>  ...two partly self-contradictory assumptions. 
> The first is that there is a "consensus" of 
> qualified scientists that dangerous human- 
> caused global warming is upon us;
> and the second is that although there are 
> "two sides to the debate", the dangerous- 
> warming side is overwhelmingly the stronger. 
> Both assertions are unsustainable.

While this has nothing to do with varroa, we have seen significant tangible
impacts on both the blooms of nectar plants as a direct result of the
"assertions" described as "unsustainable".   I wrote a how-to article over a
decade ago on phenology for beekeeping:  
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/budding.pdf 
http://tinyurl.com/oxzzwao  but since then, climate change has made that
simple math essentially useless.  

The Royal Society  published " Shifts in phenology due to global climate
change: the need for a yardstick" in 2005:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1581/2561
http://tinyurl.com/py8t3ws and Wayne Esaias of NASA Goddard is working to
try and track the damage for beekeeping with a dataset of hive weights: 
http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov

I also saw how "random" springs became in my own operation, and my own R&D
efforts since the mid-2000s have resulted in the Nectar Detector, which
allows a beekeeper to quickly and inexpensively weigh each and every hive,
as a bloom is clearly indicated by a slight increase in colony weight, and a
colony's weight loss during winter allows one to predict which will need
feeding, and which will not.  Last winter in the East was long and cold, so
there was extensive starvation loss.

It's not rocket science, but NASA's page on the issue 
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
http://tinyurl.com/qjuxu54

is but one of many such pages and articles pointing out that the well-funded
efforts of those who profit from fossil fuels are the only "other side" of
the so-called "debate".  When the existence of the debate itself is the
primary matter being debated, I think one can see what is fact and what is
propaganda.

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