It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
Alarming. That article would be more credible if it talked more about the science of how microwaves throw off bee navigation, and didn't conclude with a laundry list of every other scary thing about cell phones. Also what does Albert Einstein know about entomology?
the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
Weren't cellphones popular throughout europe and much of the world years before they were here in the US?
and was it popular in europe where their bees are?
good question.
"Hunter believes that CCD may have something to do with the stress put on migratory bee populations. They're constantly relocated and it makes some sense that they'd have a hard time continually finding their way back to their hive and queen.
Hegeman said he thinks a pesticide aimed at bee predators such as mites might play a role in the problem.
It's a nicotine-based pesticide that is primarily used in the areas where the most migrant pollinators are used -- which incidentally is where the greatest losses are being seen," he said. "It seems to make the bees disoriented and would account for them not finding their way back to the hives.
The us bees in the news aren't indigenous.
The stress on honeybees grew as native and wild pollinators diminished and farmers came to rely more on honeybees. We've put "all of our pollination eggs in the honeybee basket," says Mace Vaughan, conservation director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Ore. "We need more baskets."
India's buzz on alien bees.
chemtrails
Bee mystery solved? And if this is right, the cure is cheap and easy.
weve got carpenter bees on the back roof ledge.
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- bill 4-15-2007 8:49 pm
Alarming. That article would be more credible if it talked more about the science of how microwaves throw off bee navigation, and didn't conclude with a laundry list of every other scary thing about cell phones. Also what does Albert Einstein know about entomology?
- tom moody 4-15-2007 9:14 pm [add a comment]
the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
Weren't cellphones popular throughout europe and much of the world years before they were here in the US?
- steve 4-16-2007 1:33 pm [add a comment]
and was it popular in europe where their bees are?
- bill 4-16-2007 3:00 pm [add a comment]
good question.
"Hunter believes that CCD may have something to do with the stress put on migratory bee populations. They're constantly relocated and it makes some sense that they'd have a hard time continually finding their way back to their hive and queen.
Hegeman said he thinks a pesticide aimed at bee predators such as mites might play a role in the problem.
It's a nicotine-based pesticide that is primarily used in the areas where the most migrant pollinators are used -- which incidentally is where the greatest losses are being seen," he said. "It seems to make the bees disoriented and would account for them not finding their way back to the hives.
The us bees in the news aren't indigenous.
The stress on honeybees grew as native and wild pollinators diminished and farmers came to rely more on honeybees. We've put "all of our pollination eggs in the honeybee basket," says Mace Vaughan, conservation director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Ore. "We need more baskets."
India's buzz on alien bees.
- steve 4-16-2007 7:08 pm [add a comment]
chemtrails
- steve 4-17-2007 9:11 am [add a comment]
Bee mystery solved? And if this is right, the cure is cheap and easy.
- jim 7-20-2007 7:22 pm [add a comment]
weve got carpenter bees on the back roof ledge.
- bill 7-20-2007 7:24 pm [add a comment]