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crunchy5 Great Old One Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1951 Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 02-05-2006 10:11 Post subject: Bees |
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Einstein said no bees no food, check this out
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0%2C%2C329468597-102285%2C00.html
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Beloved by Britons, the humble honey bee is hailed as a reassuring symbol of summer. But disease has almost wiped out the wild population and threatens domestic swarms. Science Editor Robin McKie reveals why we should all be worried about the decline of this remarkable creature
Sunday April 30, 2006
Observer
When a fire hazard light flashed in the cockpit of a British Airways jumbo jet that was heading from Sydney to London two weeks ago, its pilot, Dave Meggs, knew he had only one course of action. He diverted his craft, and its complement of 350 passengers, to the nearest airport, a tiny landing strip at Uralsk in Kazakhstan.
His emergency touchdown was a flawless copybook affair. It was also, as it turned out, completely unnecessary. There was no fire in the hold of the plane despite sensors indicating this was the source of the raging flames. All that could be found was a package of disgruntled bees, en route from Australia to Britain, which investigators now believe was the most probable cause of the alarm and the ensuing aviation emergency.
In the end it took 20 hours to ferry passengers back to London in a flotilla of smaller craft (the airstrip was too short for the jumbo to take off with its passengers on board) and all thanks to a bunch of errant insects.
It is still unclear how bees managed to trigger the alarm in the hold, although this is certainly not the only question hanging over the incident. In particular, there is the issue of what these creatures were doing on Flight BA010 in the first place.
Bees - which have been loved by Britons ranging from William Shakespeare to Jill Archer - are the quintessence of Britishness. Yet it transpires we are importing them regularly. What is happening? The answer, say beekeepers, is a simple one: a malaise has been spreading through the nation's apiary industry with alarming implications. Thanks to foreign diseases and the spread of drug resistance among infectious agents, the buzzing bee, as sure a signal of summer's onset as traffic jams on the M5, is now at risk of being stifled |
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| crunchy5 Great Old One Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1951 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 02-05-2006 10:14 Post subject: |
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Then this
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1819327.php
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Effects of EMFs on Birds, Bees, Bat-Rays, Butterflies & Buzzards
Microwaves and Insects
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1448681/
Effects of EMFs on Birds, Bees, Bat-Rays, Butterflies & Buzzards
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1369852/
Mobile phones blamed for sparrow deaths
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1370183/
Evidence of a conection between Sparrow decline and the introduction of
Phone mast GSM
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1369577/
The sparrows of London
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1368310/
Bird on a wire theory needs closer look in disease watch
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1158189/
Where have all the sparrows gone?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1147135/
Pulsed microwave radiation and wildlife - Are Cell Phones Wiping Out
Sparrows?
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/926007/
Spanish paper on RF effects on birds
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/904106/
Birds suffer from biological effects of GSM, 3G (UMTS), DECT, WIFI, TETRA
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/900299/
Adverse Bioeffects on Animals near a New Zealand Radio Transmitter
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/432402/
Mobile phone mast blamed for vanishing pigeons
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/286416/
Teresa Binstock schrieb:
**Honey, our bees are vanishing** |
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| coldelephant |
| Posted: 02-05-2006 12:23 Post subject: |
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| crunchy5 wrote: |
Einstein said no bees no food
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Seems like it's mass extintion time again.
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Virtually all indicators of the likely future for the diversity of life on Earth are heading in the wrong direction, a major new report says |
Life's diversity 'being depleted' |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 02-05-2006 14:19 Post subject: |
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Great posts - thanks for the links. Am checking them out now.  |
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| H_James Ancient Cow (&)
Creepy thing Joined: 18 May 2002 Total posts: 5624 |
| Posted: 02-05-2006 14:38 Post subject: Re: Bees |
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| crunchy5 wrote: |
Bees - which have been loved by Britons ranging from William Shakespeare to Jill Archer - are the quintessence of Britishness. |
Let's hope they don't form the "Bee"NP.
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 02-05-2006 14:42 Post subject: |
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Get your coat....  |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5788 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 03-05-2006 14:02 Post subject: |
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Ive heard from bird keepers they are experiencing a severe drop in fertility.
And there are more and more infertile humans.... |
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| crunchy5 Great Old One Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1951 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 04-05-2006 08:15 Post subject: |
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| IIrc last summer in the UK a charity asked drivers to check their number plates for squashed insects count them and note the time the journey took, I believe when the results were in the numbers were shockingly low. My next door neighbor saw his first butterfly y/day which puts him one up on me, we live down the road from a small park and I have a "meadow" garden . |
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| coldelephant |
| Posted: 04-05-2006 12:19 Post subject: |
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More and more infertile humans, dead dolphins and whales in droves, less insects, more and more dead birds, swarms of giant jellyfish, more giant squid being beached...
What is all this but mass extinction?
What is it caused by?
DU blown around in the troposphere to be deposited everywhere?
Or more than one contributory factor?
How about DU, sonar, loss of habitat, carbon dust (soot) everywhere (it smothers all buildings in London with a black film) etc etc |
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| barfing_pumpkin A pumpkin that pukes. Yes. I am.
Great Old One Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Total posts: 885 Location: Hampshire Age: 41 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 04-05-2006 14:03 Post subject: |
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| If bees are going to die out, then...couldn't we genetically engineer wasps to replace them? After all, they are the daleks of the insect world, so it'd be no great loss. |
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11704 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
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| crunchy5 Great Old One Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1951 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 20-10-2006 22:14 Post subject: |
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This just in
http://tinyurl.com/y7rq8r
| Quote: | More detailed research has been done in Europe, where declines and even extinctions of pollinators have been documented.
The report pointed out that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants — including most food crops and some that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel — rely on pollinators for fertilization.
Farmers often lease colonies of bees to ensure pollination.
Yet honeybees, which pollinate more than 90 commercially grown crops, are one of the most affected pollinators. Indeed, honeybees had to be imported from outside North America last year for the first time since 1922, the report said.
The report urged the Agriculture Department to increase research into pest management and bee breeding practices.
In addition, long-term studies must be done on the populations of wild bee species and some butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, it said.
The United States should collaborate with Canada and Mexico to form a network of long-term monitoring projects, the council recommended.
Landowners, meanwhile, can take simple steps to make habitats more "pollinator friendly," for instance by growing native plants, the report suggested.
The research was funded by the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Geological Survey, National Academies and the Research Council's Division on Earth and Life Studies.
The study was requested by The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, representing agencies and organizations in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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| ogopogo3 Just a CabbageHead Joined: 25 Oct 2001 Total posts: 1684 Location: Minnesota Age: 41 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-10-2006 12:29 Post subject: |
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As a kid growing up in the burbs, I saw honeybees EVERYWHERE. They were ubitiquitous.
In my frequent journeys home to the estate, I haven't seen ONE in 15 years. See bumblebees and hornets somewhat infrequently, but I haven't seen a damn honeybee in eons.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with all the pesticides everyone on the block loves to spray on their lawns.  |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 9109 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 21-10-2006 17:21 Post subject: |
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This has been worrying me a lot for the last 2 years.
This summer just gone, I noticed that there weren't many insects about - not just bees. Without insects, the whole food chain will eventually break down.
We're all doomed.  |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-10-2006 22:25 Post subject: |
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| ogopogo3 wrote: | | As a kid growing up in the burbs, I saw honeybees EVERYWHERE. They were ubitiquitous. |
Er, ubiquitous?
That was the favourite word of my geography teacher - he must have used it half a dozen times each lesson!
Not seen any bees recently, but I did see a real live hedgehog for the first time in many years, just a couple of nights ago. He was in the front garden of a house near here - at first I took him for an abandoned child's toy, until he scuttled away. Nice to see wildlife thriving in the 'burbs.
(I hope there were no pesticides on the the lawn to bother him.) |
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