Seriously, bees are important pollinators, but not nearly as important as the fly. Or the ant for that matter.
Or the fact that the honey bee isn't even indigenous to North America. Guess the Indians didn't eat and buffalo didn't graze. More hocus pocus phooey spewed from the Marxist media and their merry band of "scientific" goons.
That’s funny, I always thought it was those pesticides we spray on our crops that was wiping out the bees.
It’s the Republicans’ fault. (My suggestion: plant holly plants, and they will come by the thousands.)
In other words, without "climate change", this hippy doesn't have a job.
According to Global Warming scientists, there was supposed to be NO ice at the north polar starting this year.
Gee...I wonder how the dinosaurs survived for millions of years on all that plant life that couldn’t possibly have been pollinated by bees...because the climate was so much warmer back then...
BIG /S
Must’ve been pollinated by Cretaceous gremlins...
They never move
Why can’t the yellow jackets disappear?
Actually I think the greatest threat to bees is the lack of small bee keepers and the rise of big traveling beekeepers which help to spread disease among bees.
I recently made a deal for a local beekeeper to put a couple of hives on my half acre. He’ll deal with them and I won’t disturb them.
I just saw a couple of honeybees out in the yard but I have to wonder how this cold wet weather affects them. There has been a lot of hard rain here this summer.
Anyone believing this global warming hooey is a moron.
The bees are being killed by pesticides, herbicides and invasive parasites (mites, molds, bacteria, etc.).
“Science” was once a fine peer reviewed publication, fast going the way of Scientific American.
Double face palm...
If the planet is warming....and some places are getting too hot for the bees...wouldn’t it follow that the bees would just follow the temperate zones as the moved farther north and south toward the poles? I mean, instead of just dying?
Actually, mites are killing the honey bees. Also, honey bees are not native to North America, there are all types of little and big bees that pollinate stuff. Honey bees are adapted to a European climate, which is similar, but not identical to North America, so when the run into problems, there numbers can fall precipitously. Native bees have protection built into their DNA. So it is no suprise that honey bees will jump up and down.
There is a minor issue with this theory on bee troubles. All three major satellite data sets demonstrate show that there has been no detectable “global warming” in nearly two decades. The temperatures in rural North America have actually declined during that same time period. So is it possible that global temperature stagnation caused a decline in the bee population.
Really? From June of this year....< blockquote> You’ve probably heard by now that bees are mysteriously dying. In 2006, commercial beekeepers began to witness unusually high rates of honeybee die-offs over the winter — increasing from an average of 15 percent to more than 30 percent. Everything from genetically modified crops to pesticides (even cell phones) has been blamed. The phenomenon was soon given a name: colony collapse disorder.
Ever since, the media has warned us of a “beemaggedon” or “beepocalypse” posing a “threat to our food supply.” By 2013, NPR declared that bee declines may cause “a crisis point for crops,” and the cover of Time magazine foretold of a “world without bees.” This spring, there was more bad news. Beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of their colonies over the last year, prompting more worrisome headlines.
Based on such reports, you might believe that honeybees are nearly gone by now. And because honeybees are such an important pollinator — they reportedly add $15 billion in value to crops and are responsible for pollinating a third of what we eat — the economic consequences must be significant.
Last year, riding the buzz over dying bees, the Obama administration announced the creation of a pollinator-health task force to develop a “federal strategy” to promote honeybees and other pollinators. Last month the task force unveiled its long-awaited plan, the National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. The plan aims to reduce honeybee-colony losses to “sustainable” levels and create 7 million acres of pollinator-friendly habitat. It also calls for more than $82 million in federal funding to address pollinator health.
But here’s something you probably haven’t heard: There are more honeybee colonies in the United States today than there were when colony collapse disorder began in 2006. In fact, according to data released in March by the Department of Agriculture, U.S. honeybee-colony numbers are now at a 20-year high. And those colonies are producing plenty of honey. U.S. honey production is also at a 10-year high.
Almost no one has reported this, but it’s true. You can browse the USDA reports yourself. Since colony collapse disorder began in 2006, there has been virtually no detectable effect on the total number of honeybee colonies in the United States. Nor has there been any significant impact on food prices or production.
How can this be? In short, commercial beekeepers have adapted to higher winter honeybee losses by actively rebuilding their colonies. This is often done by splitting healthy colonies into multiple hives and purchasing new queen bees to rebuild the lost hives. Beekeepers purchase queen bees through the mail from commercial breeders for as little as $15 to $25 and can produce new broods rather quickly. Other approaches include buying packaged bees (about $55 for 12,000 worker bees and a fertilized queen) or replacing the queen to improve the health of the hive. By doing so, beekeepers are maintaining healthy and productive colonies — all part of a robust and extensive market for pollination services.
-- from the thread Bee-pocalypse Now? Nope. [Private beekeepers have solved colony collapse disorder]
Ok, 3 of 11 members of bumble bees are in danger of extinction.
Now, if “evolution” exists, then other more adaptable species will rise up at the abundance of opportunity as a result of them not being able to survive the higher temps.
On the other hand I ran over a couple with the mower the other day. Sorry I ruined the environment.
Plenty of bees in our backyard....
Not to argue your point, but my dad was a beekeeper. He made great money by renting his hives to local farmers to pollinate their strawberry fields and apple orchards.
Left to the flys and ants...your fruit plate would be pretty meager.
Much of their pollination is “manufactured.”
Someone needs to post the Goebbels picture to this thread ...
Wait a minute, I’d heard Europe had solved their bee problem by banning the right pesticide. Alarmists need to make up their minds.