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- - Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=113591)

phideaux | 02-25-2007 07:01 PM
Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news....ry=Environment Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees � 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe "This is certainly the worst die-off that I�ve seen in my experience working with honey bees. It may be the worst die-off that has ever occurred with honey bees since they�ve been introduced into the United States since the 1620s." - Maryann Frazier, Honey Bee Specialist, Penn State Western honey bees, or European honey bees (Apis mellifera), gather pollen from the blooms of fruits, vegetables, nuts, melons and many other food crops for the production of honey in wax combs. Millions of honey bees in 22 American states, Spain and Poland have been disappearing at an alarming rate with no explanation to date, threatening pollination of one-third American food crops. February 23, 2007 Pennsylvania - Most people don�t realize that honey bees pollinate about one-third of our food supply around the world. Honey bees pollinate apple trees and berry bushes, vegetables, melons, almonds and many other food sources. Honey bees were originally brought from Europe to the United States in 1620. Periodically since then, there have been occasional die-offs of honey bees, mostly attributed to mites. But according to the scientists, beekeepers and government agency bee specialists I�ve talked to recently, there have never been so many empty, deserted honey bee hives as there are now. And no one knows why. The past year in America, at least 22 states have reported honey bee disappearances. Government and science authorities are calling it "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)." Beekeepers have reported losses ranging from 60% to 100% of their bee colonies. As winter changes to spring and beekeepers in the colder Northeast can open their hives again, it's expected there will be many more empty hives. Strangely, honey bees have also been disappearing in huge numbers in Spain and Poland. Adding to the European mystery is that Spain has very large commercial beekeeper operations with at least 3 million colonies of honey bees, similar to the United States. But Poland�s 400,000 hives are largely raised on individual farms where smaller bee colonies are separated from each other. If the answer were disease, you would not expect Poland�s separated hives to be plagued by large numbers of honey bee disappearances as in Spain and the United States. The two European countries with the largest honey bee populations are France and Italy. It might be significant that those two countries banned certain pesticides in recent years because beekeepers there became convinced that systemic pesticides were killing off honey bees. And so far, neither France nor Italy has yet reported the collapse of honey bee hives. One scientist who has been studying honey bees at Penn State University for the past eighteen years is Maryann Frazier. I asked her how serious she thinks the honey bee disappearances are. More info and interviews with experts at http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news....ry=Environment

damoc | 02-25-2007 07:32 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Dont know what else to say I think i need to go cry :bawling: everyone will miss them when they are gone

phideaux | 02-25-2007 07:45 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees There's that famous quote from ol' Albert Einstein: "No bees, no food for mankind. The bee is the basis of life on this earth ".:banghead:

TheSimpleton | 02-26-2007 10:21 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Maybe no honey. The honeybee is not native to north america. You can use mason bees, among others, instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee Available at: http://www.territorial-seed.com/stor...e_W112C246.cfm Advantages are more activity at earlier season, colder temperatures, and rain. They are not as susceptable to the hive-diseases that recently have been common. I wouldn't doubt for a minute that pesticides are the root cause, although the mechanism might not be known for a while. Pesticides completely deform the ecosystem and cause disease. For example, killing garden pests also kills spiders, an insect predator. As with larger ecosystems, the top predators are fewer and slower lifecycle. Thus, when you kill the mountain lion, the rabbit recovers first and overshoots the ecosystem. They may starve themselves, or crowd themselves into another predator like disease, but the system is out of balance. Same for small ecosystems like spiders, aphids, ants, mantis, and caterpillars. Carpet-bombing the system does kill the bad guys. But it kills the good guys too and they take longer to recover, virtually guaranteeing a pest boom, and this is aside from the toxic and long-term effects we don't know, as with DDT and bird's eggshells, many times removed from the original cause. In any case, you don't need honeybees. Mason and bumblebees can pick up the task, and often better. Just no honey. TS

damoc | 02-26-2007 12:54 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSimpleton (Post 522720) Maybe no honey. The honeybee is not native to north america. You can use mason bees, among others, instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee Available at: http://www.territorial-seed.com/stor...e_W112C246.cfm Advantages are more activity at earlier season, colder temperatures, and rain. They are not as susceptable to the hive-diseases that recently have been common. I wouldn't doubt for a minute that pesticides are the root cause, although the mechanism might not be known for a while. Pesticides completely deform the ecosystem and cause disease. For example, killing garden pests also kills spiders, an insect predator. As with larger ecosystems, the top predators are fewer and slower lifecycle. Thus, when you kill the mountain lion, the rabbit recovers first and overshoots the ecosystem. They may starve themselves, or crowd themselves into another predator like disease, but the system is out of balance. Same for small ecosystems like spiders, aphids, ants, mantis, and caterpillars. Carpet-bombing the system does kill the bad guys. But it kills the good guys too and they take longer to recover, virtually guaranteeing a pest boom, and this is aside from the toxic and long-term effects we don't know, as with DDT and bird's eggshells, many times removed from the original cause. In any case, you don't need honeybees. Mason and bumblebees can pick up the task, and often better. Just no honey. TS
while bumble bees and other polinators can do a better job in some cases modern agriculture depends on numbers of pollinators that would be very difficult to supply with allternate methods also when agriculture uses pesticides they kill many wild pollinators.there is a mason bee used to pollinate alfalfa in so cal while it can do a better job than honey bees it cannot fly as far does and does not work early in the year.bumble bees could be a better pollinator for cranberries they fly earlier and in worse weather but at the time of cranberry pollination there is much other flower to tempt them and they cannot be relied upon to work all the cranberry flowers so large numbers of honey bees are required. There is much that is not native to America and honey bees are now needed to grow it.

Unclad Lad | 02-28-2007 11:52 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
wouldn't doubt for a minute that pesticides are the root cause, although the mechanism might not be known for a while.
I'm going to toss out another possibility: Herbicide. When you can drown a plant in Roundup, why would you go easy on the stuff? Just because insects are not the target doesn't mean they won't be affected. And that leads to another possibility too-Transgenic pollen. The spliced-in genes could affect other organisms, although that would be a lot harder to prove than the herbicide idea.

Kahlil Gibran | 03-01-2007 12:08 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees I think this is a sleeper thread that will become very important. You guys are ahead of the pack on this alarming issue. :thumbs up :thumbs up

phideaux | 03-01-2007 12:13 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Unclad Lad (Post 525037) I'm going to toss out another possibility: Herbicide. When you can drown a plant in Roundup, why would you go easy on the stuff? Just because insects are not the target doesn't mean they won't be affected. And that leads to another possibility too-Transgenic pollen. The spliced-in genes could affect other organisms, although that would be a lot harder to prove than the herbicide idea.
The problem with the pesticide/herbicide theory is that the bees have essentially disappeared. Highly mysterious. No "mass quantities" of dead bee bodies have been found, which you might expect from pesticide death. So those investigating haven't really been able to do any bee autopsies.

gunner | 03-01-2007 12:24 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-...-Bucket/Detail 5 Gallons of Honey for Long Term Storage Price: $99.95 liquid gold?

damoc | 03-01-2007 12:25 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Unclad Lad (Post 525037) I'm going to toss out another possibility: Herbicide. When you can drown a plant in Roundup, why would you go easy on the stuff? Just because insects are not the target doesn't mean they won't be affected. And that leads to another possibility too-Transgenic pollen. The spliced-in genes could affect other organisms, although that would be a lot harder to prove than the herbicide idea.
I dont know about roundup its been around for a long time and should not be applied when weeds are in flower(by that time its just knocking them back cause they reseed) so the bees should not be visiting the weeds sprayed with roundup.Old beekeeper told me that about 40 years ago something similar happened universities came and studied the problem and decided it had something to do with pollen maybee pollen damaged with mould???my bees that were fed the most pollen substitute this year faired the best but that doesnt prove anything because the pollen substitute just lessens the affects of problems.for example the bees can rear more young bees to overcome losses suffered for many reasons. one big problem is that bees travel from all over the USA to pollinate the almond crop in CA its a very good way to spread disease and other problems so what affects beekeepers in one state will most likely be able to affect beekeepers in every other state in a very short period of time. CA spring 2006 had a very wet year at least in the northern parts and that caused many problems and could have caused bad pollens but most of the losses seemed to have occured november/december 2006 I dont know????

GoldRocks | 03-01-2007 12:40 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Read a story the other day (no link) that stated a couple countries had banned certain pesticides or herbicides, I forget which. Anyhoo, no bee losses have been reported from those countries yet. Coincidence?

Infidel | 03-01-2007 01:30 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink long-syne, Was sweeter far then honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in a blessed swound For days and days together In their dwellings underground. There rose a king in Scotland, A fell man to his foes, He smote the Picts in battle, He hunted them like roes. Over miles of the red mountain He hunted as they fled, And strewed the dwarfish bodies Of the dying and the dead. Summer came in the country, Red was the heather bell; But the manner of the brewing Was none alive to tell. In graves that were like children's On many a mountain head, The Brewsters of the Heather Lay numbered with the dead. The king in the red moorland Rode on a summer's day; And the bees hummed, and the curlews Cried beside the way. The king rode, and was angry, Black was his brow and pale, To rule in a land of heather And lack the Heather Ale. It fortuned that his vassals, Riding free on the heath, Came on a stone that was fallen And vermin hid beneath. Rudely plucked from their hiding, Never a word they spoke; A son and his aged father -- Last of the dwarfish folk. The king sat high on his charger, He looked on the little men; And the dwarfish and swarthy couple Looked at the king again. Down by the shore he had them; And there on the giddy brink -- "I will give you life, ye vermin, For the secret of the drink." There stood the son and father, And they looked high and low; The heather was red around them, The sea rumbled below. And up and spoke the father, Shrill was his voice to hear: "I have a word in private, A word for the royal ear. "Life is dear to the aged, And honour a little thing; I would gladly sell the secret," Quoth the Pict to the king. His voice was small as a sparrow's, And shrill and wonderful clear: "I would gladly sell my secret, Only my son I fear. "For life is a little matter, And death is nought to the young; And I dare not sell my honour Under the eye of my son. Take him, O king, and bind him, And cast him far in the deep; And it's I will tell the secret That I have sworn to keep." They took the son and bound him, Neck and heels in a thong, And a lad took him and swung him, And flung him far and strong, And the sea swallowed his body, Like that of a child of ten; -- And there on the cliff stood the father, Last of the dwarfish men. "True was the word I told you: Only my son I feared; For I doubt the sapling courage That goes without the beard. But now in vain is the torture, Fire shall never avail: Here dies in my bosom The secret of Heather Ale."

phideaux | 03-04-2007 01:04 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_5351675 Hives holding a secret Colo. beekeepers stung by mysteriously vanishing colonies By Claire Martin Denver Post Staff Writer Article Last Updated: 03/04/2007 12:17:47 AM MST Tom Theobald, above, a Niwot beekeeper for decades, and his brother, Jeff, believe pesticide violations are causing a honeybee die-off. (Post special / Nathan W. Armes)Like other Colorado beekeepers, Jeff Theobald knows that between 2 percent and 10 percent of his bees typically won't survive winter, but this year, the loss rate is 40 percent and rising as entire colonies vanish without a trace. "It's just bizarre," said Theobald, who runs Grand Mesa Honey Farm in Delta. "I've had hives that had dead bees in them - 4,000 to 5,000 dead bees - and hives that were completely empty. The bees were just gone." Regional disasters have afflicted beekeepers in the past, but baffled entomologists and agricultural experts call this the first national crisis, with potentially grave consequences. Approximately $14.6 billion worth of U.S. nut, fruit and vegetable crops depend on bee pollination. Throughout the U.S., honeybee colonies, including approximately 30,000 colonies in Colorado, are affected by what researchers are calling colony collapse disorder. To date, the disorder has been identified in 24 states. "The map changes almost daily," said Jerry Bromenshenk, president of Bee Alert Technology, a research company affiliated with the University of Montana. "Almost every time the phone rings, we say, 'Is that another state calling in with a problem?"' The accounts are eerily identical: A bee colony that appeared perfectly strong and healthy during a late 2006 inspection abruptly disappears when beekeepers make their first bee-yard rounds in 2007. One commercial beekeeper with hives in Oklahoma and Texas lost 80 percent of his 13,000 colonies. "One day, you look at the bees and they're good," Bromenshenk said. "The next time you look in the box, you take a second look, pull the cover off, and you might have a queen and three young bees trying to keep things going. If it was a pesticide or a virus, you'd expect to find piles of dead bees in the box, and in the bee yard. But this looks like someone swept the bottom board clean." "We wish we knew" Niwot beekeeper Tom Theobald is a busy bookkeeper as well - his shelves are stocked with bee-related volumes. He claims the state's honeybee die-off is the result of long-ignored environmental regulations. (Post special / Nathan W. Armes)Where are the missing bees? Nobody knows. What's causing them to leave the hive? Nobody knows that, either. How many bees are missing? "We wish we knew, and we wish we had a means of collecting statistics," Bromenshenk said. "The problem is (that) the beekeepers we hear from are the ones who have a problem. And another problem is that we're not hearing from the beekeepers who aren't owning up, because they don't want growers to know." Still, there are few secrets in the relatively small, close-knit beekeeping community, one of the last agricultural domains still dominated by family dynasties. "Dad knows so many beekeepers, and a bunch of his friends have already had big losses," said Jeff Johnston, whose Colorado Honey Company processes honey from Colorado colonies kept by relatives and friends with operations from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope. His father, Lyle, is currently in California, where almond growers pay $125 to $165 per hive. Lyle Johnston's business is based in Rocky Ford. He normally stays close to home to serve the farmers and ranchers who hire his bees, but the California almond crop is too lucrative to ignore. The Johnstons are among a handful of this state's commercial beekeepers whose colonies pollinate Eastern Plains alfalfa crops, Western Slope peaches, Rocky Ford cantaloupe and other crops that depend on honeybees. Hundreds of other hobbyist beekeepers maintain an average of a few dozen hives each throughout Colorado. As bees die, the price of replacement bees - which has already quadrupled in the past decade because so many bees succumb to mite infestations - is escalating. "If we don't have bees, then all (that) those folks in California have got is fancy shade trees," Theobald said. "I'm afraid attention won't be paid, and we'll be going to South America for fruits and vegetables." Long-ignored regulations? Theobald and his brother, Tom, a Niwot beekeeper for more than three decades, believe that colony collapse disorder is the result of long-ignored environmental regulations. When growers violate pesticide restrictions, the chemical residue poisons bees. Until the disorder was identified, pesticides and parasitic mites were the chief causes of colony die-offs. When Colorado's apiary program lost its funding in the early 1980s, government bee inspections ceased, leaving no one but the beekeepers to monitor the mite infestation or pesticide abuse. "Until then, I did routine disease inspections, and since the program went under, there've been all kinds of problems," said state entomologist Jerry Cochran. Tom Theobald agrees. He refers to the existing system as "the (Hurricane) Katrina model of management." "We've known this problem was coming for a long time," he said, "and the people in charge have not discussed the problems openly. "It's not colony collapse disorder. It's industry collapse disorder, and it's very serious."

Horn | 03-04-2007 01:23 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees I thought Curtman would have something to say about this thread? Perhaps he missed it with the stock drop this week. What say you Mr. C.?

Large Sarge | 03-04-2007 01:30 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees I hope they get this resolved rather quickly. Seems like with such widespread problems, and it all happening in a relatively short time, that finding the cause should should be apparent in time. What is the common denominator with all these hives?

phideaux | 03-04-2007 01:45 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Large Sarge (Post 529271) I hope they get this resolved rather quickly. Seems like with such widespread problems, and it all happening in a relatively short time, that finding the cause should should be apparent in time.
The problem is the bees are leaving the hives without a trace. There are no bee corpses lying around to do autopsies upon. Very mysterious, like something out of the Twilight Zone. Do do do do do do.

electric-amish | 03-04-2007 01:49 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Maybe Genetically modified crops reduce or remove some natural food for the bee that bolsters it ability to fight off disease. A large crop of wild flowers near by may be required to supplement BEE Vitamins (Pun Intended) E-A

damoc | 03-04-2007 02:04 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by electric-amish (Post 529286) Maybe Genetically modified crops reduce or remove some natural food for the bee that bolsters it ability to fight off disease. A large crop of wild flowers near by may be required to supplement BEE Vitamins (Pun Intended) E-A
large losses in areas of no agriculture as well agricultural losses.most beekeepers use a preventative antibiotic treatment to controll foulbrood maybee this is the cause of weakening imune system of bees like it does in humans? many crops are already known to have bad or insufficient pollen for bees some like buckeye can actually paralize a whole colony of bees if there is nothing else around at the time of buckeye flower but the affects are noticeable.

Large Sarge | 03-04-2007 02:04 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by phideaux (Post 529283) The problem is the bees are leaving the hives without a trace. There are no bee corpses lying around to do autopsies upon. Very mysterious, like something out of the Twilight Zone. Do do do do do do.
Very strange indeed. Doesn't the queen secrete some hormone that keeps the Bee's around? isn't that how the hive operates? Maybe one of the pesticides has suppressed that secretion??? or something else suppressing it?

damoc | 03-04-2007 02:15 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees there is another problem with bees collecting honey dew (not a plant source but an insect excretion manna,lerp) they can build up very strong on it but there is no associated pollen and hence they eat up all there stored pollen and have nothing left to breed more young bees later in the fall/early winter it also has a lot of (impurities)in it that requires bess to take cleansing flights if winter conditions confines bees for extended periods of time they will either defecate in hives or try to take emergency cleansing flights and possibly die out and away from the hive.I think if this ccd is not a virus it had something to do with a good honey dew year followed by winter condtions causing losses I personally have not seen honey dew losses maybee now i have??

phideaux | 03-04-2007 02:16 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Large Sarge (Post 529291) Very strange indeed. Doesn't the queen secrete some hormone that keeps the Bee's around? isn't that how the hive operates? Maybe one of the pesticides has suppressed that secretion??? or something else suppressing it?
Or maybe some sort of previously unknown Pied Piper factor is overriding the Queen's influence, and drawihg them all out of the hive. But any way, this is a serious agricultural problem.

Horn | 03-04-2007 02:50 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Perhaps this? http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct01/bee1001.htm Quote:
Under the agreement, third-generation apiarist Steven S. Bernard is authorized to raise and sell pure-Russian breeder queen bees on a first-come, first-served basis. The breeder queens cost $500 each. From each of these, beekeepers breed thousands of production queens, which are placed in hives for pollination and honeymaking. Strict mating control of production queens is not done, so they sell for about $10 to $15 each.
Maybe, Bees aren't made for the global market place. More...http://members.aol.com/queenb95/russian.html Quote:
Every beekeeper can help in the effort by using some of these Russian bees in their hives. Drones are produced from the queen's unfertilized eggs, so all drones from the Russian queens will be 100% Russian. This fact will greatly help in the spreading of the resistant genes, as drones fly for miles in search of queens to mate. If all goes well we may see the emergence of Varroa resistant bees across the country. The USDA scientists, led by Dr. Thomas Rinderer, have done their part, now it's up to breeders and beekeepers to do their part in distributing these resistant bees. It may be our best option for getting off the chemical treadmill.

Weho Dave | 03-04-2007 03:13 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Bee Strike!! They are tired of having the fruits of their labor stolen from them. They are not going to take it anymore!!! Take that, mankind!!! I lived in the same area of Florida for 40 years and when I was very young, I remember watching the fireflies come out at night. Then I didn't see one for the last 20 years until I moved to New England. Forgot they even existed until a couple of years ago. Nature has a way of reminding us who is really in charge. On top of TSHTF, a world-wide famine of biblical proportions would really wreak havok on things. What if all the bees disappeared completely. Biologists have been fooling around with bee genetics for years, trying to come up with a bee that gives more honey. That is how the African Killer Bees developed. Then they came up with a bee to mate with those that was sterile, so they would die out. I can't help thinking all this monkeying around with genetics will backfire one day.

perl | 03-04-2007 07:55 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Just saw this in the local news. :eek_ma: DENVER (AP) - A national die-off of bees first identified in November in Pennsylvania is devastating Colorado colonies. Our partners at the Denver Post report that about 30,000 colonies in Colorado have been hit by what researchers call colony collapse disorder. It has been identified in 24 states. The loss rate is 40 percent in some Colorado colonies - most winters it is from 2 to 10 percent. Some have vanished without a trace. Beekeepers say major die-offs have occurred before but this is the worst in at least 40 years, beekeepers say. Researchers are trying to identify the cause of the disease killing the bees. Pesticides are blamed by some. Lyle Johnston, a Rocky Ford commercial beekeeper who serves ranchers and farmers, said if the bees keep dying, fruit crops won't get the pollination they need and suppliers will be forced to import fruit and vegetables from South America.

Unclad Lad | 03-05-2007 01:46 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Maybe they're all bugging out. ;)

keehah | 03-13-2007 10:11 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Unclad Lad (Post 529762) Maybe they're all bugging out. ;)
Honeybees Of The World, Unite? by frank scott March 07 07 http://legalienate.blogspot.com/ The stock market makes corrections which never really get rid of its mistakes, and always performs to enrich a few at the expense of many. It operates as a subsidiary of a larger system which works in exactly the same way. From Wall Street to Main Street in the USA , and from the more developed nations to the less developed states of the world, this system has never been as threatening to the future of the race as it is at present. The climate change debate between 90 percent of the science community which views it as at least partly a creation of human activity, and the 10% who blame everything on god or other invisible scapegoats, fails to name a cause other than �us�. Even in that overwhelming majority, while there is mention of over production, greed, selfishness, rapacious use of resources and other euphemisms for capitalism, seldom is heard that identifying word. But whether we use the label or not, it is becoming clear that the pressures on nature, in all its forms, are pressing upon what nature, through humanity, creates as organizing principles that are the foundation of the global economy. These are placing all elements of survival under dangerously heavier burdens . The stress factor in human life may be approaching that of the Honeybee, which seems to be vanishing at alarming rates and for some of the same reasons that people feel pressured. An economic crime against nature is creating massive strains on all environments, and on all creatures great and small which depend on those environments. Commonly dubbed a globalization that is spreading wealth and democracy wherever it goes, the blight on natural and social environments is nothing but old fashioned capitalism . The Honeybees are placed under perverse burdens by the economics of agriculture, which have been breeding them in special forms so as to assist in creating larger crops of food products to sell at markets. Under the domain of capital, the word product is far more important than the modifier, food. Whether it is food, clothing, shelter, medical care, consumer conceits or manipulated fancies , under the rules of capital accumulation it is the product and its sale that looms largest. That is the antihuman nature of a system that effects private profits by causing social loss . Market capitalism demands subjects trained to think of their individual responsibility for survival, and to see social groups isolated in ethnic, racial or religious categories. Balkanized groups adhering to the special identity they are socialized to accept are fine, as long as they are in competition for what are deemed scarce resources . But they must never see themselves as part of a social organism that might function best for them if they cooperated, in politically and economically democratic ways . Rather, the isolated shopper is deemed the operative mechanism, in order to buy all the things necessary to make it a successful individual, even though that designation is denied most members of an alienated, anti-social planet of consumers. Isolating people guarantees that even if a level of material comfort is achieved, the individual will remain anxiously stressed enough to warrant the marketing of therapies and drugs to substitute for the peace of mind that might be available in a less alienating environment. We thus have millions with physical security who still seek a psychological commodity labeled personal self esteem. They have to purchase lessons, therapies, exercises and other psycho-religious products to feel genuine, primarily because they are denied membership in a social union of citizens that might create a less stressful and more balanced reality. Material security esteem looms much larger than psycho-self esteem In the real world, but billions fail to achieve the first, so that millions can fail to enjoy the second. Global research done by the U.N. reveals the same results as national research done by the USA : The gap between the richest and poorest human beings is wider than ever, and the number of people reduced to poverty is increasing. Worldwide, billions live below the poverty line, while in the richest nation in the world, millions are consigned to physical destitution in a society that spends billions of dollars on its pets. This is not the result of a demon power ruling a nation, a corporation or an NGO. It is due to the proper functioning of a system which works best when it enriches some people, at the expense of most people. Propaganda has made it seem that producing products for sale in a market in order to accrue private profit is the most natural way to organize an economic system. And it is as natural as a mother charging her infant five dollars a meal for breast feeding. Making such perverse anti-socialism seem natural was easier to get away with in the past, but evidence is mounting that the world is under enormous pressure and facing dangerous survival problems for humanity . Not an individual, identity group, national, religious or ethnic subdivision is threatened, but the race itself. The Honeybee may be helpless under the domain of capital economics, but if the people remain so they may well go the way of the Honeybee. It would be simplistic to claim that all of our problems are caused by capitalist economics. The truth is that only most of our problems are caused by capitalism. The sooner we stop looking for demons , angels, heroes and villains as the reasons for war, hunger and depression, or peace, a full belly and happiness, the sooner we may enlarge our focus to the organizing principles of our political economics. As long as we entrust the production of food, clothing and health care, or toys, stereos and skis, to simply creating a full bank account for one stockholder, the sooner we will end the hideous reality of empty stomachs for thousands of human beings. In a world where some overeat until they are forced to diet, while others starve until they are forced to die, it isn't because of the universe, nor is it any individual leader. It is the minority created , majority sustained system of capitalism that must be changed, in order for humanity to have a hopeful future . That majority needs to act in its own interests, which calls for far more change than some individual at the top. It is revolution from the bottom, where most of us really live, that is necessary. Now, more than ever.

mjk1971 | 03-17-2007 01:33 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Many people are missing the point of the Disappearance of the Bees phenomenon. If the bees go, it won't be just honey & flowering food trees that we'll be missing. SOMETHING is killing the bees, and it certainly will kill other living things, including us. This is clearly a new phenomenon, different than any other bee disease in the past. Hence, it's logical to presume that the problem is GMOs and/or new pesticides. What is most profound is that the usual parasites that like to invade abandoned hives ARE AVOIDING THE "DEAD" HIVES! The little bee is our "canary in the mine." We listen now, or pay dearly later.

mjk1971 | 03-17-2007 01:34 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldRocks (Post 525103) Read a story the other day (no link) that stated a couple countries had banned certain pesticides or herbicides, I forget which. Anyhoo, no bee losses have been reported from those countries yet. Coincidence?
France & Italy. More: Nicotine-Based Pesticides Interfere with Honey Bee Memories In the past six years, a new group of nicotine-based pesticides have emerged called neonicotinoids. The most common is imidachloprid. Ironically, these were originally manufactured to be less lethal. But about four years ago, French and Italian beekeepers complained that imidachloprid crop spraying was killing their honey bees. So the French and Italian governments banned the nicotine-based pesticides. American scientists now studying the Colony Collapse Disorder wrote in their first preliminary December 15, 2006, report that even though the neonicotinoids will not kill adult bees directly on flowers and plants: "Recent research tested crops where seed was treated with imidacloprid. The chemical was present, by systemic uptake, in corn, sunflowers and rape pollen in levels high enough to pose a threat to honey bees. Additional research has found that imidacloprid impairs the memory and brain metabolism of bees, particularly the area of the brain that is used for making new memories. “Implication: If bees are eating fresh or stored pollen contaminated with these chemicals at low levels, the pesticides might not cause mortality, but might impact the bees’ ability to learn or make memories. If this is the case, young bees leaving the hives to make orientation flights might not be able to learn the location of the hive and might not be returning, causing the colonies to dwindle and eventually die. It is also possible that this is not the sole cause of the dwindling, but one of several contributing factors. ” http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news....ry=Environment

softserve320 | 03-17-2007 01:45 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by mjk1971 (Post 542557) Many people are missing the point of the Disappearance of the Bees phenomenon. If the bees go, it won't be just honey & flowering food trees that we'll be missing. SOMETHING is killing the bees, and it certainly will kill other living things, including us. This is clearly a new phenomenon, different than any other bee disease in the past. Hence, it's logical to presume that the problem is GMOs and/or new pesticides. What is most profound is that the usual parasites that like to invade abandoned hives ARE AVOIDING THE "DEAD" HIVES! The little bee is our "canary in the mine." We listen now, or pay dearly later.
Good points everyone. :clap2: I also believe the bees are the 'canary in the mine'. I will be adapting my garden this year for a possible market drought in produce I would not normally plant. Time to really prepare for produce independence for those who are market dependent. :grin::grin::grin:

Lore | 03-17-2007 03:14 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees A family friend in Alberta has kept bees professionally on a large scale in Alberta and the interior of British Columbia for some 40 years. He says the problem is a combination of mites and aggressive African bees that are useless for honey. One good thing about Canada's cold winters is that it restricts the spread of the mites and African bees. (We've had warm winters for the last couple of years, which is bad for other reasons too. Thousands and thousands and thousands of square miles of forest are being destroyed by mountain pine beetles. Cold winter would stop them too.) My uncle is a naturalist who builds mason bee boxes (as well as other types of nesting boxes). He says mason bees aren't as good as honeybees, but they make a nice addition to the garden, especially where germination is a priority.

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tulsamal | 03-17-2007 10:56 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Beekeepers say major die-offs have occurred before but this is the worst in at least 40 years, beekeepers say.
Which means that there WAS one this bad or worse 40 years or more ago, right? When there was a lot less people. And a lot less of the other things people are guessing about. Which makes me wonder if this is just some type of natural cycle. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned but it isn't necessarily the beginning of the end! Quote:
I also believe the bees are the 'canary in the mine'.
Insects are pretty darn tough. I usually hear biologists saying that amphibians are the real canaries when it comes to the environment. Which makes the serious decline in frog populations something to actually wonder about. What things are now found in their environments in very low concentrations? We like to believe that very low levels of "poison X, Y, and Z" is harmless but it doesn't seem to work like that for amphibians. I live on 90 acres with two ponds in NE OK. We always say that spring is here when the tree frogs come out and start singing. That was just a week or two ago. You go outside and the noise is everywhere. And that leads me to the central question asked here: where are the bees? The wife and I were in the backyard carrying some stuff. We went by two plum trees that are in full bloom. We got right next to them and then both just stopped and stood there with our mouths open. The "hum" was so loud that it felt like it was vibrating in our bones. It felt and sounded like every little white flower on both of those trees had a honey bee inside it. Wow, I don't think I've ever heard such a concentration of bees! So the answer is, they all moved to my house! Gregg

mjk1971 | 03-17-2007 11:27 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Lore (Post 542598) A family friend in Alberta has kept bees professionally on a large scale in Alberta and the interior of British Columbia for some 40 years. He says the problem is a combination of mites and aggressive African bees that are useless for honey. One good thing about Canada's cold winters is that it restricts the spread of the mites and African bees.
Poland is every bit as cold as Alberta, and they have the phenomenon there.

damoc | 03-19-2007 04:46 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees I have my own ideas as to why they disapeared mostly i think it was another virus which was compounded by cold confining weather dont think we will ever know for sure (do they know yet why whales beach themselves?) either way the bees that did not disapear or die are coming into the spring in tremendous shape I dont think we will be starving due to lack of pollination this year. I have been thinking this for a week or two now but did not want to kill the attention the honey bees were getting that they so rightly deserve.

TheSimpleton | 03-22-2007 08:07 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Addendum to this: http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/ed...2007/0321.html "Other Commentary: Technical analysis will never give you the why behind the move. That is where fundamental analysis comes in. While I don�t know for certain if the reason below is what may propel soybean prices higher it�s surely food for thought at the very least. In the past few months or so a potential freighting series of events has taken place which has received very little �main stream� coverage. However, the BBC did run publish a good piece on the subject recently. Additionally, Eric Bolling �The Admiral� a NYMEX floor trader and regular commentator on CNBC has also touched upon the subject from the early get go. So on that note, I�m assuming that most of you are already aware of the story. However, I wanted to share some thoughts on the matter either way. So what exactly am I taking about? Honey Bees and the large amounts that are disappearing from the managed environment ran by professional beekeepers. Personally, I never really gave much thought in the past to how much we rely on magnificent creatures. From the production of honey to pollination of crops their contribution to mankind in the area of agriculture is rather staggering to put it mildly when you start to look beneath the surface. How staggering? Since many of our pollinators are now scarce, we are more dependent than every before on the honey bee to pollinate our crops. Pollination starts when a field bee crawls around a plant blossom. The honey bee is dusted with pollen. Then the field bee flies over to another blossom with the pollen in its hair. When the bee lands, the pollen falls onto this blossom�s stigma. Now a fruit, vegetable or other crop can grow. Some farmers rent colonies of bees from keepers to pollinate their crops. Two species of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana, are often maintained, fed, and transported by beekeepers. Although other insects pollinate crops, honey bees are one of the few that are synchronized and managed with the development of crops. If honey bees didn�t pollinate, crops wouldn�t be able to grow. Without the pollination from honey bees it is estimated that there would be 33-50% less crops in the world! Even on the lower end of spectrum that�s a significant amount. There are many agents of pollination other than honey bees. Pines and some other trees, grasses, and some weeds are pollinated by wind. However, many wind pollinated entities such as maple, hickory, corn, and ragweed are visited by bees collecting pollen. Insects other than bees visit flowers and serve as pollinating agents, as well. Wasps, flies, various types of beetles, and other earthly insects extract pollen and/or nectar which assist in the pollination of those flowers. Typically their pollination though is of little to no value for crop growth. Of all the types of insects, honeybees have several advantages than enables them to be superior pollinators. Bees from a honey bee colony will visit a great number of plants over a very large area, collecting pollen and nectar, with individual bees visiting one species of flowers in the same location until the supply of nectar or pollen is completely exhausted. This pollination trait is not found in other types of social bees, which visit various plant species during the same trip in the fields. This behavioral trait of other classifications of bees reduces their effectiveness as a pollinator because the pollens are mixed. --Insert-- Recently large amounts of honey bees have been disappearing and the situation is propagating into something that could potentially become a very serious threat to the global food supply. To elaborate on the subject further please read: 1. Penn State University College of Agriculture Sciences Honey Bee Die-Off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers and Researchers - January 29, 2007. - http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/07Jan/HoneyBees.htm 2. Cosmos Magazine: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087 3. Uncensored Article: http://uncensored.co.nz/archives/200...-killing-bees/ 4. BBC Article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm �Since October 2006, 35 per cent or more of the United States' population of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) - billions of individual bees - simply flew from their hive homes and disappeared.� Bees literally fly away and don�t return home. Sounds like something from the X-files. Are they being poisoned by some type of mysterious agent? Are the internal compasses of these creatures not working properly? Whereby, driving them into starvation since they can�t find their way back to the colony hive. If so, what entity could potentially be affecting their sense of direction? So far much of the speculation that I have read as to the reason why honey bees are dying off has revolved around genetically modified crops, mercury contamination as well as pesticides. While I have done a considerable amount of research into the matter, although I�m a derivatives trader and not a scientist, I have yet to come across much in the area of solar activity and honey bees. Considering that honey bees utilize the sun for direction and solar cycle 24 is forecasted to be one of the most intense since record keeping began, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...ec_cycle24.htm, I had to ponder this question even though solar activity never stops not even during solar minimums. The problem is that we are �near� the start of this new cycle and won�t know the official beginning until after the fact as any type of cyclical work utilities approximations. Additionally, some of this thought on the sun would have to consider other solar cycles as well. This would then lead into the area of looking at the evidence of the �global warming is cyclical camp, as opposed to those that subscribe to the notion that humans are the cause, and not just cyclical here on earth but throughout the solar system. While I personally subscribe to the cyclical warming camp I have to ponder if both groups may be correct simultaneously. Take some of the recent data on Mars for example. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...s-warming.html Is the same cycle which may be potentially warming Mars and/or Earth also affecting the sense of direction of honey bees? Could the problems be caused by more than one issue? For example, according to recent data solar activity hasn�t increased dramatically yet. But if we take into consideration the Mars data it�s possible that the same reasons causing Mars to warm in conjunction with only small increases in solar activity could alter the internal compass of the honey bee. If so, what will happen when the cycle reaches its maximum in 2011 - 2012? Is the current situation only the beginning? Solar flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections, the ejections of electrons, protons and ions from the Sun. These charged particles have some other effects on Earth. The Earth has a natural protection against these charged particles: its magnetic field and atmosphere that blocks most of them. However, some charged particles can enter the atmosphere at the poles and impact subjects not protected under earth�s atmospheric blanket. For example, we only need to look so far as the auroras to witness the beautiful effects of solar flare activity. When charged particles, especially electrons, find their way at the poles, they get accelerated along the lines of the magnetic field and collide with the particles in the atmosphere which makes them glow. That glow is what we see as an aurora. Effects / Possible Effects of Solar Flares: � Damage and outright destruction to satellites. For example, a 1994 solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and nationwide radio service throughout Canada. � Emerging research has shown a possible correlation between pandemic outbreaks and increased solar activity. � Earth�s Climate and warming ocean temperatures. For those in the U.S. any possible significant increase in ocean temperate could generate a very high possibility that an F5 hurricane will strike the Galveston, TX area potentially wiping out over half of the oil refining capacity. And that that�s not including any massive impact on the corn crop creating higher ethanol prices! Scientists are warning for a busy hurricane season in 2007 due to the record-breaking warmth. �We�ve never seen this before,� said Scott Glenn, a professor of marine science at Rutgers University�s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, referring to the warm winter waters in a recent interview on the subject. � Underwater earthquake activity, potency and frequency. � Possible increased erosion in pipelines. � Radio signals which causes a disruption in wireless communication. � Electrical Transmission Lines. For utility operators, any power interruptions caused by solar storms creates pressure on the remaining power grid. Although utilities and owners of large transformers have more sophisticated advance warning tools than at any other time in history to help them prepare and prevent loss it�s not perfect. A somewhat recent example, in March 1989, a solar storm much less intense than the perfect space storm of 1859 caused the Hydro-Quebec power grid to go down for over nine hours, and the resulting damages and loss in revenue were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars! Additionally, in some cases even with advanced warning it can be difficult to take evasive action. For example, in the summer of 1859 there was a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection. Not all coronal mass ejections head toward Earth. For ejections that do head for earth the typically time arrival time is around three to four days. However, the one in 1859 took approximately 17 hours to arrive! � Health issues for airline pilots and astronauts. The magnetic field and the atmosphere block out most of the harmful radiation and charged particles. However, this is not the case when you go up in the atmosphere. Airline pilots that fly at great altitude, and especially near the poles, are exposed to more of these. The same goes for astronauts. This results in a higher incidence of cancer among airline pilots and cabin crew. Because of this airlines need to alter flight paths. Increased operation cost what results. I would have to think that at some other point in time in history we would have witnessed effects on bees �directional sensitivity� from solar flare activity. Maybe we have and did not realize it. How far back in history do we have data on honey bees? For example, new research has demonstrated a possible correlation between solar flare activity and pandemic outbreaks. But the jury is still out on this one in regards to something conclusive. Any possible past effect on honey bees, or any other animal for that matter, by flare and other solar activity would also have to take into account the frequency and potency measurements. Also, as is the case for bees, do they utilize the sun in any direct or non-direct way to dictate direction? Honey bees use the sun as a reference point in navigation and communication. Experiments have shown that bees have an internal representation of the sun's movement through the sky. The bee can, therefore, use the sun as a fixed point and orient itself by maintaining a fixed angle between its line of flight and the line to the sun. While this trait is a natural instinct past research data suggest that this feature of bees is somewhat tailored by experience. However, the sun plays an even greater role in aspect of food gathering. The dance language, which bees use to communicate with each other, is also based on the location of the sun. When bees return from a food source, they perform a ``waggle dance'' on the vertical comb nearest the entrance to the colony hive. The dancing bee makes a short, straight run while waggling its abdomen, then circles back and repeats this action several times. At this point the bee structures its dance so that the angle between the direction of the straight run and the ray opposite gravity is the same as the angle between the food source and the position of the sun. In this instance, dancing straight up means ``fly toward the sun,�� straight down translates into ``fly away from the sun.'' Given this angle, other bees can then position themselves to the sun and locate the specific food source. In the late 80s, Wolfgang H. Kirchner and William F. Towne proved the above with a robot honeybee. It had razor blades for wings, and tiny computer-controlled motors allowing it to copy the dance. It could sing the song with its razor blade wings, and execute the dance via its electric motors. Real honeybees would ignore their robot razor blade honeybee, if it just performed the dance, or just executed the song. But when it did both, the real honeybee would obey the robot bee. The scientists could actually communicate to the rest of the colony. At this point the scientists had the ability to control the robot honeybee in a manner that would drive other bees out of the nest in any direction they wanted. Is the reason that honey bees aren�t returning to their nest the same culprit for the mysterious deaths of birds across the world? Are the internal compasses of bees, birds and potentially other animals being thrown off kilter due to some unforeseen force affecting the sun? Thousand of Birds Fall From Sky Over Australian Town: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21035741-2,00.html Just a day or so before the Australia incident birds in Austin, TX fell from the sky. Is this somehow related to the why the White House has tightened publishing rules for USGS Scientists. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16193443/ If anything is for certain it�s that that volatility in the marketplace is here to stay with us well into the future. While I�m sure someone will ask me about American being the world�s bread basket and the possible impact on the U.S. Dollar I decided to leave that topic open for discussion for some other time. On a final note, are group is in the final stages of forming a new subsidiary that will deal wholly in risk management solutions for commercial entities. Additionally, we have put together an agreement with a large institution that will provide commercial financing solutions, contingent upon meeting specific requirements, for those who need to utilize various risk management products to protect their financial interests. If you should have any questions or feedback about this article please feel free to contact me. Hoping All Your Speculations Are Profitable, Paul Skarp, Principal

TheSimpleton | 03-22-2007 08:08 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Addendum to this: http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/ed...2007/0321.html "Other Commentary: Technical analysis will never give you the why behind the move. That is where fundamental analysis comes in. While I don’t know for certain if the reason below is what may propel soybean prices higher it’s surely food for thought at the very least. In the past few months or so a potential freighting series of events has taken place which has received very little “main stream” coverage. However, the BBC did run publish a good piece on the subject recently. Additionally, Eric Bolling “The Admiral” a NYMEX floor trader and regular commentator on CNBC has also touched upon the subject from the early get go. So on that note, I’m assuming that most of you are already aware of the story. However, I wanted to share some thoughts on the matter either way. So what exactly am I taking about? Honey Bees and the large amounts that are disappearing from the managed environment ran by professional beekeepers. Personally, I never really gave much thought in the past to how much we rely on magnificent creatures. From the production of honey to pollination of crops their contribution to mankind in the area of agriculture is rather staggering to put it mildly when you start to look beneath the surface. How staggering? Since many of our pollinators are now scarce, we are more dependent than every before on the honey bee to pollinate our crops. Pollination starts when a field bee crawls around a plant blossom. The honey bee is dusted with pollen. Then the field bee flies over to another blossom with the pollen in its hair. When the bee lands, the pollen falls onto this blossom’s stigma. Now a fruit, vegetable or other crop can grow. Some farmers rent colonies of bees from keepers to pollinate their crops. Two species of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana, are often maintained, fed, and transported by beekeepers. Although other insects pollinate crops, honey bees are one of the few that are synchronized and managed with the development of crops. If honey bees didn’t pollinate, crops wouldn’t be able to grow. Without the pollination from honey bees it is estimated that there would be 33-50% less crops in the world! Even on the lower end of spectrum that’s a significant amount. There are many agents of pollination other than honey bees. Pines and some other trees, grasses, and some weeds are pollinated by wind. However, many wind pollinated entities such as maple, hickory, corn, and ragweed are visited by bees collecting pollen. Insects other than bees visit flowers and serve as pollinating agents, as well. Wasps, flies, various types of beetles, and other earthly insects extract pollen and/or nectar which assist in the pollination of those flowers. Typically their pollination though is of little to no value for crop growth. Of all the types of insects, honeybees have several advantages than enables them to be superior pollinators. Bees from a honey bee colony will visit a great number of plants over a very large area, collecting pollen and nectar, with individual bees visiting one species of flowers in the same location until the supply of nectar or pollen is completely exhausted. This pollination trait is not found in other types of social bees, which visit various plant species during the same trip in the fields. This behavioral trait of other classifications of bees reduces their effectiveness as a pollinator because the pollens are mixed. --Insert-- Recently large amounts of honey bees have been disappearing and the situation is propagating into something that could potentially become a very serious threat to the global food supply. To elaborate on the subject further please read: 1. Penn State University College of Agriculture Sciences Honey Bee Die-Off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers and Researchers - January 29, 2007. - http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/07Jan/HoneyBees.htm 2. Cosmos Magazine: http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087 3. Uncensored Article: http://uncensored.co.nz/archives/200...-killing-bees/ 4. BBC Article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm “Since October 2006, 35 per cent or more of the United States' population of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) - billions of individual bees - simply flew from their hive homes and disappeared.” Bees literally fly away and don’t return home. Sounds like something from the X-files. Are they being poisoned by some type of mysterious agent? Are the internal compasses of these creatures not working properly? Whereby, driving them into starvation since they can’t find their way back to the colony hive. If so, what entity could potentially be affecting their sense of direction? So far much of the speculation that I have read as to the reason why honey bees are dying off has revolved around genetically modified crops, mercury contamination as well as pesticides. While I have done a considerable amount of research into the matter, although I’m a derivatives trader and not a scientist, I have yet to come across much in the area of solar activity and honey bees. Considering that honey bees utilize the sun for direction and solar cycle 24 is forecasted to be one of the most intense since record keeping began, http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...ec_cycle24.htm, I had to ponder this question even though solar activity never stops not even during solar minimums. The problem is that we are “near” the start of this new cycle and won’t know the official beginning until after the fact as any type of cyclical work utilities approximations. Additionally, some of this thought on the sun would have to consider other solar cycles as well. This would then lead into the area of looking at the evidence of the “global warming is cyclical camp, as opposed to those that subscribe to the notion that humans are the cause, and not just cyclical here on earth but throughout the solar system. While I personally subscribe to the cyclical warming camp I have to ponder if both groups may be correct simultaneously. Take some of the recent data on Mars for example. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...s-warming.html Is the same cycle which may be potentially warming Mars and/or Earth also affecting the sense of direction of honey bees? Could the problems be caused by more than one issue? For example, according to recent data solar activity hasn’t increased dramatically yet. But if we take into consideration the Mars data it’s possible that the same reasons causing Mars to warm in conjunction with only small increases in solar activity could alter the internal compass of the honey bee. If so, what will happen when the cycle reaches its maximum in 2011 - 2012? Is the current situation only the beginning? Solar flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections, the ejections of electrons, protons and ions from the Sun. These charged particles have some other effects on Earth. The Earth has a natural protection against these charged particles: its magnetic field and atmosphere that blocks most of them. However, some charged particles can enter the atmosphere at the poles and impact subjects not protected under earth’s atmospheric blanket. For example, we only need to look so far as the auroras to witness the beautiful effects of solar flare activity. When charged particles, especially electrons, find their way at the poles, they get accelerated along the lines of the magnetic field and collide with the particles in the atmosphere which makes them glow. That glow is what we see as an aurora. Effects / Possible Effects of Solar Flares: · Damage and outright destruction to satellites. For example, a 1994 solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and nationwide radio service throughout Canada. · Emerging research has shown a possible correlation between pandemic outbreaks and increased solar activity. · Earth’s Climate and warming ocean temperatures. For those in the U.S. any possible significant increase in ocean temperate could generate a very high possibility that an F5 hurricane will strike the Galveston, TX area potentially wiping out over half of the oil refining capacity. And that that’s not including any massive impact on the corn crop creating higher ethanol prices! Scientists are warning for a busy hurricane season in 2007 due to the record-breaking warmth. “We’ve never seen this before,” said Scott Glenn, a professor of marine science at Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, referring to the warm winter waters in a recent interview on the subject. · Underwater earthquake activity, potency and frequency. · Possible increased erosion in pipelines. · Radio signals which causes a disruption in wireless communication. · Electrical Transmission Lines. For utility operators, any power interruptions caused by solar storms creates pressure on the remaining power grid. Although utilities and owners of large transformers have more sophisticated advance warning tools than at any other time in history to help them prepare and prevent loss it’s not perfect. A somewhat recent example, in March 1989, a solar storm much less intense than the perfect space storm of 1859 caused the Hydro-Quebec power grid to go down for over nine hours, and the resulting damages and loss in revenue were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars! Additionally, in some cases even with advanced warning it can be difficult to take evasive action. For example, in the summer of 1859 there was a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection. Not all coronal mass ejections head toward Earth. For ejections that do head for earth the typically time arrival time is around three to four days. However, the one in 1859 took approximately 17 hours to arrive! · Health issues for airline pilots and astronauts. The magnetic field and the atmosphere block out most of the harmful radiation and charged particles. However, this is not the case when you go up in the atmosphere. Airline pilots that fly at great altitude, and especially near the poles, are exposed to more of these. The same goes for astronauts. This results in a higher incidence of cancer among airline pilots and cabin crew. Because of this airlines need to alter flight paths. Increased operation cost what results. I would have to think that at some other point in time in history we would have witnessed effects on bees “directional sensitivity” from solar flare activity. Maybe we have and did not realize it. How far back in history do we have data on honey bees? For example, new research has demonstrated a possible correlation between solar flare activity and pandemic outbreaks. But the jury is still out on this one in regards to something conclusive. Any possible past effect on honey bees, or any other animal for that matter, by flare and other solar activity would also have to take into account the frequency and potency measurements. Also, as is the case for bees, do they utilize the sun in any direct or non-direct way to dictate direction? Honey bees use the sun as a reference point in navigation and communication. Experiments have shown that bees have an internal representation of the sun's movement through the sky. The bee can, therefore, use the sun as a fixed point and orient itself by maintaining a fixed angle between its line of flight and the line to the sun. While this trait is a natural instinct past research data suggest that this feature of bees is somewhat tailored by experience. However, the sun plays an even greater role in aspect of food gathering. The dance language, which bees use to communicate with each other, is also based on the location of the sun. When bees return from a food source, they perform a ``waggle dance'' on the vertical comb nearest the entrance to the colony hive. The dancing bee makes a short, straight run while waggling its abdomen, then circles back and repeats this action several times. At this point the bee structures its dance so that the angle between the direction of the straight run and the ray opposite gravity is the same as the angle between the food source and the position of the sun. In this instance, dancing straight up means ``fly toward the sun,’’ straight down translates into ``fly away from the sun.'' Given this angle, other bees can then position themselves to the sun and locate the specific food source. In the late 80s, Wolfgang H. Kirchner and William F. Towne proved the above with a robot honeybee. It had razor blades for wings, and tiny computer-controlled motors allowing it to copy the dance. It could sing the song with its razor blade wings, and execute the dance via its electric motors. Real honeybees would ignore their robot razor blade honeybee, if it just performed the dance, or just executed the song. But when it did both, the real honeybee would obey the robot bee. The scientists could actually communicate to the rest of the colony. At this point the scientists had the ability to control the robot honeybee in a manner that would drive other bees out of the nest in any direction they wanted. Is the reason that honey bees aren’t returning to their nest the same culprit for the mysterious deaths of birds across the world? Are the internal compasses of bees, birds and potentially other animals being thrown off kilter due to some unforeseen force affecting the sun? Thousand of Birds Fall From Sky Over Australian Town: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21035741-2,00.html Just a day or so before the Australia incident birds in Austin, TX fell from the sky. Is this somehow related to the why the White House has tightened publishing rules for USGS Scientists. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16193443/ If anything is for certain it’s that that volatility in the marketplace is here to stay with us well into the future. While I’m sure someone will ask me about American being the world’s bread basket and the possible impact on the U.S. Dollar I decided to leave that topic open for discussion for some other time. On a final note, are group is in the final stages of forming a new subsidiary that will deal wholly in risk management solutions for commercial entities. Additionally, we have put together an agreement with a large institution that will provide commercial financing solutions, contingent upon meeting specific requirements, for those who need to utilize various risk management products to protect their financial interests. If you should have any questions or feedback about this article please feel free to contact me. Hoping All Your Speculations Are Profitable, Paul Skarp, Principal" TS

Lucky Charms | 04-02-2007 02:11 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by Kahlil Gibran (Post 525050) I think this is a sleeper thread that will become very important. You guys are ahead of the pack on this alarming issue. :thumbs up :thumbs up
Yeah. I heard about this about 2 or 3 weeks ago and cognitive dissonance of the magnitude of this made me quickly forget about it. Colony Collapse Disorder is going to be huge in a bad way, (I guess unless you trade agricultural futures, but money can't save one from starving mobs). :s15: :hissyfit_m: :sad_m: :bear_cry: :no_ma: :hissyfit_m: :s15: The strangest thing is, I've tried to explain this to J6P's I know and they'll say things like, "bees are gone, well that's good, I won't be as likely to get stung." Or "Expensive fruit or vegetables? Well I need to cut down on carbs." "I don't eat that stuff anyway." Weird. I guess it's not that strange considering what I know of J6P's. Just depressing.

Lucky Charms | 04-02-2007 02:22 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees In response to the sun cycle theory, this was on nasa's website a few weeks ago. Solar Storm Warning 03.10.2006 + Play Audio | + Download Audio | + Historia en Espa�ol | + Email to a friend | + Join mailing list March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet. Like the quiet before a storm. This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958. That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies. Right: Intense auroras over Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1958. [More] Dikpati's prediction is unprecedented. In nearly-two centuries since the 11-year sunspot cycle was discovered, scientists have struggled to predict the size of future maxima�and failed. Solar maxima can be intense, as in 1958, or barely detectable, as in 1805, obeying no obvious pattern. The key to the mystery, Dikpati realized years ago, is a conveyor belt on the sun. We have something similar here on Earth�the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt, popularized in the sci-fi movie The Day After Tomorrow. It is a network of currents that carry water and heat from ocean to ocean--see the diagram below. In the movie, the Conveyor Belt stopped and threw the world's weather into chaos. Above: Earth's "Great Ocean Conveyor Belt." [More] The sun's conveyor belt is a current, not of water, but of electrically-conducting gas. It flows in a loop from the sun's equator to the poles and back again. Just as the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt controls weather on Earth, this solar conveyor belt controls weather on the sun. Specifically, it controls the sunspot cycle. Solar physicist David Hathaway of the National Space Science & Technology Center (NSSTC) explains: "First, remember what sunspots are--tangled knots of magnetism generated by the sun's inner dynamo. A typical sunspot exists for just a few weeks. Then it decays, leaving behind a 'corpse' of weak magnetic fields." Enter the conveyor belt. "The top of the conveyor belt skims the surface of the sun, sweeping up the magnetic fields of old, dead sunspots. The 'corpses' are dragged down at the poles to a depth of 200,000 km where the sun's magnetic dynamo can amplify them. Once the corpses (magnetic knots) are reincarnated (amplified), they become buoyant and float back to the surface." Presto�new sunspots! Right: The sun's "great conveyor belt." [Larger image] All this happens with massive slowness. "It takes about 40 years for the belt to complete one loop," says Hathaway. The speed varies "anywhere from a 50-year pace (slow) to a 30-year pace (fast)." When the belt is turning "fast," it means that lots of magnetic fields are being swept up, and that a future sunspot cycle is going to be intense. This is a basis for forecasting: "The belt was turning fast in 1986-1996," says Hathaway. "Old magnetic fields swept up then should re-appear as big sunspots in 2010-2011." Like most experts in the field, Hathaway has confidence in the conveyor belt model and agrees with Dikpati that the next solar maximum should be a doozy. But he disagrees with one point. Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011. "History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says. "I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007�and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011." Who's right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming.

JAYCEE | 04-08-2007 11:50 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees I've noticed more bumble bees this spring. And we have a bumper crop of red wasps too.

AMforPM | 04-08-2007 01:29 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees The most disturbing new I've had is from our friends in west Texas. Not only did they see none of the usual wild bee swarms this year, they saw individual bees, several times, flying in an erratic manner and they described it as violent. The bees seemed not to have any idea where they were going and change course suddenly and all flying extra fast, as if in a panic. It was not limited to honeybees. The bees that make ground nests in some banks on their place each year have not appeared. They think it is cell phone rays. Nicotine poisons, which we could stop using, or a sun change that may change back without bees going extinct would be better, because before humanity would back off from electromagnetic emissions I think a lot besides bees would have to die. If using electricity is seriously harmful, as it may be, we won't face it for years and years. It has provided too many comforts. So studies that animal behavior is altered if they live near as little as a washing machine or other home appliance run on electricity go quietly undiscussed.

Silver_Fox | 04-08-2007 10:22 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees We have been talking about honey bees at work. I'm a licensed exterminator and licensed horticulturist, myself and fellow employees are having more calls than normal this year because the honeybees are so plentiful around homes here in Louisiana. Seeing plenty of honeybess while caring for plants in my horticulture work and my exterminator work. Honeybees seem more plentiful this year than in the past.:smile:

damoc | 04-09-2007 12:20 AM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by JAYCEE (Post 565375) I've noticed more bumble bees this spring. And we have a bumper crop of red wasps too.
I have also noticed way more bumble bees than ever before

mjk1971 | 04-09-2007 02:01 AM
Linda Moulton Howe on Dreamland http://www.unknowncountry.com/media/?cur=336

Kahlil Gibran | 04-09-2007 02:26 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Quote:
Originally Posted by JAYCEE (Post 565375) I've noticed more bumble bees this spring. And we have a bumper crop of red wasps too.
Here in my Idaho neighborhood honey bees are everywhere. The neighbor lady always reeks of perfume and yesterday she was batting them off her. :favorites21: bees!

Frosty | 04-11-2007 10:41 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees Maybe the bees, know something, we humans don't seem to grasp, GM crops are poison. They are migrating from the orchard transported hives to the city, with all those healthy neighborhood flower and vegatable gardens. I also believe the bees are a " canary in the coal mine" when it comes to the food chain. We better listen to their message or suffer later. Frosty:coolbeer:

lynnda | 04-14-2007 05:15 PM
Re: Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees France, is having a different bee problem. It is with a certain species of wasps that is attacking/killing their bees.

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