- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Guardian Newspapers Ltd (1 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0852650922
- ISBN-13: 978-0852650929
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 13 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
176,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #60 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Insects & Spiders
- #68 in Books > Science & Nature > Nature > Wild Animals > Insects & Spiders
- #87 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Environment > Wildlife Conservation
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Honeybees are dying. In America, one in three hives was left lifeless at the beginning of 2008. In France, the death rate might be 60 percent. In Britain, a government minister has warned that honey bees could be extinct within a decade. A third of all that we eat, and much of what we wear, relies on pollination by honeybees. So if - or when - the world loses its black-and-yellow workers, the consequences will be dire. What is behind this catastrophe? Viruses, parasites, pesticides and climate change have all been blamed. As has modern mono culture agribusiness. In this timely book, two keen amateur apiarists investigate all the claims and counterclaims with the help of scientist and beekeepers in Europe, America and beyond. They ask the question that will soon be on everyone's lips: is there any possible way of saving the honeybees - and, with them, the world as we know it?
About the Author
Alison Benjamin is a Guardian journalist. She is deputy editor of the Society and editor of the Environment website. Brian McCallum is studying to become an apiarist.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this wonderful book in one very long sitting; I really could not stop once I started. Having grown up surrounded, in my immediate family, by the 1950's acute nature-awareness of the early Soil Association days of Bob Waller and Harold Horne et al, it was like deja vu to me.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.
The authors have been very disciplined in producing a really worthwhile book; it is almost perfectly objective, and therefore above cheap criticism. They have worked immensely hard to source a huge amount of sound material, and they have taken the trouble to understand it thoroughly before using it in their book. And the mystery at issue is no less than how terrifyingly detached from truth we are becoming, and how little we now understand our own misery and poverty of life in the midst of all our illusion of ease; how deprived of reality we have already become.
Read it! In the morning, the evening, on the train, in the bath, but read it. It is more real than most other stuff you will find on printed paper or glowing on a monitor any day of the year.
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If climate change doesn't get you, the disappearance of the honeybee will - this is the rather gloomy message of Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's well researched and engagingly written new book on Colony Collapse Disorder - a honeybee `plague' which has already killed millions of bees worldwide. Some 90 commercial crops owe their continued existence to the pollination services provided free of charge by the honeybee so its fair to say that A World Without Bees is an important book. For it to succeed in its mission it has to put the fear of God into us without losing us to jargon. It does so admirably, taking us through the rather complicated but interesting world of honeybee health, politics and economics and delivering us to a conclusion which lays the blame firmly on our own shoulders. Time to start talking about bee rights? Could be.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A World Without Bees
I had eagerly awaited this book which I was expecting as a Christmas present and for the first few chapters I wasn't disappointed. The huge industrialisation of the honeybee world, particularly in the US, was a revelation to me as were the myriad of facts about bee behaviour revealed in a further chapter.
However, this is a book primarily about honeybees, not the other bees we regularly see in British gardens, and there does seem to be an emphasis on the problems experienced by American beekeepers. I was left wondering if the problems highlighted in the British press last year were completely unrelated to the problems outlined in this book.
It is obvious that the authors are enthusiastic about their subject, and there is no doubt that it is a subject that needs more attention and publicity, but, for me there was too much repetition in this book. It was like watching a documentary that was made for American television, with the main facts repeated after each advert break in case you forgot them whilst making a cup of tea. Topics covered in earlier chapters were repeated, albeit at relevant sections, but it felt as though the authors were short of things to write.
I wanted to give this book a higher rating, but, although it is an interesting and informative read, I was left feeling a little disappointed.
I had eagerly awaited this book which I was expecting as a Christmas present and for the first few chapters I wasn't disappointed. The huge industrialisation of the honeybee world, particularly in the US, was a revelation to me as were the myriad of facts about bee behaviour revealed in a further chapter.
However, this is a book primarily about honeybees, not the other bees we regularly see in British gardens, and there does seem to be an emphasis on the problems experienced by American beekeepers. I was left wondering if the problems highlighted in the British press last year were completely unrelated to the problems outlined in this book.
It is obvious that the authors are enthusiastic about their subject, and there is no doubt that it is a subject that needs more attention and publicity, but, for me there was too much repetition in this book. It was like watching a documentary that was made for American television, with the main facts repeated after each advert break in case you forgot them whilst making a cup of tea. Topics covered in earlier chapters were repeated, albeit at relevant sections, but it felt as though the authors were short of things to write.
I wanted to give this book a higher rating, but, although it is an interesting and informative read, I was left feeling a little disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An angry buzzing noise to warn...
In 2008 Society Guardian editor Alison Benjamin and her Geography teacher partner Brian McCallum, who keep bees as a hobby, wrote the book A World Without Bees. Read more
Published 3 months ago by blossom
Life without bees could have been better
I expected this book to be informative, which it was. However, it was so repetitive that I couldn't wait to finish it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by MumH
Imagine a summer without the hum of the honeybee...
`A World Without Bees' is a fascinating and timely book exploring the possible reasons behind the massive decline of the western honeybee over recent years. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Miss E. Potten
Important, informative and unsettling
`A World Without Bees` takes an in-depth look into why honeybees all over the world are disappearing and what that might mean for us. Read more
Published 19 months ago by E. Cooper
Research good; writing style...mmm...
This reads more like a thesis than a book which seems (when it was first published especially) to want to bring the plight of bees to the general knowledge of the public. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2010 by M. Oxby
Interesting but maybe a little over the top
I found this a fascinating book that teaches you a lot about bees. It is amazing how important these little animals are. Read more
Published on 14 May 2010 by A. P. J. Jansen
Interesting read
After reading some negative reviews I wasn't too sure if it was worth getting but I'm glad I did. While I can not say it's a fantastic book or one of my top bee books, I can... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2010 by Severn
A fascinating read, even if you've seen the documentary
As a novice but recently trained beekeeper, I bought this after seeing the documentary on the same topic, rather expecting not to learn anything new but I was pleasantly surprised... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by RosP
Drones on and on...
I was looking forward to reading this for quite a while. I rarely give up books once I've started reading, but I found it a real struggle to get to the end of this one. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2010 by Ruth Bennett
A World Without Bees
`A World Without Bees' explores the effects of the diminishing worldwide Bee population and possible causes. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2009 by Spider Monkey
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