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May 4, 2007 at 06:25:38

Please Lord, not the bees

by Peter Dearman     Page 4 of 4 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com


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Bumblebees are, however, doing well in one region, Neath Port Talbot, which was declared the bumblebee capital of Wales in 2004 after experts found 15 different species thriving there. This is almost certainly because the local council allows roadside verges to become overgrown with “weeds” and wildflowers. (20)

Surprise — it’s an ecosystem thing. As with honeybees and CCD, the root of the bumblebee problem lies in our modern rationalist drive toward endlessly ordering the world around us. The long-term solution is a return to a more natural ecological order. This interpretation needs to be conveyed when mainstream media tell the CCD story.

Of course, with all the parasites, pathogens, pesticides and transit to stress out our hardworking honey bees, they are in peril. Even if some silver bullet saves us from CCD, it is more than obvious that we need to pay more respect to bees, and to nature. This truth may be generalized to most facets of our agricultural existence; the bees are just a warning. Wherever you look, pests are getting stronger as the life forms we depend on get weaker. Adding more chemicals isn’t going to help for much longer.

Beekeepers are a busy and underpaid lot, and we should pay more heed to their services. Even now, with the vanishing bee story headlining on major networks, government players appear to have their eyes elsewhere. “There used to be a lot more regulation than there is today,” says Arizona beekeeper Victor Kaur. “People import bees and bring new diseases into the country. One might be colony collapse disorder.” (30)

“The bees are dying, and I think people are to blame,” is how Kaur puts it simply. “Bee keeping is much more labor intensive now than it was 15 years ago. It’s a dying profession,” he eulogizes. “The average age of a beekeeper is 62, and there are only a couple of thousand of us left. There are only about 2.5 million hives left. …It’s too much work.” (30)

If CCD proves to be more than a one-time seasonal fluke, the job of beekeeping just got a lot harder. Pollination can’t be outsourced, although it isn’t too difficult to imagine fields full of exploited underclass laborers pollinating crops by Q-tip. Let’s hope we never have to go there.

Perhaps a sensible reaction to the information summarized in this short article would be to write a letter to your government leaders. Insist that they immediately allocate significant funding to combat CCD using a variety of approaches. This must include ecological approaches such as wildflower renewal. Furthermore, insist that our few remaining beekeepers be given the support they deserve and desperately need at this important juncture. Humanity cannot afford to ignore this battle. It’s not science; it’s common sense.

References

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder
Wikipedia
2 http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/FAQ/FAQCCD.pdf
FAQ’s Colony Collapse Disorder (PDF), Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium, CCD Working Group
See also: http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/index.html
3 http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Alarm_sounded_over_US_honey_bee_die-off
Alarm sounded over US honey bee die-off
Wikinews, February 10, 2007
4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm
Vanishing bees threaten US crops
By Matt Wells, March 11, 2007
5 http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ap_070211_bee_disease.html
Mystery Ailment Strikes Honeybees
By Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press, February 11, 2007
6 http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross, April 15, 2007
7 http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=137300
Thread on dubious Einstein quote.
8 http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/22/vanishing.bees.reut/index.html
Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists
Reuters, April 22, 2007
9 http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm
Enemies of Bees
by Michael Bush
10 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070426100117.htm
Scientists Identify Pathogens That May Be Causing Global Honey-Bee Deaths
Source: Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, April 26, 2007
11 http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050517_bee_mite.html
Bees Wiped Out by Cascade of Deadly Events
By Robert Roy Britt, May 17, 2005
12 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050517110843.htm
Bee Mites Suppress Bee Immunity, Open Door For Viruses And Bacteria
Source: Penn State, May 18, 2005
13 http://eepicheep.gnn.tv/B21650
Labchuk’s email is reproduced in comments section; authorship was confirmed by this writer
14 http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
Bush Bees Website
15 http://agriculture.senate.gov/Hearings/
Regional Farm Bill field hearing: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 21, 2006
16 http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/07Jan/HoneyBees.htm
Honey bee die-off alarms beekeepers, crop growers and researchers
Penn State press release Jan 29, 2007
17 http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=12512
Colony collapse disorder is reducing U.S. bee population
By Zena McFadden, Medill News Service, April 26, 2007
18 http://www.apimondia.org/apiacta/articles/2003/porrini.pdf
Honey Bees and Bee Products as Monitors of the Environmental Contamination (PDF)
Porrini et al., University of Bologna,
In Apiacta, the journal of the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations
( http://www.beekeeping.com/apimondia/apiacta_us.htm )
19 http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-04-27-voa3.cfm
Taiwan Is Latest Country Stung by Vanishing Honey Bees
By Jessica Berman, VOA News, April 27, 2007
20 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/3747337.stm
Secret of bumblebee capital
BBC, 25 May, 2004
21 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211220927.htm
Research Upsetting Some Notions About Honey Bees
Source: Texas A&M University – Agricultural Communications, December 29, 2006
22 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/6558973.stm
Bid to halt bumblebee decline
BBC, April 16, 2007
23 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/17/bumblebee_crisis/
UK’s bumblebees face extinction
By Lester Haines
24 http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/insects/
In Depth Insects: The plight of the honeybee
CBC News Online, Updated April 12, 2007
25 http://www.thestar.com/article/203818
Why are Niagara’s bees dying?
By Dana Flavelle, Toronto Star, April 17, 2007
26 http://tinyurl.com/2wnyjv
Bee mite found on Oahu
Apr 12, 2007 by Katherine Fisher, Hawaii Health Guide.com
27 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/
Experts may have found what’s bugging the bees
By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, LA Times, April 26, 2007
28 http://tinyurl.com/246o9v
Senator Clinton Calls on USDA to Respond
All American Patriots, April 20, 2007
29 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/26/taiwan_bee_mystery/
Taiwan mislays millions of honeybees
By Lester Haines, The Register, April 26, 2007
30 http://tinyurl.com/39a2wk
Collapsing colonies
By Joanne C. Twaddell, The Daily Courier, April 23, 2007
31 http://tinyurl.com/343f8b
A Comparison of Russian and Italian Honey Bees (PDF)
By David R. Tarpy, NC State University, and Jeffrey Lee, Beekeeper, Mebane NC
32 http://tinyurl.com/37ax5j
Tiers bees avoid deadly disease
By Salle E. Richards, Elmira Star-Gazette, April 3, 2007

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Peter Dearman is an English teacher living in Taiwan; concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.

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10 comments

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
joedI'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Bees

I read on the net that "organic colonies" are not affected by this problem.  I also read that the same type of  problem occured in parts of the US around 1990.

by joed (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments) on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 8:57:39 AM
 


Peter Dearman is an English teacher living in Taiwan; concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.
Peter DearmanPeter Dearman is an English teacher living in Taiwan; concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.

Organic bees + earlier cases

To begin, here is a link to an essay by Sharon Labchuk, who is not only an organic beekeeper in Prince Edward Island, but also an activist and most recently a political candidate (federal) for Canada's Green Party.

This is a 'rewrite' of the email that I quote from in the story above.

Colony Collapse and Honeycomb Size

http://www.gnn.tv/A03044

Regarding earlier cases that are similar, I don't know what you're referring to. A lot of other stories make a stronger claim than mine does that recent deaths, say circa 2004, that were attributed to varroa mites. I'll go looking a bit. If you want to find out about that, you could try the beekeepers lists, like the one Labchuk refers to in this article. Personally, I don't see the point in hoping that it is a one-time fluke that may have happened before. We are mismanaging bees and they are an extraordinarily precious resource.

On a brighter note, I did for the first time think of one obviously bright (as in optimistic) thought. Bees are insects, with short lifespans, so we can presumably get immediate results from improving our practices. Sorry for saying 'our' all the time, as if I am a beekeeper hah, but I think we should look at bees, and all pollinators, as a public good that might warrant special protection. They are certainly more important than spotted owls, right?

by Peter Dearman (6 articles, 8 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 94 comments) on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 10:42:05 AM
 


An 84-year-old, self-styled 'social engineer' who has studied the impact of poor food quality on behavior, poor teaching methods on performance, and poor legal systems on all of society. Now writing a fantasy-fiction story, The UltrAwareness of Zolakhan to show that both physical immortality and a golden age peaceful Earth are desireable and possible.
billmanningAn 84-year-old, self-styled 'social engineer' who has studied the impact of poor food quality on behavior, poor teaching methods on performance, and poor legal systems on all of society. Now writing a fantasy-fiction story, The UltrAwareness of Zolakhan to show that both physical immortality and a golden age peaceful Earth are desireable and possible.

Bees, bats, birds, 'bugs', and 'baits' --

What is happening to bees is also happening to the other four "B's" that are absolutely necessary for a sane, sensible, and successful agricultural system that isn't being used primarily for the benefit of the fossil fuel producers.

In the title I've used, 'bugs are all kinds of micro and macro insect life (especially the beneficial soil bacteria needed to produce healthy plants, animals, and people) and for the sake of the alliteration, I've used 'baits' to mean all kinds of earthwsorms, especially those most preferred for fishing 'bait'.

Our agriculture is killing off all five of these types of vital aids to good growing practices. Darwin said we're wrong in thinking the dog is man's best friend. According to him, in his second-most poipular book, which was about earthworms, they're the true 'best friend' to mankind. If Einstein really said 'even with exaggeration' that man has only a few days of existence after killing off all of the bees, he probably knew of Darwin's conclusions about earthworms.

One of the saddest things of our time (to those who have spent decades studying the better and more profitable way for farming to go, as I have in my 84 years) is to see how determined we, the public, are to protect the unethical and unjustified profits of a system that has no sane and sensible reason for existing.

In Central Kentucky in 1956, I was given the basic principles of what I later named the StaMinA Soils System. And I was also pointed toward the goal of making that system practical all over the world. What I was given was based on more than four decades of work by Dr. Julius Hensel, the German biochemist who wrote Das Leben,  one chapter of which was translated into English and published in 1893 under the title of Bread from Stones.

When 18-year-old Albert Carter Savage read that small book in 1893, he decided to spend his life formulating a complete soil-care system. When I met him in 1956, when I was 34 years old and he was 81, he allowed me to work with him for the months I needed to learn how to use that StaMinA Soils System effectively and profitably.

Little did I know how far the oil, chemical, and farm machinery industries would go to stop me. But I soon found out. Now, the world is paying the price of that 'blocking effort' in high-priced, low-quality, poor-tasting, and quick-spoiling foods that have to be put into silly concoctions and killed of all true life-supporting ingredients and then those packaged substitues for foods have to be touted to the tree tops to addict people to them.

But, such is life, as long as it lasts.

 Bill Manning, lsgift@gmail.com

by billmanning (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 18 comments) on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 11:50:30 AM
 


Been around the block a few times.
Blue PilgrimBeen around the block a few times.

another link to check out

beealert

by Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 998 comments) on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 3:05:37 PM
 


JackN is a retired phyicist living in Delaware County Pennsylvania.
JackNJackN is a retired phyicist living in Delaware County Pennsylvania.

Disappearing Bees

1. Has anyone thought of importing mite-resistant bees from China?

2. Pre-Columbian Indians ate tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, squash, etc. without the help of honeybees. Grapes certainly did not need honeybees when the Vikings set foot on Vineland. The remark that other insects can take up the slack implies that the people who sell honey and the people who make insecticides will suffer. Follow the money.

3. I have not seen a honeybee on my Pennsylvania farm in two years. None of my crops (apples, pears, plums, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, watermelons, cucumbers, squash, peas, and beans to name a few)  have suffered. I don't use pesticides. I notice that plenty of small insects are crawling over everything. No doubt they do a lot of pollinating, along with those tiny bees native to the New World. This year the apple, plum, and pear blossoms have been fertilized and incipient fruits are swelling. The earliest blueberries that have bloomed  appear to be 100% fertilized without honeybees. Where does the truth lie? Are any of the doomsaying pundits actually dirt farmers like me?

by JackN (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 28 comments) on Friday, May 4, 2007 at 8:27:53 PM
 


Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Professor Emeritus Peter BagnoloProfessor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Peter...

Peter one of my graduate degrees is in Cultural anthro and the bee problem has vexed me, being an avid reader of Einstein's work and comments, I recall you quoted him about the bees and humans-scary, but predictable, so Unless you mind, I am going to put a link from my article up to day to yours, as well as put up your reading list and links in a comment of my own sending my readers over to you. My article is one of my rarer weak attempts at comedy, but I think what you have written here is important so I will list your bibiography, right now, because I do seem to get a lot of readers.

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 94 diaries, 1185 comments) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 5:53:20 AM
 


Professor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Professor Emeritus Peter BagnoloProfessor Bagnolo is a Renaissance man: Cultural Anthropologist, Architectural designer, painter, writer, novelist, theologian. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, with an off the charts IQ, reading at the graduate level by 5th grade, offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.Later He was a recipient of an Art Institute scholarship at age 11, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in Anthropology and in Painting and a merit scholarship in art, and was appointed a Graduate ...

to see more of bio, click on member name

PETER

IT TOOK ME SEVERAL TRIES BUT THE HTML KEPT VEXING ME BUT I FINALLY GOT ALL OF IT IN AND WHEN I FINISHED, THERE YOUR ARTICLE WAS JUST UNDER MINE. DON'T KNOW IF MY PROMPTING AND REFERENCES HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH MOVING IT AHEAD, BUT ANYWAY HERE YOU ARE WHERE MORE FOLKS CAN READ IT. AGAIN HAPPY BUT SORRY I GOOFED UP TRYING SO MANY TIMES TO GET ALL YOUR REFERENCES IN, GOOD LUCK.

by Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 94 diaries, 1185 comments) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 6:31:49 AM
 


just a concerned citizen.
k kellyjust a concerned citizen.

wrh link

hi peter,

just wanted to let you know, your article was posted on wrh, may 3, it still appears about halfway down the homepage, and also here is the link to it in wrh's permanent archives..

rivero does have a rather large readership. 

thanks again for your very informative article :)

k

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/cat_sciencehealth.html#063344 

by k kelly (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 182 comments) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 8:26:51 AM
 


Peter Dearman is an English teacher living in Taiwan; concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.
Peter DearmanPeter Dearman is an English teacher living in Taiwan; concerned about depleted uranium, repression in Burma, stolen elections, organ harvesting, aspartame, sugar, species depletion, animal abuse, ocean pollution, helium depletion and the generally high level of bad things happening in the world today.

Views galore

Thanks for telling me that. I also managed to land the article on the top page og Op-ed during its busiest day ever I think. This is thanks to Rob sending an email to all the users telling them about the visitor influx because an Op-ed story was getting super-digged right now. That got me to immediately submit the story, which had just finished going through some 'community editing' over at GNN.tv where I first published it. Thanks Rob.

I think I'll submit it to IndyMedia too in a day or so.

by Peter Dearman (6 articles, 8 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 94 comments) on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 8:34:37 AM
 

 

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