Ask Umbra’s video advice on bees, honey, and hugs 5

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1. 

   gullyfourmyle Posted 1:09 pm
   20 Aug 2009

   As usual, a lot of talk about the problem but none about the actual cause of the problem.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Bees and other insects were doing just fine thank you until solvents were added to fossil fuels in the early 1970's to get the lead out of fuels.
   
   The solvents were added without much in the way of research to determine what if any health risks there were.
   
   Since then every form of cancer and other forms of degenerative disease has on a per capita basis; that is incidents per thousands or millions of a given population, have skyrocketed.
   
   What is not generally known is that this same phenomenon is also happening to nearly every living species on the planet. Few people are keeping score for them unless by accident or because the species, like honey bees are commercially significant.
   
   Chemical proliferation in air, water and soil means that every living thing on the planet is ingesting chemicals that humans have forumulated, produced and released into the environment that have never existed during the entire history of the planet. Therefore, no living thing on earth has evolved to co-exist with never mind ingest these fearfully lethal chemicals. To make matters worse, more and more chemicals are being manufactured and emitted into the environment every day and once loose in the environment, they recombine into other chemicals that are thus completely unknown to science. Therefore their effects are equally unknown.
   
   What is known is that we are turning our atmosphere, water and soils into chemical stews that are quickly becoming anti-life supporting.
   
   The theory governments around the world use to justify chemical emissions is this: chemicals released into the atmosphere are neutralized within the span of three days. They degrade on contact with water or microbes in water, soil or on plants.
   However, the theory never took into account the accumulation factor. A single application of a chemical can take 3 days to dissipate. But we emit on a continual basis. We emit so much that eco-systems of every description worldwide are being or have been overwhelmed and areas that have become dead zones in air, water and soil are expanding rapidly. These dead zones vary in size from controlled cesspools to areas comprising thousands of square miles.
   
   While we as people have medical infrastructure to find new ways to defeat the effects of the chemical onslaught, the rest of the living biosphere does not have the same luxury.
   
   As a consequence, the immune systems of living organisms, right down to the DNA level are being compromised and genetic integrity is eroding.
   
   Without genetic integrity, we have no assurance that future generations can follow without major and disastrous alterations in their physical makeup that preclude their ability to live a normal life or a life at all.
   
   In the early eighties, the damage solvents were doing at street level started to become known. Solvent levels were cut accordingly (but not eliminated as needed to happen). Where did the solvent production go? Into aviation fuel, that’s where. Instead of the solvents being mainly sprayed as part of vehicular exhaust, land transportation took a back seat to aircraft. By 1989 Texaco became the last major oil refinery to switch its aviation fuel production to include lethal solvents including benzenes.
   
   Since then, the aviation sector has been spraying the entire planet with industrial grade pesticides. What did you think the active ingredient in pesticides was? Well now you know – crude oil byproducts. So if we already know this stuff is killing us – and we do, then you can begin to comprehend the devastating effects these toxins are having on organisms much smaller than we are.
   
   Aviation of course is not the only culprit. Industry around the world is every bit as irresponsible – especially the oil, chemical, coal and pharmaceutical sectors.
   
   This phenomenon is known as CHEMICAL WINTER. It is the fist in the glove of Climate Change and Global Warming that no one wants to talk about.
   
   Until this aspect of our climate problems is formally acknowledged around the world, there is no possibility that we will see any sort of mitigation with respect to long term environmental degradation.
   
   So the next time you get the warm fuzzy notion about dressing up in a bee suit, think about the thousands of lethal chemicals that were manufactured and emitted to make the machinery, to make the machinery, to make the machinery to create that suit and then deliver it, not mention the thousands of other chemicals involved in getting these images to our computer screens. It is a huge problem that goes to the core of how we live. That's why everyone is afraid to confront the issue.
   
   The problem is a pay me now or pay me later sort of thing. The longer we put off dealing with the problem, the worse the consequences are going to be.

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2. 

   gullyfourmyle Posted 1:21 pm
   20 Aug 2009

   Here we have all this dynamic, sophiticated technology and this spiffy new website does not even allow for us posters to format our comments into paragraphs. How pre-cretatious is that?

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3. 

   Bud Dingler Posted 4:27 pm
   22 Aug 2009

   I am from a 3rd generation beekeeping family and have kept honeybees for over 50 years. There is some seriously misguided pieces of information in this clip. ok first myth Umbra is perpetuating. she claims bees are on verge of extinction and associates that with CCD. There is ZERO evidence of any kind that CCD affected other species beyond the european honeybee managed by humans. Even the european honey bees is NOWHERE near being extinct. What she and MSM fail to understand is CCD was a one time loss in 06/07 and has been over and no losses have continued. But yet this piece of info is continually recycled in 2009 as if its still an ongoing news story. Tomatoes do not rely on honeybees for pollination and in fact honeybees have no interest in that flower and never visit tomato blooms. Consider using a melon or apple as an example of a crop that requires honeybees. If bees continue to decline they will be gone by 2035. This is so laughable and is recycled hype doom and gloom claims refuted by any bee expert, researcher or beekeeper. Its mostly a recycled piece of internet misinformation generated by eco groups to prove their own agenda.  Remember math class where you calculate a slope of a line and then  project that forward on a graph? Some fool took two years of losses from 06/07 and extrapolated it forward and came up with the 2035 figure that is not supported by any national or international bee organization, the USDA or anyone of any credibility really. Most if not all the losses from CCD in 06/07 were immediately replaced by beekeepers. We actually have more hives of managed honeybees in 2009 now then we did in pre CCD. The reason for that is the huge uptick in interest by mostly hobby beekeepers. Worker bees only live 6 weeks in summer so death of bees is part of the cycle. A queen lays up to a thousand eggs per day so that as workers die of old age in mid summer there are new replacements hatchinbg out every day. Likewise some beekeepers just raise bees for sale. There never was more then a temporary one time shortage of bees that lasted more then a few months and mostly affected the annual almond pollination in Feb which is like winter time when bees are at their lowest point of population. Like can anyone even find a credible news story of any widespread crop failures from an actual bee shortage? NotI support the link above about long time beekeeper's take on  CCD referring to Randy Oliver, noted beekeeper and researcher. He is right on. With Umbra linking to that piece I am surprised by how poorly this video is on accuracy. There are other confusing inaccurate references to bees, wild bees and so on that she jumps back and forth with facts that are all mixed up in their reference to the correct kind of bee, their use in farming/gardening and their type of nest. You might want to pull this video off and re-edit it for accuracy. This really really needs some help. thats what happens when bloggers who have no practical knowledge of a topic use the interest to make a mash up of stuff and call it news. I mean do we expect the media or a blogger to know anything about bees more then Jane or John Doe Public?  this is exactly why this video is well intentioned misinformation. The myths in this video keep perpetuating itself cause folks like Umbra make it from misinformation. Its like a merry go round that never stops.    On the plus side the continuing attention to bees is good cause there are many real issues affecting bees from loss of forage to Industrial Farming practices that are detrimental to bees. One topic hardly talked about is the 1500 MIGRATORY beekeepers who practice Industrial Feedlot beekeeping and how most of the CCD afflicted hives originated from that kind of practice. The reality is CCD was a beekeeper created problem that has no connection to the environment and bees in general. If I told you all the chickens they keep in shoe boxes in CAFO or hogs in confinement were dying would anyone bee surprised? Of course not. I'm running out of time but my point is if you new of the Industrial Beekeeping practices Randy Oliver alludes to you would not find it to be a mystery. 

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   1. 

      gullyfourmyle Posted 9:03 pm
      22 Aug 2009

      That is the first time I've heard a comment from an actual beekeeper who professed to know anything and I've talked to a few on the net and in person. About time too.
      
      Bob, thank you for correcting us about the bee situation. Too bad it took you or someone with your knowledge to show up and say something. On the other hand I have a lot of first person experience with trying to get the media to pay attention to subjects they'd rather not know about.
      
      However, I still stand by what I said with respect to what is going on in the natural world with respect to chemicals.
      
      It is true though that we do have peaks and crashes in all wildlife populations such as the seven year rabbit cycle that has such an impact on wolf and lynx populations.
      
      You may recall that in 2005, the Monarch population crashed and as much as 1/5 of the total was lost. It has rebounded but I have no idea whether there was a full recovery. Probably not due to one of your points - habitat loss.
      
      I wasn't aware of the factory farming of bees but when you stop to think about it, nearly every species that can be adapted to commercial gain including quite a number of species including butterflies is now being factory farmed. Once the pressure is on to produce maximum numbers in space that seems to shrink, that always generates disease within the ranks.
      
      As for this site editing, correcting or changing in any way an erroneous post, don't hold your breath. Once the post is up, virtually no host including this one ever goes back to fix anything. So as much as they say they want to help solve issues, they do tend to perpetuate more than their share of wrong information. For myself, when I find I've made an error, I go back in and fix it or post a correction in an additional post. You would think that would only be good manners but most people post and forget about it.
      
      Again thank you Bud.

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4. 

   Bud Dingler Posted 1:10 pm
   23 Aug 2009

   I have no doubt Umbra has nothing but good intentions. Blogging about topics you have no knowledge of can be problematic. Grist had become full of recycled in accurate information on a variety of issues and resembles one giant echo chamber at times. As per the observation on Monarchs, in the upper midwest we have seen fewer butterflies and moths in the last 2-3 years.  Part of the problem is colder then usual back to back summers in a row does not help their reproductive cycle and in general these pollinators have a cyclic life where they eb and flow over a long time period.. Other likely causes of declines are the increased use of insecticides used on alfalfa and soybeans in late summer to combat aphids. These bugs came on the scene in the late 1990's and have created a crisis for all pollinators due to the increased use of insecticides during their peak mating season. Most midwestern beekeepers are well aware of this problem and try and keep their bees away from those two crops in late summer. But other wild pollinators are not so lucky to have humans intervene on their behalf. We face some serious issues in the future as the rural landscape becomes more and more sterile and critical habitat is lost to a variety of uses. 

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