Remember how everyone was patting themselves on the back after the honeybee decline was somewhat slower last year than previous years? Yeah, no, we're still kinda screwed.
Nearly one in three commercial honeybee colonies in the United States died or disappeared last winter, an unsustainable decline that threatens the nation’s food supply.
Multiple factors — pesticides, fungicides, parasites, viruses and malnutrition — are believed to cause the losses, which were officially announced today by a consortium of academic researchers, beekeepers and Department of Agriculture scientists.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp of the University of Maryland, who led the survey documenting the declines.
“If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important,” said vanEngelstorp. “One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.”
And the obligatory "Thanks for all the help, relevant private-industry" part of the article:
Quote:
In the last several years, it’s become evident that neonicotinoids are extremely toxic to honeybees and, even in small, sub-lethal doses, make bees more vulnerable to disease. The European Union recently limited neonicotinoid use, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing their use.
Pesticide companies have fought the restrictions, arguing that neonicotinoids are unfairly blamed. Most non-industry scientists say the question isn’t whether neonicotinoids are a problem, but where they fit into a constellation of problems.
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This might be too simplistic, but why can't we grow them in a lab and then let them loose?
I'm deathly afraid of bees/wasps, but this might be a necessary evil!
Much of the issue is with the habitats themselves, I think. "Monoculture" farming or "monocropping" has created vast, infertile areas (from a bee perspective) of only one singular type of crop, where instead there was once a more natural cross-section of flowers and plants that bees could utilize.
Didn't Canada just drop the Imported Bee ban a couple years ago because of this? Bringing in NZ bees to re-vitalize the population in Canada?
This is a very slippery slope we humans are starting to slip down. We messed with nature a tad too much and now there's a chance it will bite us all in the butt.
Second one looks more like a wasp, with it's mandibles and all.
Cool pics though.
As far as the thread, I wasn't aware there was any backpatting going on, on this issue. Thought it was continued bad news, which I guess it is.
Between this and the sharks, the danger to the natural order and yes even our survival cannot be understated. And still big business and governments wants to obfuscate the real issue so their bottom line won't be hurt.
We need to really start getting some real environmental laws with teeth going on.
Well considering nearly one in three colonies in the states died out last winter alone, I'm going to say, not a lot.
People have been raising this alarm for about 10 years now, and the issue significantly longer than that.
The problem with being too alarmist though, is that people stop giving a crap. Issue gets too big, they feel self-defensive, or just that the gravity of the issue is too unbelievable to be true. 'Environmentalists have been warning us about global warming for years and last winter was the coldest we had in 50!' etc.
But we will definitely see it's effects in our lifetime. And it could be much worse than just 'noticeable effects'.
Not the bees!
