Posted on 04/09/2024 6:54:15 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
One of nature’s most important keystone species is working itself to death.
Colonies of honey bees — crucial pollinators for a wide variety of plants and cash crops — are at risk of collapse because of climate change, a recent study by scientists at Washington State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found.
Long and warmer fall months across the Pacific Northwest encourage bees to emerge from their colonies when they should be resting, said Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, a research leader at the USDA’s Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona.
“When it’s warm out, they fly and when they fly they’re physiologically aging,” said DeGrandi-Hoffman, who is also one of the study’s authors. “It’s very taxing to fly.”
Come springtime, bees that should be emerging young and rested are instead elderly and infirm, she said. They’re too old to care for younger bee generations, which in turn cannot care for the generations after them.
The study modeled many different climate scenarios for the decades ahead, said Kirti Rajagopalan, another author, and an assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering. How severe the warming trend continues for the Pacific Northwest depends on whether humans curtail greenhouse gas emissions and, if so, by how much.
The thing that will prevent the greatest amount of warming, however, is for humans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and work to reverse the worst effects of climate change, Rajagopalan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at columbian.com ...
I have a solution. Plant flowers that attract honeybees.
European honey bees are a non-native species. Why are they complaining about this?
Plants require atmospheric CO2. If the levels drop too low, plants start to die off. Plants that provide nectar to honey bees. If there are not enough plants, honey bees cant produce nectar.
The planet is currently in a CO2 drought. This is far more of a threat to bees than “climate change”.
Study: Evolution helps honeybees adapt to changing conditions.
"WSU study: Climate change hurts honey bees"
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
A single study never proved anything, suspected global warming propaganda with this WSU example. WSU has to publish exactly how its study was done, along with results, so that other experimenters can duplicate experiment to see if they get reasonably same results.
Speaking of repeatable experiments with basically same results, 2024 total eclipse path dropped temperatures just like the one in 2017 did, politically demonized CO2 again failing to hold the heat down during middle of sunny warm day.
Did you feel it get colder during totality? Here's how far the temperature dropped (non-FR; April 2024)
Solar eclipse 2017: How much did the temperature change during the eclipse? (non-FR; 8.22.17)
A few days ago an article was posted to FR about the comeback of honey bees. A substantial comeback!
Are honey bees going to be the new coffee? Every few years a study comes out that says drinking more than four (put your own number there) cups of coffee a day is every bad for you and will reduce your life expectancy by x number of years. Inbetween those coffee is bad for you studies, a new study will come out saying that drinking at least two or three cups of coffee is good for you and will increase your life expectancy by y number of years. And in some cases x=y.!
Utter crap. There are more bees than beekeepers know what to do with.
https://fortune.com/2024/04/03/hobbyist-beekeepers-reverse-americas-critical-bee-shortage-5-years-record-colonies/
“ In 1850 it dropped to a record low of 280ppm. Yes, the Earth came with 130ppm of complete extinction.”
Can we trust measurements from 175 years ago any more than we can trust today’s computer models?
I call BS!
Bees in Florida never get a rest. It’s go go go all year
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.