A disastrous year for bees

America's beekeepers have struggled for nearly a decade with a mysterious disease called colony collapse disorder that kills honeybees in large numbers. However, this year the situation seems to have gone out of control..

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below. The activity is suitable for intermediate students. 



1 How many bees have died since last fall?
2 What do bee-keepers think is the reason for the death of bees?
3 What is the Environmental Protection Agency doing?
4 Why are a lot of families devastated'
5 To what extent does America's diet depend on honeybees?
6 Is the situation new to farmers?

For correction, you can read the transcript below.

The bees they are dying. We can’t keep them alive.
California’s commercial bee keepers are ringing alarm bells over record die offs from their hives. Since last fall they fear they have lost forty to fifty percent of insects on average to a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. William Dahle is one of them.
When the honey bee starts dying off is similar to the canary in the mineshaft. When he canary died everybody knew to run. When honey bees die off, it’s serious.
Despite intense studies scientists have not drawn any conclusions as to the cause of the honey bees’ deaths. But many bee-keepers think they believe the swift adoption of new neonicotinoids, a new class of pesticide, plays an important role.
Right now we aren’t really sure what we are facing. We think it might be viruses, you know, have a lot to do with it. And also there’s a chemical world where they are coming out with new insecticides all the time and they seem to be detrimental to everything we do.
Manufacturers say pesticides are safe but the Environmental Protection Agency has accelerated its review of the chemicals impact on the bees and other wild life.
You have insecticides that last several weeks when they used to last just one or two days, so when the bees are out foraging even after the crops have been sprayed they still bring the insecticides home with the pollen that they carry and the nectar that they carry, they deposit that in the hive, the bees eat that and they die off.
I see it every day with every family that comes in here, I hear every story from the families… they are devastated. They are going to lose everything they’ve got.
The honeybee losses can have a significant impact on the nation’s food supply. A quarter of America’s diet depends on honeybees for pollination. Fewer bees can mean smaller harvests and higher food prices.
We use bees for pollinating watermelons, to the cantaloupes, to all your melon crops, which are a lot here in this valley. Your cherries we pollinate, your apples, I mean all your seed crops. We had, you know, a few years back we had the same sort of situation but nothing nearest as much as it has been this year. It’s bad.