For a while now, scientist have been scratching their heads over the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon in which bees away from their hives never return after going out to collect pollen.
But according to a recent report filed by The Independent, scientists are now considering the possibility that the cause of CCD may be electromagnetic interference from mobile phone networks. From the article:
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
This is another frightful example of the hidden dangers people and nature may be exposed to in the continuous use of mobile devices. The jury is
still out on the full extent of the correlation, but if the data turns out to be solid, mobile phone radiation may become just as malignant as Myspace carbon generation in ecological influence.
So long and thanks for all the fish
This Halloween, cut flesh for the climate
WWF finds tons of new species about to be wiped out by climate change [slideshow]
Comments
View as Flat
Sam Wells Posted 6:29 am
16 Apr 2007
Peace and love,
sammie
Onward through the fog
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tico89 Posted 6:48 am
16 Apr 2007
I find it interesting that almost the whole article (and this post) is all about the effects on bees, and only right at the end does it mention the possible repercussions on humans. I guess we've pretty much blown any sympathy we had coming our way.
Most of all when we spend so much time monkeying around with and even using on a daily basis technology that hasn't been fully examined. Do any of us really know what we're doing?
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Humanity can't work individually.
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Delay And Deny Posted 6:48 am
16 Apr 2007
More likely the cosmic ray changes that are the sole contributor to global warming. cf. Svensmark.
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com
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MarkUK Posted 6:50 am
16 Apr 2007
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GreenEngineer Posted 6:56 am
16 Apr 2007
Cell phones may be contributing to the problem, but it seems likely that they are, at most, just one more stress on an already stressed system. It's possible, but I think unlikely, that the problem is attributable to a single cause. But that won't stop people from looking for single causes, and overlooking the gestalt impacts of multiple stressors.
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tico89 Posted 7:04 am
16 Apr 2007
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Humanity can't work individually.
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wiscidea Posted 7:12 am
16 Apr 2007
The USDA might want to consider a crash program directed toward preserving and increasing the populations of native pollinators. It is another one of those national security issues not discussed enough. FOOD SECURITY!
There should be numerous advantages to using the native bugs, not the least of which would be reliance on a diversity of organisms that operate under different conditions and having different weakness, rather than what is essentially a monoculture of European honey bees. Oh my... I never realized that our monocultures of plants are pollinated by monocultures of insects... double wammy if something goes wrong!
If there are any bee people out there, how difficult would it be to set up a practical breeding program using native insects and designed to selecting for bugs that can tolerate civilization's electromagnetic and chemical onslaught? Is this being done somewhere? I'm assuming the European honey bee is so inbred, much of its genetic diversity has been lost. So best to use local resources for a new program.
Forward!
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MarkUK Posted 7:18 am
16 Apr 2007
http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/51194/since-2006-unpre ...
Beekeepers across the U.S. have been reporting via national surveys that their bees are rapidly disappearing
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wiscidea Posted 8:07 am
16 Apr 2007
I have bazillions of lists of bee plants, butterfly plants, turkey plants, et cetera, but could not help Googling the subject once again and found...
http://www.pollinator.org
Click on their "extensive digital library" and you will find more information than will ever be able to digest... conserving native bees, education, home gardening, farming and ranching, public policy, importance of native pollinators... something for each person to take advantage of.
I think God decided I had too much time on my hands, criticizing other Grist visitors, and put a more important project in front of me. Okay. I've got the message. Focus on personally making a difference. PLANT FLOWERS!
Peace.
Forward!
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Delay And Deny Posted 8:28 am
16 Apr 2007
Check out my theory at:
http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com/viewtopic.php?t=481 ...
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com
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SMLowry Posted 9:20 am
16 Apr 2007
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Sam Wells Posted 10:46 am
16 Apr 2007
Being on an island with no European bees or Africanized bees, I can attest that the lowly native makes quite a superior honey. Since all the new homes and condos went up, funny coincidence, they have almost vanished. It is a shame. No more Wild Honey Meade for Sammie.
To blame that on electro-magnetic influences seems really strange, when you look at the landscape and see there is little left in terms of native flowering plants, bushes, and trees. Maybe where we don't look, in the uncharted scrublands, a few good colonies are left, if they haven't gotten sick yet, or bred into man-eating machines. It is no coincidence that the "bee experts" caused the problem in the first place.
Save the wild bees if you can. There's lots of resources out there.
/sammie
Onward through the fog
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caniscandida Posted 3:54 pm
16 Apr 2007
This struck me as a curious paragraph:
<<
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
>>
It matters very little that I have no idea who in the world Mary Celeste might be, and so cannot appreciate the simile in the first sentence. But the final sentence, about how abandoned hives are shunned by other animals, is fascinating. I would very much like to read more about that phenomenon.
I tend to agree with GreenEngineer, that the reasons for the decline in bee populations are various. Just the other day there was a news item about a new danger for the bees of France: a very aggressive hornet was inadvertently introduced there from East Asia, and has settled in very nicely, making a living by attacking beehives and murdering the bees.
For bee-lovers: The Golden-Age Latin didactic poem "The Georgics" (i.e., "matters of concern to farmers"), by the North-Italian poet Virgil (70-19 BCE), is IMHO the greatest long poem in Latin, greater even than that poet's epic "The Aeneid." The themes of its four books are, respectively: agriculture truly so-called, i.e. ploughing, sowing, etc.; viticulture; animal husbandry; and, finally, bee-keeping. Bees and honey being associated with immortality in a number of ancient cultures, it is ingenious but not really surprising that Virgil ends this prayer of hope for peace in a renewed Italy with the myth of Aristaeus, god of bee-keeping, and his discovery of the spontaneous generation of bees and their hives within the hollowed-out carcasses of large mammals: life from death. But that story contains within it another, very different story, involving a visit to the land of the dead, that of Orpheus and Eurydice, one of the most poignant and celebrated of all ancient myths.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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spaceshaper Posted 8:52 pm
16 Apr 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Celeste
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
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GreyFlcn Posted 11:46 pm
16 Apr 2007
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katesisco Posted 4:41 am
18 Apr 2007
Birds as well as bees use the Earth's magnetism to allow themselves to fly home. So are we seeing disorientation of birds? What about sea turtles?
Bumble bees are the sole pollinator of red clover--are they failing to reproduce?
The French have an interesting history of their wine vines--they almost lost their complete winery to an imported pest from America. It was found in the 18th century and for decades almost no progress was made. Eventually the extremely complicated life cycle was identified in total and almost no French wine vines were left. The answer: French vines are now and have been since the parasitic discovery grafted onto American rootstock which survives the parasite. French vines exist in toto in only just a few isolated sites such on islands. You might say they no longer exist.
Such accommodation to crises in the environment take place and after a time almost no one remembers the original reigning natural condition.
Will we wind up with some form of artificial pollination? Quite possibly.
Is it far fetched to say that the humans in the future will have to depend on artificial pollination? Well, after 3 generations will we even know the difference?
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caniscandida Posted 4:47 pm
18 Apr 2007
I agree that the image seems incorrectly applied, in the article on bees.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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