Archive for Earth Sciences Forum This site is dedicated to the Earth Sciences. We are here for you to discuss issues regarding any aspect of the Earth sciences, at all levels of knowledge. Questions are welcomed, as are open scientific debates. Enjoy!!!
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scpg02
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Coming Next Week: Colony Collapse Disorder BreakthroughComing Next Week: Colony Collapse Disorder Breakthrough
The Beekeeper / Kim Flottum
| Quote: | The first break in the CCD mystery is about to be released.
Researchers at Penn State, the USDA and Columbia University have had a research paper accepted by Science magazine that outlines the first published information on a possible cause of Colony Collapse Disorder … commonly known as CCD. But Science and for the most part the researchers are being tight-lipped about what’s in that paper. The secrecy surrounding this research has been extraordinary and some of the activities of the researchers has left us scratching our heads.
One of the scientists let on a few weeks ago in a small farming magazine that what they had found was a virus, or viruses … supposedly previously unknown in honey bees, or at least in U.S. honey bees. Moreover, it was hinted that there were at least two points of entry into the U.S. for these bee-killing agents. Or maybe they aren’t bee-killers, but simply a way that other bee-killers can gain a foothold and make life miserable for bees, and their keepers. Early reports did indicate that bees from alleged CCD infested hives were full of fungus, bacteria and all manner of other pathogens. |
Kim Flottum is the editor of BeeCulture magazine.
LInk
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Matt
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This one has had me scratching my head for a while. I'll be sure to read the article once it is published.
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NileQueen
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Bees have had a tough time of it. Varroa mites, and tracheal mites.
Now this affliction. Maybe it is pesticide related or due to genetic engineering of crops....
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Baywax
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| Quote: | Scientists eye link between virus, honey bee collapse
Last Updated: Thursday, September 6, 2007 | 2:50 PM ET
CBC News
A honeybee virus new to North America may be linked to a mysterious illness that has struck almost a quarter of the hives in the United States this year, scientists said Thursday.
Writing in an upcoming article in the online edition of the journal Science, a group of U.S. researchers suggest a virus called Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) may be connected to Colony Collapse Disorder, a phenomenon that has struck tens of thousands of honeybees this year. |
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/stor...6/science-bees-virus.html?ref=rss
Yeah, it could be this virus... it could be about a billion things... here's more suggestions...
| Quote: | Pesticide-Maker Gets Early Look At Bee Disease Report
Unnamed Source: Pesticides Found In Hives May Contribute To Colony Collapse Disorder
Maryam Henein
Penn State University (PSU) recently issued a preliminary report to two outlets: the Environmental Protection Agency (which some beekeepers refer to as the Environmental Polluting Agency) and Bayer Chemical Company.
“Doesn’t that sound strange to you,” asked one of the big beekeepers from the east coast who lost about 2,500 hives due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) this year. (Incidentally, he recently returned from meeting with Hillary Clinton, who, it seems, talks about the bees nearly everyday.)
Back to Bayer. The German pharmaceutical and chemical company makes way more than chewable aspirin for children. Expect Wonders! (their slogan) They have a crop science division that manufactures and sells pesticides. Their most popular product is Imidacloprid (Emad—Ah-Cloprid). They market it under lots of fun names such as Poncho, Admire, Calypso and Gaucho. These substances belong in a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids (neeoh-nic-it-ehnoids), “systemic” pesticides which when applied to seeds, are absorbed into and through the entire plant. So when an insect, like say a honey bee, feeds on let’s say it’s pollen or nectar it can get a dose of a neurotoxin that can effect the bees nervous and immune system. This then can disorient the honey bee. Disoriented, they buzz around in a chemical fog and cannot make it back home. If a bee is away from the hive for about a day it will eventually die. |
http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007...-look-at-bee-disease-report/4540/
So now the pesticide, (specifically designed for GMO crops) that lowers an insects immune response could be rendering the bee population suseptable to viruses that they had already become immune to before the introduction of neonicotinoids.
This agent was thought to disturb the life of bees in europe and was subsequently banned.
| Quote: | Some years back, France and other European countries had a similar, if less severe die-off of honey bees. At the time Gaucho, a poisonous seed treatment chemical produced by Bayer, was blamed, the die-off has continued in Europe, although at a comparatively slower pace.
The situation in the US seems even more severe than what happened in Europe, and certainly the onset is more sudden. According to The Independent, millions of honey bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die, leaving beekeepers facing ruin and US agriculture under threat. |
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/s...ctromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm
And there are many who believe that the Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN), ELF emmissions and Microwave technology are to blame for the disorientation of the Bee colonies and thus... "BCC".
| Quote: | According to a message from Paul Doyon, electromagnetic waves may well have the capacity of disorienting not only bees but a number of flying creatures. Here is a specific instance involving bees he quotes:
At Cornell Univ. honeybees in a hive relocated into a new building became disoriented. After extensive research ruled out other causes, someone noticed the hive was next to the building's electric transformer. The bees were confused by 60 hz magnetism strong enough to interfere with homing and communication to gather nectar and pollen. (http://www.ratical.org/ratville/RofD4.html)
In Germany, a study of honeybees irradiated with DECT mobile phone base station radiation found that only few of the irradiated bees returned to the hive, and that they required more time to return than the non irradiated bees. Also, the weight of the honeycombs of the irradiated bees was found to be smaller than those in the hives of non irradiated bees. (Stever H, Kuhn J, Otten C, Wunder B, Harst W. Verhaltensaenderung unter elektromagnetischer Exposition. Pilotstudie. Institut fuer Mathematik. Arbeitsgruppe Bildungsinformatik. Universitaet Koblenz-Landau; 2005. http://agbi.uni-landau.de/materialien.htm)
See also
www.mikrowellensmog.info/bienen.html Bees die from microwave irradiation - German site of Dr. Ferdinand Ruzicka, University professor.
and
http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/ouruhia/ Ouruhia Web, a New Zealand electromagnetic waves website.
and
Firstenberg, A. 1997: Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution. Cellular Phone Taskforce. Brooklyn, NY 11210.
See also Alfonso Balmori on EMFacts. |
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/s...ctromagnetic_signals_to_blame.htm
Now, you have to ask yourself, who would have the resources to shift the blame away from their industry so that the cause of this collapse was place squarely on someone other than the actual perpetrator? (Like some anonymous viruses?) Its a tough study because each of the players in these scenarios, the Defence Department, Pharmaeceutical Companies and Cell phone companies, is pretty highly and well placed with regard to financing and influence. And the bees... well, lets just say we can't do without them... but no one seems to understand that.
PS. Actually you may know that Monsanto has developed a GMO that pollinates itself... something they could really sell a lot of if all the bees died off. Is there no end to this idiocy in the name of cash and control?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-05/ps-gbt051704.php
The weirdest part of this story is that no one has found or produced thousands of dead bees. They've simply dissappeared. One theory is that the bees are avoiding a specific frequency that is being emitted by cell phone towers. There is talk about this being deliberate in the hopes of creating a demand for self-pollinating crops. (There are some plants that naturally self pollinate like soy... but, for the most part, the smart plants have evolved against this action in favour of gene diversity.
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