In the brief but informative documentary More Than Honey, director Markus Imhoof dives deep into the fascinating world of Apis mellifera, better known to us as the common honeybee. Although, the information gained from this film demonstrates that these tiny creatures that most find insignificant, are disappearing by the wayside and are perhaps not as common as they once were. Across the globe, up to 90% of that region’s bees have disappeared over the last 15 years. Scientists and beekeepers alike are seeing the same phenomenon occur. When their bees leave their hives by the billions and simply never return. The most curious part of this epidemic is that once the bees leave, they literally disappear, none of their bodies are found and no obvious…show more content… Even though there are strong connections made in this film, no universal conclusion has been made. When we think of the inequality of this issue, Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality is brought to mind in that he states that with the development of more complex societies, like our own in which humans govern all actions, the unfortunate or the animals with no voice are ultimately taking the hit. Turmoil will ultimately surface when honeybees are extinct altogether. Rousseau would call this inequality unacceptable and unjustifiable. In addition, the Australian utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer concludes that if this suffering were being inflicted on humans instead of animals, it would not be justified.
The strongest argument made pointing to colony collapse disorder made in this documentary points to the use of pesticides, claiming that when pesticides are projected over our crops, the bees appear to be disabled and spread the pesticides through pollination. Other causes leading to CCD is thought to be issues with parasites like varroa mites or the new stress of traveling to pollenate due to the scarcity
