Are Honeybees One of Many Canaries in the Coal Mine?

Slate has this article about honey bees. It makes me wonder what will wake people up. We are already starting to have seafood shortages. Honey bees are dying off. How many lakes and streams in the US have water that is safe to swim in or eat fish from? Or how about this article about the problem with a common chemical in plastics and connections to obesity?

I remember speaking to a bio chemist about 10 years ago on a plane about chemicals in the environment and their dangers. It was a frightening conversation... Basically, we are running a random uncontrolled experiment and we have no idea about the outcome. Are we going to burst into flames one day, probably not, but we will see lots strange things happening that we don't understand. We won't be able to solve many of these problems because of our lack of understanding. I don't want to be alarmist, but I do think we need a new paradigm for considering risks in our environment and pollution.

How do we setup a system where industry will cooperate in finding real answers to the potential dangers of their products? It also makes me wonder if our convenience culture is sustainable over the long term. There was also this interesting and I would argue related article in the Arizona Republic about swimming pools. I used to work in the pool industry and won't swim in a pool now. How will we continue to fill pools if our drought continues? How safe is the chemical brew that people swim in?

I just don't see this as a partisan issue anymore. In the end, we have to find a rational way to deal with the environmental issues that will face us in the future. We have to find ways to avoid being overly punitive while still protecting ourselves. Overall, I think it is a tough sell, but one that is necessary.