Posted on 05/04/2010 2:37:26 AM PDT by Daisyjane69
Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.
The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
When did Obama know about this, and what did he know?
Obama’s fault.
But seriously, this IS a real issue. For once the Guardian is reporting well.
I thought it was concluded that it was caused by nicotine
I wonder at the long term effects.
Anyone have any numbers?
There has been considerable focus on the RF from mobile phone towers.
If this theory were to pan out, it would be disastrous.
Ping to you, if you wanna hit our gardening list!
Very odd. Farmers have been using pesticides for many, many bee generations. Why the sudden problem. Why would the bees leave, en mass, prior to dying? Why such a preponderance in winter?
Has there been a decline in crop production? If so many bees are dying there should be a corresponding drop in production. I have read nothing about that.
Hardly. The banning of cell phones would rescue society from perpetual teenage girldom syndrome.
We are doomed.
Yet environmentalists will tell us this is because the bee's natural habitat is under attack from global warming.
When the truth is bees are not native to North America!
One of the things I like best about this forum is that one learns something new every day. You have said bees are not native to North America, which is news to me.
How the heck did they get here and where did they come from?
Did the Pilgrims pack them in from England ("two bees or not two bees?")
This is truly scary. And since there are now fewer bees, the ones left are literally being worked to death. And bumblebee populations are also crashing. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/08/tech/main3341254.shtml
Not only do we depend on bumblebees for food, but birds and bears depend on them for berries. When I was a kid, there were always plenty of bees (in the wild) around. Now I`m lucky if I see a handfull all spring and summer.
There was a very short blurb in the Times of India reporting a claim that cell freqs are interfering with bee comm.
Massive, industrial-scale agriculture is not “native” to North America, either.
The bee issue can become a serious one in the short term, but I’m willing to put my money on natural selection and say that this will be solved by nature, eventually.
In the words of George Carlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw&feature=player_embedded
“You got people like this around you? Country is full of them now! People walking around all day long, every minute of the day — worried about EVERYTHING! Worried about the air, worried about the water, worried about the soil. Worried about insecticides, pesticides, food additives, carcinogens; worried about radon gas; worried about asbestos. Worried about saving endangered species.
Let me tell you about endangered species, all right? Saving endangered species is just one more arrogant attempt by humans to control Nature! It’s arrogant meddling! It’s what got us into trouble in the first place! Doesn’t anybody understand that? Interfering with Nature! Over 90 percent.. over... way over 90 percent of all the species that have ever lived — EVER LIVED — on this planet are gone. Whissshht! They are extinct!
We didn’t kill them all.
They just... disappeared! That’s what Nature does! They disappear these days at the rate of 25 a day, and I mean regardless of our behavior. Irrespective of how we act on this planet, 25 species that were here today, will be gone tomorrow! Let them go... gracefully! Leave Nature alone! Haven’t we done enough?
We’re so self-important. So self-important! Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees; save the bees; save the whales; save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all, “Save the planet.” WHAT? Are these fucking people kidding me? Save the planet? We don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven’t learned how to care for one another, we’re gonna save the fucking planet?
I’m getting tired of that shit. Tired of that shit. Tired! I’m tired of fucking Earth Day! I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. They don’t care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.
Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked. Difference. Difference! The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We’ve been here, what? A hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we’re a threat? That somehow we’re gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun?
The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles; hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors; worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet... the planet... the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE!
We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet will be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.
You wanna know how the planet is doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, “How the planet’s doing?” You wanna know if the planet’s all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.
The planet will be here for a long, long — LONG — time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself; it will cleanse itself, because that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover; the earth will be renewed; and, if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the Earth plus plastic! The Earth doesn’t share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, “Why are we here?” “Plastic! Assholes.”
So! So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that it has already started already, don’t you? I think, to be fair, the planet probably sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And I am sure the planet will defend itself in the manner of a large organism, like a beehive or an ant colony, and muster a defense. I am sure the planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet trying to defend against this pesky, troublesome species? “Let’s see... What might... Hmm.. Viruses! Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh...viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.”
Well, that’s a poetic note. And it’s a start. And I can dream, can’t I? See I don’t worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we’re part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron.” The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn’t punish; it doesn’t reward; it doesn’t judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while.
Thanks for being here with me for a little while tonight!
Thank you!”
“When the truth is bees are not native to North America!”
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I don’t know the history but bees used commercially for pollenization are EUROPEAN honeybees which are much larger than native bees here in North America ... I haven’t seen any stories about the smaller native bees , probably because they aren’t watched as closely... I can tell you that I have seen PLENTY of the smaller native bees the last few years (I’m in Central Florida) and I recently saw an article (AP I Think) in my local paper about large numbers of people taking up beekeeping as a hobby.
“Hardly. The banning of cell phones would rescue society from perpetual teenage girldom syndrome.”
You have a point.
Here in the Philippines, every girl, regardless how poor, has at least one, often two mobile phones.
Having seen several reports on cell tower / phone impacts on bee colony populations, I believe the rapid growth of cell towers in rural farming areas over the last 5 years could well be a key factor.
Easy test ... check hives 3-6 months after an EMP attack. It’s a guarantee no cell phones will be working ...
Thanks! That is interesting and I will have to rummage around on this subject a bit more.
Why isn’t the price of honey rising?
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