Bees

BILLIONS of bees are dying off and the entire food chain is in danger. Bees don’t just make honey — they are a giant, humble workforce, pollinating 75% of growing plants.

The Honey Bees Are Disappearing

Those who have been paying attention to environmental news over the past couple years know that honey bees have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Beekeepers across the world have reported that their bees leave the hive and rather than coming back as they usually do, they simply disappear, never to be seen again. The loss of bees to maintain a hive usually leads to the hive's collapse.

Dubbed colony collapse disorder, or CCD, this epidemic has been a major concern for the world's food producers. Bee colonies are vital for plant pollination. Without pollination, plants don't bear fruit.

What is Colony Collapse Disorder?

Over the past few years, many hypotheses have been put forth as to why bees aren't returning to their hives. Some believe that global climate change is confusing the bees while others wonder if atmospheric electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers is interfering with bees' delicate navigation mechanisms.

Whether or not these elements have anything to do with bee colony collapse disorder is unknown. However, a recent study has demonstrated significant evidence that pesticides used in farming are directly related to the bee population decline over the past decade.

Cell Phones are Killing Bees

Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones may be to blame. Research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that the signal from cell phones not only confuses bees, but also may lead to their death. Over 83 experiments have yielded the same results. With virtually most of the population of the United States (and the rest of the world) owning cell phones, the impact has been greatly noticeable.

Led by researcher Daniel Favre, the alarming study found that bees reacted significantly to cell phones that were placed near or in hives in call-making mode. The bees sensed the signals transmitted when the phones rang, and emitted heavy buzzing noise during the calls. The calls act as an instinctive warning to leave the hive, but the frequency confuses the bees, causing them to fly erratically. The study found that the bees’ buzzing noise increases ten times when a cell phone is ringing or making a call – aka when signals are being transmitted, but remained normal when not in use.

The signals cause the bees to become lost and disoriented. The impact has already been felt the world over, as the population of bees in the U.S. and the U.K. has decreased by almost half in the last thirty years – which coincides with the popularization and acceptance of cell phones as a personal device. Studies as far back as 2008 have found that bees are repelled by cell phone signals.

The Pesticide Connection

This scientific study, undertaken by Dr. Richard Gill and colleagues at the University of London and featured recently in Nature magazine, indicates that two pesticides may be the cause of colony collapse disorder. In the words of Gill and team, "chronic exposure...to two pesticides...impairs natural foraging behaviour and increases worker mortality."

While previous studies examined the impact of pesticides on the individual physiology of bees, Gill's study focused on overall hive behaviour and survival as related to the pesticides neonicotinoid and pyrethroid. While these pesticides may have subtle effects at the individual level, their combined impact on bee hive survival, whether through shared metabolic processes or reduced hive communication ability, was shown to be lethal.

As if the convincing evidence of 500 billion honeybees lost worldwide is not enough to rope in the use of 5 billion pounds of insecticides annually, new research shows that, in combination with climate disruption, the bees are dying even faster. One-third of these insecticides are neonictinoids (neonics).

Twenty thousand kinds of bees pollinate over 80 percent of all flowering plants or in excess of 200,000 species on Earth including providing food to feed 7.2 billion humans. Neonics, the newest class of insecticides, are a potent neuro toxin. Bees exposed to it lose their minds and shake to death, analogous to humans afflicted by both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Even more concerning, climate disruption and neonics mixed together, kill bees even faster. These scientists, like so many before them, strongly suggest that neonics are causing bee colonies to collapse.

By the way, we should be very worried about the bees because, like human beings, their brains are wonderfully advanced. For instance, new research revealed that bees playing video games deliberately choose what they want to pay attention to or "top-down attention," stunningly similar to our brains.

The health of all bees is of paramount importance for our survival on Earth. Frighteningly, bees worldwide are terribly ill.

Clearly, it's time to stop poisoning the soil, fresh waterways and killing our bees. Quite simply: If the bees die, we die!

The fact that honeybees communicate by dancing is remarkable. Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch (1886-1982) dedicated his life to unraveling many of the mysteries of the honeybee. He was the first researcher to decipher the purposeful and endearing dancing of bees.

Solutions That Save the Bees

Ban the seven most dangerous pesticides. The City of Eugene, OR, became the first community in America to ban the use of neonics from public property.

Protect pollinator health by preserving wild habitat

Please help our urban bees by providing safe sources of nectar and pollen: Plant fruit trees, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and lots of yellow and blue flowers around your home.

Don't use any chemicals in your garden.

Each morning place a fresh water bowl in your yard because bees, just like people, need lots and lots of water in the summertime, especially during heat waves.

Policy makers must take action to protect the bees and other pollinators that help keep fresh food on our table.

Farmers must be rewarded for practices that help wild bee populations thrive, such as leaving habitat

For bees in their surrounding fields, alternating crops so bees have food all year long, and not using

Harmful pesticides.

Assistance should be provided to farmers who plan to support a wider variety of pollinators beyond just bees.

Bee research by the Department of Agriculture and the Environment must be strengthened, and must also be broadened to include research on pollinators besides honey bees.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques should be used to minimize pesticide use and risk to bees. By promoting beneficial insects to prey on pests, disrupting pest’s habitat and using least-toxic products when necessary, IPM methods can provide effective, cost-effect pest control while reducing risks to pollinators.

Ecological farming is the overarching new policy trend that will stabilize human food production, preserve wild habitats, and protect the bees. The nation of Bhutan has led the world in adopting a 100 percent organic farming policy. Mexico has banned genetically modified corn to protect its native corn varieties. Eight European countries have banned genetically modified crops and Hungary has burned more than 1,000 acres of corn contaminated with genetically modified varieties. In India, scientist Vandana Shiva and a network of small farmers have built an organic farming resistance to industrial agriculture over two decades.

By restoring bee populations and healthier bees, ecological agriculture improves pollination, which in turn improves crop yields. Ecological farming takes advantage of the natural ecosystem services, water filtration, pollination, oxygen production, and disease and pest control.

Organic farmers have advocated better research and funding by industry, government, farmers, and the public to develop organic farming techniques, improve food production, and maintain ecological health. The revolution in farming would promote equitable diets around the world and support crops primarily for human consumption, avoiding crops for animal food and biofuels.

Sign petitions

It is this startling evidence and super effective campaigning by Avaaz and partners that won the EU ban. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required by Congress to regulate toxins, but under the influence of big chemical companies, for years they’ve fudged the law. Now the White House’s ‘Pollinators Health Task Force’ could get the EPA to cancel the pesticides’ registration so they can’t be sold in the US. This is our chance!

The task force reports in days. Already 3.2 million of us around the world have backed this campaign. Let’s urgently build an unprecedented 3.5 million strong petition to save the bees and deliver it with strategic advocacy and media to stop a backroom deal that only benefits big business. The anti bee extinction campaigners therefore all and sundry to sign on the urgent petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/save_the_bees_global_nm_sh/

We can no longer leave our delicate food chain in the hands of chemical companies and the regulators that are in their pockets. Banning these pesticides will move us closer to a world safe for ourselves and the other species we care about and depend on.

#bees #beesdying #chemicals #declinebeepopulations #beespesticides #ecoaudit #greenconsultant #savethebees #GreenYourLife