Flowers Losing Scent, Ability to Attract Bees (Updated X 2)

An article in the Independent from yesterday discusses yet another in a recent string of disturbing environmental phenomena: Apparently, flowers are losing their ability to produce an odor.

Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies, a new study suggests.

The study suggests that the principle culprit is auto emissions, and that the absense of odor may impede the ability of flowers to attract bees in order to pollinate them.

Whether this is related to the mysterious deaths of honeybees is anyone's guess, but it at least seems like a possibility, as the study notes that:

And the scientists who have conducted the study fear that insects' ability to repel enemies and attract mates may also be impeded.

I'm not sure whether these abilities are thought to be impeded by the same emissions that are reducing odor from flowers, or whether the less frequent pollination on the part of the bees somehow impacts their ability to attract mates and repel predators, but either way, it seems possible that this is all part of the same enivironmental feedback loop.

CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is occuring in Europe as well as in the US, though the article notes that it hasn't spread to the UK yet. Nonetheless,

The crisis has now spread to Europe. Politicians insist that CCD has not yet been found in Britain, but the insects have been declining here too, and the agriculture minister Lord Rooker has warned that "the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years".

What's most shocking of all to me is that I've not even heard a blip about this in the US news; not only are bees dying, but now flowers are no longer producing an odor?

Makes me wonder if we haven't passed to point of no return entirely in fucking up this planet.

UPDATE:

Turns out the was also diaried yesterday, so pass on some mojo to Bkuhl.

UPDATE #2

Please check out northanger's excellent comment which provides links to numerous additional sites, diaries, and pictures about this disturbing phenomena.