>
>>Nature seems to be indifferent or perhaps unaware of its importance...
>
> Would one expect 'nature' to have awareness?
>
>>In nature, over time, we see periodic and seemingly indiscriminate 
>>extinctions,

These are a couple of snippets of the discussion thread that seems to have 
interestingly become philosophical more than biological.  I have been 
reading this with interest, but let me try to bring it back to an informed 
discussion of beekeeping.

As best we can tell man is the only organism on the planet with an awareness 
of its own existence and its own mortality.  It is the only organism than 
consciously plans for its future.  Honey bees live in the present using 
instinct to make the continuation of the species more likely, but there is 
no remorse if the instinct fails.  They are indeed indifferent and unaware. 
We humans project our interest in planning for the future into the bee 
world. (or the whales, whooping cranes, wolves, ash trees.....).  That is 
not wrong.  That is human

If we lose the honey bee to extinction, is it a big loss?  We humans say yes 
because of our fear that it may affect our ability to survive as a species. 
We have a consciousness that includes the ability to plan for the future. 
There is nothing wrong with that.

I would not apologize for showing a desire to conserve the honey bees.  It 
is a human thing to do.

To wax back to the philosophical Carl Sagan once said something like.... 
Either we are alone in the universe or we are not.  Either thought is 
awesome....

If we are alone, and we screw it up... that would be a bummer.  Conservation 
of bees and the conservation of life on Earth is a legitimate human concern.

Inspecting my bees this spring I find my bees have survived better than the 
last two winters.  This human is pleased with that.  My contribution to 
conservation.

Larry Krengel

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