” he says, “We’re following an outdated 40-year-old environmental script that doesn’t work in this technologically innovative world. ... They hurt the very people they claim to help.” Modern chemicals and GMOs make our food cheaper and safer. Deceitful money-hungry environmental groups won’t acknowledge that.

Why Biden’s Just Wrong: NO ONE ‘Knows How to Make Government Work.’

President Joe Biden says, “I know how to make government work!” You’d think he’d know. He’s worked in government for 51 years. But the truth is, no one can make government work. Biden hasn’t. Look at the chaos at the border, our military’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the rising cost of living, our unsustainable record-high debt ... In my new video, economist Ed Stringham argues that no government can ever work well, because “even the best person can’t implement change. ... The massive bureaucracy gets bigger and slower.” I learned that as a consumer reporter watching bureaucrats regulate business. Their rules usually made life worse for consumers. Yet politicians want government to do more! Remember the unveiling of Obamacare’s website? Millions tried to sign up. The first day, only six got it to work. Vice President Joe Biden made excuses: “Neither (Obama) and I are technology geeks.” Stringham points out, “If they can’t design a basic simple website, how are they going to manage half the economy?” While bureaucrats struggled with the Obamacare site, the private sector successfully created Uber and Lyft, platforms like iCloud, apps like Waze, smartwatches, etc. The private sector creates things that work because it has to. If businesses don’t serve customers well, they go out of business. But government is a monopoly. It never goes out of business. With no competition, there’s less pressure to improve. Often good people join government. Some work as hard as workers in the private sector. But not for long. Because the bureaucracy’s incentives kill initiative. If a government worker works hard, he might get a small raise. But he sits near others who earn the same pay and, thanks to archaic civil service rules, are unlikely to get fired even if they’re late, lazy or stupid. Over time, that’s demoralizing. Eventually government workers conclude, “Why try?” In the private sector, workers must strive to make things better. If they don’t, competitors will, and you might lose your job. Governments never go out of business. “Companies can only stay in business if they always keep their customer happy,” Stringham points out. “Competition pushes us to be better. Government has no competition.” I push back. “Politicians say, ‘Voters can vote us out.’” “With a free market,” Stringham replies, “The consumer votes every single day with the dollar. Under politics, we have to wait four years.” It’s another reason why, over time, government never works as well as the private sector. Year after year, the Pentagon fails audits. If a private company repeatedly does that, they get shut down. But government never gets shut down. A Pentagon spokeswoman makes excuses: “We’re working on improving our process. We certainly are learning each time.” They don’t learn much. They still fail audits. “It’s like we’re living in Groundhog Day,” Stringham jokes. When Covid hit, politicians handed out almost $2 trillion in “rescue” funds. The Government Accountability Office says more than $100 billion were stolen. “One woman bought a Bentley,” laughs Stringham. “A father and son bought a luxury home.” At least Biden noticed the fraud. He announced, “We’re going to make you pay back what you stole! No. They will not. Biden’s Fraud Enforcement Task Force has recovered only 1% of what was stolen. Even without fraud, government makes money vanish. I’ve reported on my town’s $2 million toilet in a park. When I confronted the parks commissioner, he said, “$2 million was a bargain! Today it would cost $3 million.” That’s government work. More recently, Biden proudly announced that government would create “500,000 (EV) charging stations.” After two years, they’ve built ... seven. Not 7,000. Just seven. Over the same time, greedy, profit-seeking Amazon built 17,000. “Privatize!” says Stringham. “Whenever we think something’s important, question whether government should do it.” In Britain, government-owned Jaguar lost money year after year. Only when Britain sold the company to private investors did Jaguar start turning a profit selling cars people actually like. When Sweden sold Absolut Vodka, the company increased its profits sixfold. It’s ridiculous for Biden to say, “I know how to make government work.” No one does. Next week, this column takes on Donald Trump’s promise: “We’ll drain the Washington swamp!”