A World Without Bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum

So what's happening to kill off so many bees? Viruses? Possibly — but why now? The likely answer is the pesticides and pollution that go with modern farming. Another wake-up call, with fascinating information about bees being trucked all over the place to pollinate our crops.

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

Honeybees are dying. In America, one in three hives was left lifeless at the beginning of 2008. In France, the death rate was more than 60 per cent. In Britain, a government minister warned that honey bees could be extinct within a decade. A third of all that we eat, and much of what we wear, relies on pollination by honeybees. So if - or when - the world loses its black-and-yellow workers, the consequences will be dire. What is behind this catastrophe? Viruses, parasites, pesticides and climate change have all been blamed. As has modern monoculture agribusiness. In this timely book, two keen amateur apiarists investigate all the claims and counterclaims with the help of scientists and beekeepers in Europe, America and beyond. They ask the question that will soon be on everyone's lips: is there any possible way of saving the honeybees - and, with them, the world as we know it?