Thank you for this post. Although it's about managed hives and
ignores the apparent decrease in feral populations (there certainly
seemed to be a lot more honeybees in crocus, dutch clover and
residential flower gardens & lawns when I was a kid).
I have been getting more and more vocal locally about the hijacking
of the bee crisis by the environmentalists.
If you google "What's killing the bees" the majority of articles are
about pesticides, GMO and Monsanto. With headlines like:
What's killing the honey bees? Mystery may be solved
Pesticides appear to play a key role in killing off the honey bee
population, according to a new study from Harvard University.
Scientists discover what's killing the bees and it's worse than you thought
But in a first-of-its-kind study
<http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0070182#authcontrib>published
today in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of
Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a
witch's brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that
bees collect to feed their hives.
Scientists may have pinpointed what's killing the bees: Yep, it's the
pesticides
Looks Like the Leftist Fringe Was Right About What's Killing the Bees
After years of wait-and-see news reports, things are getting
cinematic: The evil chemical corporation might be the bee murderer
after all, but if it is, it's not going down without a fight.
<https://news.vice.com/article/monsanto-s-herbicide-might-be-killing-farmers>Monsanto's
herbicide might be killing farmers. Read more here.
The sheer volume of articles submitted by environmentalists and their
supporters seem to overwhelm the information channel.
Locally, one of the famous "bees are dying" movies was held locally
at the Carmel Indiana library by an environmentalist group. They
advocated planting only native flowers (which is fine, particularly
for native bees, but frankly, some of the best forage for honeybees
is non-invasive plants from Europe, home of the honeybee). But then
they went on and said, effectively, 'we must lobby the state
legislature to fund light rail transit, to save the bees.'
[Incidentally, the cost of a $2 ticket - each and every ticket - was
estimated to need about $18 of tax money to break even].
The cell phone non-study, the Einstein quote, and the study by
Chensheng Lu, and the PBS "Silence of the Bees" with the totally
dishonest segment on China pears and chicken feathers (there are
countless examples)... all take on a life where debunking is
ineffective. When confronted with the data debunking their point,
they act like promoting a falsehood is acceptable if it helps the final goal.
Like everyone else, I'm cautious about pesticides. After all
insecticides kill insects. But this hesitancy had, for a long time,
made too cautious to speak out for better balance.
Well, I'm speaking out now.
At 12:00 AM 8/19/2014, Brian Ames <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>https://storify.com/BobTheBeekeeper/pollinator-concerns-yes-beepocalypse-no?utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&utm_campaign=&utm_content=storify-pingback&awesm=sfy.co_gq6r&utm_source=t.co
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
