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....It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.
I was just discussing this very thing with a botanist friend recently. We agreed that we haven't seen many bumblebees for a few years. Certainly not as many as we've seen in our childhood. I love to see them at work. They seem like they should be too heavy to fly. Amazing creatures.
I don't think we will starve, as the article declares. It will be more expensive for agriculture crops. Maybe we can hire illegals for cheap, to walk through the crops with paint brushes collecting pollen and spreading it.
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- Jim
�Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.� Sir Winston Churchill
I was just discussing this very thing with a botanist friend recently. We agreed that we haven't seen many bumblebees for a few years. Certainly not as many as we've seen in our childhood. I love to see them at work. They seem like they should be too heavy to fly. Amazing creatures.
I don't think we will starve, as the article declares. It will be more expensive for agriculture crops. Maybe we can hire illegals for cheap, to walk through the crops with paint brushes collecting pollen and spreading it.
Inded, and it's not just bees. When we first came here 25 years ago, you could walk down the lane in early summer and the hedgerows would be literally humming with insect sounds. You just don't hear that anymore.
All things are connected. If one part of the creation is taking a hammering, it won't be long before the ill effects reverberate up the chain.
If we did lose the bee it would have a catastrophic impact on commercial growers. Some foods would disappear from the supermarket shelves. Increased demand for other foods would create shortages there and there'd be a big increase in the price of food....
In Thursday�s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies.
This is just more fodder for new genetic engineering experiments.
I'm glad they discovered the problem. We could not afford to lose the bees. Given better conditions, they can recover. However farmers can't really afford to discontinue pesticides either.
Previously, evolution caused plants to generate their own chemicals to dissuasive pests and influence mating. That is why many herbs give us such health benefits too. Evolution has been nullified with modern agriculture. The plants have not needed to provide such defense for themselves. We really are the worse danger to our planet. Overpopulation multiplies the problem.
There is a lot of misinformation circling around about the bee issue. For a brief background on the issue this study. It offers a lot of information about the bee issue, and it just so happens to be the source of the 96% decline figure that the OP mentions. Scroll down to the "Discussion" section for an overview of the issue.
It's interesting, though unsurprising, that Natural News' source is a Reuters article about the study, rather than the actual study itself.
I know someone who has about 20,000 bee hives. ( im likely underestimating what he really has) He transports them via semi truck to ranches and farmlands for pollenation work.
He says he has not seen a problem with hive collapse, and certainly many of the customers he serves use roundup and GMO crops.
On my little patch of earth I have a mutitude of bees and more huge bumble bees than I have seen in previous years.
When we first settled this land there were none to be seen, but adding ponds and trees and gardens brought them all in.
Oh, BTW, the common honey bee was not even in North America until after Columbus came. What little honey native people did have did not come from the bee we are accustomed to.
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"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." Marcus Aurelius
Oh, BTW, the common honey bee was not even in North America until after Columbus came. What little honey native people did have did not come from the bee we are accustomed to.
This is a very interesting fact indeed, and is the result of genetic research conducted in 2006. Since that time, a fossil record has been identified that shows that a type of honey bee existed in North America at least 14 million years ago (source):
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Engle, the lead author of research..., says the bee is definitely a honey bee. It has the distinctive hairy eyes, wing patterns and barbs on the stinger.
Unfortunately, this ancient bee...no longer exists. The researchers say it's most similar to [an] extinct species from Germany.
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But Apis nearctica is proof that North America was a native range of the honey bee. In the journal article, Engle says that "honey bees were likely truly absent" from North America during the Pliocense and Pleistocene, "not becoming reintroduced until the major European colonization of the New World in the early 17th century."
There are, however, native (North American) bumblebee populations that are declining. From the Humane Society:
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Three native bees that particularly need help are the rusty-patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis), the yellow-banded bumblebee (Bombus terricola), and the Western bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis). These three have become rare or absent throughout much or all of their previous ranges in only ten years. Scientists are seeking to learn why the bees are disappearing. Meanwhile, creating bee-friendly habitat in your backyard is the best way to help.
The relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and...their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23–87%, some within the last 20 y.
Monsanto has bought controlling interest in one of the major research companies that was looking into the mass bee die off.
So now I�m sure we can expect to see some real progress made into what is killing these bees.
Bees in crisis...
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