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Life & Times Transcript
6/22/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Bees are a key link in the food chain. Why are millions disappearing without a trace? Lance Sundberg>> It's like as if they took off and went to work and they just failed to come back and no signs of dead bees and that's the unusual phenomenon. Val Zavala>> And then, the animals boarded two by two, but there's room for everyone on board this enchanting Noah's Ark. It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> It's a bizarre and disturbing mystery. Honeybees are disappearing throughout the United States and now Europe, millions of them. They're simply leaving the hive and never coming back and that has serious ramifications for our crop production. Reporter Spencer Michels takes a closer look at this strange phenomenon. Spencer Michels>> In California's lush Central Valley, the fruit and nut trees are in bloom, but the honeybees that pollinate those trees so they will bear fruit are in short supply. One of California's top crops, almonds, is completely dependent on bees for pollination. There aren't nearly enough wild or native bees to do the job and California commercial beekeepers can supply only half of the hives needed. So bees raised by migratory beekeepers from around the country are trucked in. But this year, there's a big problem. So this is, what, like a cemetery for bee hives? Lance Sundberg>> Yeah, in a way, it is. Spencer Michels>> Late last year, beekeeper Lance Sundberg brought twenty-one hundred colonies of bees to California from Montana and other states. A month later, he discovered that two-thirds of the bees had disappeared. Lance Sundberg>> It's like as if they took off and went to work and they just failed to come back and no sign of dead bees and that's the unusual phenomenon. Spencer Michels>> Many of the bees died or vanished before he could rent them out to growers, apparently the victims of a nationwide problem now being called colony collapse disorder. He's stacked completely dead hives under tarps. Here, so-called robber bees are stealing abandoned honey. And he's put ailing hives beside a lake in hopes they might recover. Lance Sundberg>> So a normal colony at this time would have these wall to wall. Spencer Michels>> There'd be thirty thousand bees probably. Lance Sundberg>> Thirty to sixty thousand bees, yeah. Right now, this one is down to probably three thousand five hundred bees or less. Spencer Michels>> Colony collapse disorder, a malady of unknown origin, has shown up in twenty-four states over the last year and could, if not stopped, jeopardize up to eighteen billion dollars in crops that bees pollinate. Jerry Bromenshenk>> So there's a whole variety of folks looking at what is something new or something sickly that we've seen before. It's just particularly widespread this time around and unusually severe. Spencer Michels>> Jerry Bromenshenk, an entomologist at the University of Montana and a private consultant to the bee industry, has visited sites of bee die-off around the country. Jerry Bromenshenk>> It could be some type of disease pathogen, an unknown virus, for example, because there doesn't seem to be any way to slow it down or stop it once it starts. [Film Clip] Spencer Michels>> As children learn early at places like San Francisco's Randall Museum, European honeybees imported to America by early colonists are complex creatures with a highly developed social structure. Nancy Ellis>> The society of the honeybee is made up of one queen, several thousand workers which are all female bees, and then several hundred that are males called drones. Spencer Michels>> But for all their organization, says the museum's Nancy Ellis, bees, even those in this carefully controlled display, seem defenseless against the current die-off. Nancy Ellis>> About three or four weeks ago, this was jammed with bees and, right now, you can only see just a few stragglers still inside. I don't really know what caused this hive to go. Spencer Michels>> Solving that mystery and the larger one are important because bees and other pollinators like hummingbirds perform a crucial function in agriculture. Various attempts to spread pollen without them have never worked well. As bees gather nectar and pollen, they flit between blossoms doing what the birds and the bees do. Laurie Adams heads the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign. Laurie Adams>> The male part of the plant is moved toward the female part of the plant or toward the female part of another plant. Spencer Michels>> And a bee or another pollinator does this? Laurie Adams>> Absolutely. The result is the complete fertilization within the plant, so the plant is able to set seed and set fruit which it normally might not be able to do without that. Spencer Michels>> Because pollinators are essential in growing up to one-third of the typical American's diet, she contends that the food supply is threatened. The problem for many pollinators, she says, is the loss of habitat where homes are replacing fields. But scientists searching for the cause of colony collapse disorder are focusing on a long list of other suspects. Eric Mussen>> What they live in is a hive, whether it's a box that we made or whether it's a hollowed-out tree. Spencer Michels>> At the University of California at Davis, Eric Mussen gives advice to beekeepers and they've been calling nonstop. He suspects the bee die-off may be related to the weather which stresses the bees. Eric Mussen>> I think that one of the biggest stresses was the fact that the United States has been in a drought in many places and the plants are just not providing the food that the bees need to be really successful. Spencer Michels>> Bees can also be stressed by traveling long distances to get to orchards that need them, and scientists are looking at pesticides that might kill bees by contaminating the nectar and the pollen they gather. Another suspected culprit is mites that suck the blood from both adult and unborn bees and can transmit viruses into the colony. That's what Orin Johnson suspects. Johnson is President of the California Beekeepers Association and is a second-generation beekeeper. Orin Johnson>> The varroa mite is the worst malady we have. It spins off viruses that weakens the colony. It makes it susceptible for a lot of other maladies. If you don't keep the mites under control, you're going to lose a lot of colonies for sure. Spencer Michels>> Johnson uses medicines to control the mites and he's not lost very many bees this year, though he has lost some. Orin Johnson>> This is classic symptom of the colony collapse or disappearing bee. Your box or your combs will have plenty of honey. The hive has plenty of food. They're not dying from starving. They have everything they need, so why are they disappearing or dying? Spencer Michels>> Jim Jasper would like some answers. He heads one of the biggest almond growing and processing firms in California, a state that produces eighty percent of the world's almonds, about a billion pounds a year. Business has been booming of late as worldwide demand has expanded. More trees have been planted and that has upped the demand for bees and the price Jasper has to pay to rent them for about a month. Jim Jasper>> Four or five years ago, we were paying maybe forty or fifty dollars a hive. Now hives are up to a hundred fifty dollars a hive. Without bees, we would really be lost as far as producing almonds here in California. Spencer Michels>> Meanwhile, as the almond blossoms fade, beekeepers like Tom Hamilton of Idaho are pulling their bees out of these orchards at night when the bees are calm and preparing to move on to the next crop, cherries in California or apples in Washington State. The crisis hasn't hit Hamilton's bees nor has it crippled the almond industry, at least not yet. Tom Hamilton>> I think we're going to be able to solve this problem, but right now, it's a little stressful. Spencer Michels>> Growers and beekeepers alike fear that, without more academic and government research, the bee die-off will turn into a very costly, unsolved mystery. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> Several Catholic churches throughout southern California are getting ready to offer refuge or sanctuary to immigrants, immigrants who are in danger of being deported. They're testing a law in California that says churches cannot harbor criminals, but they say that they're adhering to a higher law. Around our kitchen table this week are Joe Hicks of CommUnity Advocates, Lupe Moreno with Latino Americans for Immigration Reform who is against sanctuary, and supporting sanctuary is Rabbi Steven Jacobs with the Progressive Faith Foundation. The Kitchen Table is made possible by Ralph Tornberg. Joe Hicks>> There's been recent headlines that the La Placita church, Our Lady Queen of Angels, is part of a budding national network of sanctuary churches, mosques, synagogues, that are going to be providing refuge of sorts for families, individuals perhaps, that are at least here without the proper documentation to be here. I guess the question here, though, is this simply aiding and abetting lawbreaking or is there something else going on here that other people may miss? Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> The sanctuary movement is an inter-faith movement that comes from the deepest aspects of our tradition. While our government in this country has manmade laws, repeatedly it is a broken system. As Christians and Jews and as Muslims, we, out of our traditions, must forgive and act appropriately towards those who have fallen beneath the security level of what our citizens are about. So undocumented aliens have a very special role and it's very controversial in our country. Look at what Cardinal Mahony did recently when you ask about laws. Laws that are broken are manmade laws and this is a broken system that, hopefully, Congress and the president of this country are going to change, and that we will be helpful in our religious community to redefine what it is to be a citizen in America and act out of our deepest religious traditions. Joe Hicks>> You've heard the Rabbi's take on this. What's your perspective of those, in fact, presenting this kind of sanctuary, if you will, for people that are not here legally under existing laws? Lupe Moreno>> Okay. Well, if I remember correctly, when the last sanctuary movement was in place, it was because Latin America was having all kinds of civil wars and people were coming in illegally as refugees coming out of those wars. I tended to somewhat agree with the churches back then. But at this point, what we have are illegal aliens. They are not legal. They are not undocumented. Undocumented does not exist in our laws. The word is illegal alien. That's what our laws say. Okay, sure, they have children. The children are American citizens, but they are still illegal aliens. The children cannot help them in any way until the children turn twenty-one. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> It's dangerous to say "they" because it classifies everybody as the same. As religious people, I think we have an obligation to present to the American public what "they" means. Lupe Moreno>> They're illegal aliens. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> But that's where we differ. Lupe Moreno>> Okay. We are saying that illegal aliens are breaking our laws. Joe Hicks>> But, Rabbi, should not, under our current existing body of immigration laws, should not federal authorities, because they're job is to uphold law, not then move to detain or arrest people and then let the process figure out what to do with people and what's their actual status? I'm sure you would just say to open the borders and let anybody in under any kind of circumstances. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> No, I wouldn't say that. Lupe Moreno>> But that is what's happening. Anybody is coming in. Anybody without identification. We don't know who these people are and they are breaking our laws. We have very good laws. If our laws were enforced, we would not have these problems. Joe Hicks>> But here, you've got some churches and perhaps others like mosques and synagogues that may eventually join this movement in essence saying, wait a minute, a religious law in this case trumps federal law which says, you know, you've got to have the right stuff to come to this country legally. What do you say about that? What's your position on this? Lupe Moreno>> Well, I say that I am a Christian and I pray all day and I ask for God's guidance. I say that what these people are actually doing with the sanctuary movement is sinning. It is enabling people to sin. It is justifying their sin and -- Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> -- so you're going to punish the sinner. You're going to punish the sinner. Where does the forgiveness come out of the Christian heart? Lupe Moreno>> No, we're not punishing the sinner. I don't think we're punishing the sinner. I think what you are trying to do is twist the words on me here. What I'm trying to say is that you're enabling them to sin, so you are showing them that it's okay to sin. But in the end, I believe that you will be held accountable before God. Joe Hicks>> Rabbi, you know, there's a lot of people out there that are going to be a little skeptical of this. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> We're not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Repeatedly, those of us across the country are saying that this is a broken system and we recognize this. Nobody has the answer yet. Congress doesn't have the answer, but out of our deep religious values, we are challenging the system, so it is an equitable system. Yes, you have to stop at a stoplight. Yes, you have to stop at the border, but it is a broken system. The border people are not supported by our government, so anybody can get through the border because there are less and less border agents. That's a whole other issue when you say throw them across, throw them back, they're getting through the border, instead of stopping them at the border. We have not enhanced the system that we have in place that's broken. How much the more so do we need a system and the religious people in this country, an interfaith religious people in this country -- Lupe Moreno>> -- so why do we have to follow the law and these people not have to follow the law? What is fair about that? What is it that it's okay for all of these people to break this law and that law and that law? And why is it okay for you to help them lie? Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> First of all, I'm not helping them lie. I'm helping them -- Lupe Moreno>> -- their whole existence is a lie, so you help them lie. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> Would you like me to respond to that? Lupe Moreno>> Yes, please. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> Okay. I am helping them in ways that gives them dignity and to classify millions of immigrants and say they're leading a lie is absolutely wrong. First of all, millions -- Lupe Moreno>> -- they are leading a lie. Joe Hicks>> Let him respond. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> Millions of people are here legally. Millions of people want to become American citizens. They want to have a system in which they can add to the greatness of America and not throw them across the border where their lives are lost. Their children who are born here are legal citizens of this country. Lupe Moreno>> They are children. Joe Hicks>> What would you say to people saying, "Why should we grant dignity to people who've in fact come to this country illegally?" At the same time, we've got people standing in line waiting years literally to come here legally. Rabbi Steven Jacobs>> That's right, and that's the system that's broken and that's what we want to rectify. We're not just going and saying we're enhancing what you call illegal immigration and I call the undocumented part of this country. We want to fix that system so that you and millions of Americans no longer have to respond to what happens to those who are standing in line that want to become American citizens. We want to fix that system. Lupe Moreno>> But let me ask you one question. Joe Hicks>> Lupe, as a churchgoing Christian, are there no laws that you think trump our everyday laws? Lupe Moreno>> Okay. My understanding is that our Constitution and our laws are based on the Bible and other religious papers. The only thing that we should do for these people is treat them humanely, treat them with respect, but show them the door. Joe Hicks>> Lupe, we could do this all day, I think. Lupe Moreno>> Absolutely. Joe Hicks>> But we've got to bring it to a close. Thank you very much, both of you, for coming and having this discussion today. Appreciate it. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> It's been five years in the making and now the Skirball Center has brought to life the story of Noah's Ark in a way that it's never been told before. This is the entrance to a unique experience, Noah's Ark, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. It's designed with children in mind, but anyone with an imagination will enjoy eight thousand square feet of this marvelous menagerie. Visitors can explore, touch, climb, build and, most of all, pick up a message especially relevant to southern California, one of the most diverse cultures on the planet. The Ark was the dream of Skirball's CEO and founding president, Uri Herscher. He wanted to convey themes of hardship, community and triumph, but he didn't know exactly how. Uri Herscher>> Frankly, it became concrete when a remarkable board member introduced me to his Noah's Ark collection which he had been collecting for decades and to numerous children's books in various languages and arks created in different cultures. That's when I became aware that Noah's Ark is a story that's told in at least four hundred fifty different cultures throughout the globe. Then I knew we had a good idea. Val Zavala>> The Ark begins as it does in the Bible, with a storm. Uri Herscher>> So we have wind, we have rain and we have lightning, so let's demonstrate that. [Film Clip] Uri Herscher>> We could do this all day (laughter). Storms? We all have storms in our lives. We all yearn. All human beings yearn for shelter and they yearn for a community that knows one another, not a ghettoized community. So this Ark is meant to be "Welcome everyone. Get out of your ghettos and let's get to know one another." Val Zavala>> Next step? Loading the animals into the Ark. Uri Herscher>> These animals were created by the children of LA's BEST and every child painted the animal, put their name and the grade. Then the children come here and this is their favorite activity and, with their own hands, they're actually loading the Ark two by two. I must admit, at this moment, I am a fourth grader and I am enjoying this and I don't want to stop. Val Zavala>> There are more than three hundred animals, many of them made with reused materials like rope, mops or belts. A team of creative artists, puppeteers and architects worked together to bring the Ark to life. With the animals on board, it's time to step inside. Uri Herscher>> So this is a place in the Ark where everybody begins to get to know each other, feel safer and talk with one another and touch the animals and play with the animals. This is just another way for you to participate and see that giraffe moving. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> Everything is meant to be touched and played with, even this ark within the Ark. This is beautiful. Uri Herscher>> For those of us who may have missed having fun with these are able to do so at this time. Just bring your inner child in and expose it. Val Zavala>> Do any of these disappear (laughter)? Those little hands? Those little pockets? It's so tempting. Uri Herscher>> We have a major supply of these, so if one of these little animals disappear, we make them reappear and we hope that whoever might have taken them home will be enjoying them. [Film Clip] Uri Herscher>> We're now walking through a bridge from one part of the Ark into another part of the Ark, so pretend as though it's been stormy for twenty days and these are now the latter twenty days before you reach the shore. So here you know you've lived together and the only way you can survive living together is by working together. Here we are bringing nourishment to every animal on this particular Ark. Val Zavala>> (Laughter) Gotcha. Ingrained in all this fun is a message, a lesson for children who will be growing up in a world of conflict and challenges. Uri Herscher>> Here, for example, you have your hope for humankind, which is that the lion and the lamb will actually enjoy one another's company rather than devour. The lion, so much stronger, could devour the lamb, but here they're enjoying each other's company. The best of David and Goliath not destroying one another, but actually shaking hands and saying, you know, it will be better if both of us remained in the world. Val Zavala>> So after the storm and after being in the Ark together and working things out, they finally finish their journey. Uri Herscher>> They finally reach the land again and the first signal that they're safe is the rainbow because it tells you that the rains have receded and the sun has arrived and the two intersect to give you a hopeful sign that you've got another chance. But I think before we reach rainbows, we've got to work awfully hard. We are not born with rainbows. I think we're born with storms. There is a journey looking for shelter. It's clear that no one person can really build a shelter. It's a communal effort and that's what we teach when our wonderful kids come here from all over the city. Val Zavala>> And, of course, the iconic dove which means hope. Uri Herscher>> Exactly. This gallery is all about second chances. It feels awfully good to know that there is another chance for all of us and that we get it usually by working together with others in the community. Without hope, there is no life. There is just no life because you need to hope that things will change. But you need to also say, "I will be part of that change" and then you need to say, "I alone can't change anything. We will do it. We will have a communal mission of making this city a better city. We will try to get health care for everyone in California. We will try to find employment for those who are unemployed. We will find a way to feed those who are hungry." So the story of Noah's Ark is that we shall reach this rainbow, but we've got a lot of hard work to do before we actually find that rainbow. Val Zavala>> Noah's Ark is a permanent exhibit. You can get information by going on the website at skirball.org or calling (310) 440-4500. The Ark opens June 26 and tickets go on sale on June 1. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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