Bees Are Dying, Scientists Have Found Out Why

[Your Fearless Captain]

Didn't this break a few months ago? Also how is the next step unclear? Ban the chemical and that's that. Bees are way more important then all the other crops.

 

[DazBurger]

Huh. Yea, bees going extinct would be bad. Wonder what they'll do to stop it.

Probably the same the US is doing to hinder pollution.
Call it a scam.

 

[McMullen]

Stop using PESTICIDES! Plenty of evidence suggest that the benefits of gmos and pesticides are middling at best and nonexistant at worst. We have countries that are producing more without pesticides. Countries that have gone full organic and flourish because of it.

I'm curious to know where you got that information; pesticides improve crop yields. That's one of the reasons organic produce is so expensive: they have lower yields and thus farmers have to charge higher prices for them.

I'm willing to believe the bit about indeterminate results for the benefits of pesticides in terms of health; to date, no solid evidence has been found to determine whether organic or conventional food is safer. What they have found is that the lack or presence of pesticide residue is likely to be a negligible factor next to other factors that are independent of organic vs. conventional methods, like bacteria and mycotoxins that can be present in both types of crops.

The crop yield issue though is definitely in conventional farming's favor. Serious questions have been raised on whether enough food can be grown organically to keep up with demand, and whether most people will be able to afford it.

Of course, this bee problem reveals that there is an issue with certain pesticides, but it should be possible to phase out the culprits and stick to those pesticides which are safer.

oh lords its was a facebook link that showed me the figures and such so ill have to do some browsing for it after I wake so keep posted. If I remember it was a basics on gmos and pesticides explaining what they are and why they arent all they are cracked up to be.

Here's an article you might be interested in. As a poster above noted, organic farming does use pesticides (organic pesticides just mean that they weren't produced synthetically), but that they're not necessarily better. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100622175510.htm

What you and many others are committing here is the naturalistic fallacy; the assumption that things that are natural are automatically healthy. It's helpful to remember that the USDA outlaws even some natural pesticides, such as arsenic and strychnine. Also remember that most if not all our food crops haven't been natural for centuries; we bred them for nutritional value, which is itself a crude form of genetic modification.

If you think that this "natural" genetic modification is better than that done in the lab, consider the case where certain tomatoes on an organic farm were found to fare better than their neighbors and were bred selectively. When they were tested, it was found that they produced their own pesticide, a very common defense mechanism in plants. The kicker is that this pesticide produced by an organic tomato in an organic farm was found to be more carcinogenic than the pesticides used on conventional crops.

Be careful about assuming that natural=safe.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Stop using PESTICIDES! Plenty of evidence suggest that the benefits of gmos and pesticides are middling at best and nonexistant at worst. We have countries that are producing more without pesticides. Countries that have gone full organic and flourish because of it.

I'm curious to know where you got that information; pesticides improve crop yields. That's one of the reasons organic produce is so expensive: they have lower yields and thus farmers have to charge higher prices for them.

I'm willing to believe the bit about indeterminate results for the benefits of pesticides in terms of health; to date, no solid evidence has been found to determine whether organic or conventional food is safer. What they have found is that the lack or presence of pesticide residue is likely to be a negligible factor next to other factors that are independent of organic vs. conventional methods, like bacteria and mycotoxins that can be present in both types of crops.

The crop yield issue though is definitely in conventional farming's favor. Serious questions have been raised on whether enough food can be grown organically to keep up with demand, and whether most people will be able to afford it.

Of course, this bee problem reveals that there is an issue with certain pesticides, but it should be possible to phase out the culprits and stick to those pesticides which are safer.

oh lords its was a facebook link that showed me the figures and such so ill have to do some browsing for it after I wake so keep posted. If I remember it was a basics on gmos and pesticides explaining what they are and why they arent all they are cracked up to be.

Here's an article you might be interested in. As a poster above noted, organic farming does use pesticides (organic pesticides just mean that they weren't produced synthetically), but that they're not necessarily better. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100622175510.htm

What you and many others are committing here is the naturalistic fallacy; the assumption that things that are natural are automatically healthy. It's helpful to remember that the USDA outlaws even some natural pesticides, such as arsenic and strychnine. Also remember that most if not all our food crops haven't been natural for centuries; we bred them for nutritional value, which is itself a crude form of genetic modification.

If you think that this "natural" genetic modification is better than that done in the lab, consider the case where certain tomatoes on an organic farm were found to fare better than their neighbors and were bred selectively. When they were tested, it was found that they produced their own pesticide, a very common defense mechanism in plants. The kicker is that this pesticide produced by an organic tomato in an organic farm was found to be more carcinogenic than the pesticides used on conventional crops.

Be careful about assuming that natural=safe.

hmm. Thank you. No seriously as in thank you on a number of levels. For educating me,for exposing my bias and for doing it without being a dick. Thank you.

Now as far as to the request for sources or gtfo. Ive got em here! lol http://www.nongmoproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/GMO_Myths_and_Truths_1.31.pdf

at the top left youl see a page finder. Put in 72. youl find this

5.1
Myth:
GM crops increase yield potential
Truth:
GM crops do not increase yield potential ? and in many
cases decrease it.

read on and then you can check the sources at the bottom.

heres another link with a chart showing yields organic vs non though as the above just informed me there apparently are some pesticides used(Ill have to look that up. But according to the studies here the differences can be as low as 3% in favor of non (a negligible number given organics benefits) to 34%. Let be known that with more work and workers organic farms can match and sometimes do better than there counterparts without all the harmful pesticides that slowly kill us and quickly kill our bees and other life.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7397/full/nature11069.html

 

[gorfias]

Bees are important to all we love. I wrote my Fed. reps about this. We'll see what happens. I challenge y'all to do the same.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

It's likely we will take the same route as we did with DDT and ban it. Of course, then that means chemical companies have to find another fungicide that works, and then we'll find out how bad it is for another species within the next few decades.

Yeah, ban it so we can use more toxic chemicals, right? You know a lot of the DDT research that "proved" the toxicity was a bunch of crap and chemicals used in its stead, which are still being used, were worse than DDT ever was.
Still in this instance, it would be a smart thing to discontinue the usage of this chemical, but then its not necessarily proven to be the cause, only an aiding factor. Seems that its a parasite that ultimately does the damage and it would also be prudent to investigate why the parasite seems to be rapidly spreading and how to kill it.
There's always the possibility that keeping beehives close together in a farm situation is also to blame since its easier for said parasite to cross between beehives.

 

[SecondPrize]

This is a really bad thing as bees play an important role in our environment. That being said, I can't stop giggling at the word "beepocalypse."

 

[Something Amyss]

Wow, you Americans are only figuring this out now? Europe and Australia figured this out years ago.

We're an anti-intellectual culture. Our Senate science commission contains folks who think evolution is "lies from the put of Hell." We try and pretend everything has two sides, and cry "politics" and "teh bias" when there is near scientific consensus on an issue. Because liberals in their ivory towers mirite?

We should probably look in to some sort of artificial pollination machine to replace the bees if and or when they go extinct. And these machines won't friggin' STING people.

Until it becomes sentient and rises against its creators. Then we're screwed.

Actually, a new study currently underway will demonstrate how videogames cause the death of the bees, by making them more violent.

Video games! My old nemesis!

Didn't this break a few months ago? Also how is the next step unclear? Ban the chemical and that's that. Bees are way more important then all the other crops.

It's more than one chemical.

 

[jpoon]

Ban these chemicals. Frontline and all these fuckers that fuel that industry are quite obviously ruining the soils and creating a damn bee genocide.

 

[Zetatrain]

It's nice to see this story finally start being picked up after more than a year. I guess Bayer (lead manufacturer of said pesticides and mult-bazillion dollar Big Evil Corp.) can only suppress it for so long.

I thought I had seen this story before. Perhaps when I last saw this story they weren't 100% sure this was the cause and its only recently that they know for sure.

 

[mooncalf]

Bomb the colonies with icing sugar! eh, might not work for something as small as nosema, but it's how you deal with varoa mite infestations. The Bees love the sugar and groom each other clean which simultaneously knocks off the parasites.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Bees play a very important part in our ecosystem and many plants would not exist without them. I hope we have the will, both personal and political, to actually accomplish something about this.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

So the chemicals are making the bees more susceptible to parasites.
hmmmmm. Is it just this one type of parasite or multiple ones?
If we can't get rid of the use of pesticides, is there a way to essentially cure the bees?

A large influx of BEEEEEEEEES ought to assist this situation!

Someone ninja'd another person and myself?
My briefcase full of BEES outta put a stop to that!

A potential chain of DR. BEES references in a thread about bees?! An even larger convergence of BEEEEEEEEEES ought to alleviate this mess!


Pesticides messing with bee immune systems? I can dig that. Honestly, I thought the situation was the result of some sort of fungal parasite infesting hives. May still be the case, I suppose.

 

[WarpZone]

Really? I thought the bees were dying because we sold the hives, moved them via truck to a different field, and then the bees couldn't find their way back home to the hive because everything was fucking moved on them?

I heard this like, on the news, ten years ago.

Was that report just really, really misguided, or am I just way out of date on my bee lore? It seems weird that this article didn't even mention it as a factor...

 

[Upbeat Zombie]

Huh? What can we do to stop it? I thought it would be obvious... Stop using the fungicide in question, and use another that doesn't have that effect on bee's and hopefully any other side effects.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

A large influx of BEEEEEEEEES ought to assist this situation!

Ninja'd.

Seriously though, I like honey. I don't want to have it become a rarity in the future! D:

SAVE THE BEES!

 

[Icehearted]

"Son, it's time to have a talk about the birds and the bees."

"What are bees?"

"A long extinct thing that used to pollinate flowers."

"What are flowers."

"A long extinct thing a man used to give his honey."

"What's a honey?"

"You know what, here's a digital copy Playboy for your iPad 30. Figure it the f**k out for yourself like I did when I was your age."

 

[PH3NOmenon]

The biochemist that can model the interaction at the root of the susceptibility to the parasite will end up winning the Nobel prize for that year... I should see if there's a project on campus about this.

 

[geldonyetich]

Last I heard there was also a threat with killer bees invading North America [http://news.yahoo.com/africanized-killer-bees-advance-north-u-202000829.html].

Well, it would seem one problem's cause could be another problem's solution.

 

[PunkRex]

Why no link to Sci Show, I find your lack of science disturbing!