Forget what you thought you knew about the birds and the bee's

Birds falling out of the sky, now the bee populations dying off?

a quotation by Albert Einstein:

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left."

Approximately one third of the food crops need insect pollination, of which honeybee's are considered to be the most reliable source. Right now across the U.S. bee populations are being lost at an alarming 80%. Twenty-two states are reporting unusual population deaths. A mysterious illness is killing off the bees.

mystery ailment

• Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive‘s honey. That‘s not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology professor investigating the problem.

Cox-Foster said an analysis of dissected bees turned up an alarmingly high number of foreign fungi, bacteria and other organisms and weakened immune systems.

The following link is a presentation showing images of the bees with evidence of viral loads, kidney damage.. Why the sudden outbreak?

Chemical contamination
􀁺 Beekeepers reported multitude of chemicals used
for varroa control
􀁺 Use of newly available pesticides on crop and
ornamental plants
– neonicotinioids

Bee population
could this be a connection to genetically modified crops?

What do the beekeeper's have to say?

Why something so small matters so much

PSU probes the mystery

Killer for bees

This was reported yesterday in a major Swiss newspaper as well. Affected are not only the USA but there is also data about Spain, Poland and parts of Switzerland.
I'll provide further links as soon as I'm home from work. This is rather unsettling...

Edit: Ups, I just saw that this is covered Here as well.

Edit #2: Oh well, better go here
[edit on 15-3-2007 by Swordbeast]

[edit on 15-3-2007 by Swordbeast]

all fruits veg crops everything food that is in america is artificial not real or oraganic

the u.s. government also chops down (organic unmodified)fruit trees that are real wild that grow outside untouched.
this is bad for human health.

in some countries there are everything real.Just like it also tastes a lot much much better.

Just try to grow a cherry treee outside till the government closes it down also if you planted a homegrown cherry tree or fruit anything it would taste a lot better than the ones from the american fruit store.everything in some countries do taste very different and are real organic a lot healthier etc than articial ones in america,

Did you even read the articles posted? There are quite a few hypotheses but it seems to be pointing toward some kind of auto immune disorder. Maybe AIDS has jumped the species barrier to insects. All is speculation until more research is completed.

BTW- I've never had the US Government "Shut Down" my apple and cherry trees.

Originally posted by exotic4499
all fruits veg crops everything food that is in america is artificial not real or oraganic

Where do you come up with this stuff? That was just classic man, I tell you.

[edit on 3/15/2007 by ShAuNmAn-X]

This is not good news at all.


Bee Deaths

They're saying politicians are even taking notice. That's good because something drastic needs to be done to reverse the trend. I believe it has to do with the new types of pesticides farmers are using. However, scientists haven't pinned down the exact cause yet.

Hopefully it doesn't get much worse.

TJ11240