Users who Dugg This
Fat Tony D'Amico
768 Followers
Fat Tony D'Amico
768 Followers
DeadManDigging
689 Followers
DeadManDigging
689 Followers
alphalionAug 9, 2010
“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men”
mrcacaAug 9, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
gerrykAug 9, 2010
You don't really understand the concept of 'ecosystem', do you?
hetmanAug 9, 2010
He is right though. We would still survive in small pockets even if we had to use greenhouses and change our diets to adapt.
s73v3rAug 9, 2010
Mankind may still be around, but we'd be closer to our cave dwelling ancestors than what we are today.
mrcacaAug 9, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
rudegarAug 9, 2010
hope it's not right after an election then :P
blankmanAug 9, 2010
I'm pretty sure man can figure out how to pollinate flowers by himself. Food cost would just go up.
s73v3rAug 9, 2010
But to be able to do so on such a large scale as is needed? Even if we could do that, billions of people would still starve, and only the obscenely wealthy would be able to afford food.
blankmanAug 9, 2010
I'm also sure people would plant their own gardens. I also don't think bees have anything to do with plants such as tomatoes, and potato plants, and any other of a host of edible stuff.
Many plants don't rely on pollination to thrive and grow and spread. The wind does a lot of it too.
Certain species of plats may die out, but I really don't think the entire food chain would collapse because of no honey bees. How the hell did species eat before honey bees evolved?
wertachAug 9, 2010
Honey bees are not the only pollinators. Buried for Bulls**t.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees
s0nicfreakAug 9, 2010
Not to mention all the artificial "food" we eat nowadays.
s73v3rAug 10, 2010
@blankman: You'd be able to grow some of those crops, but how long would the seeds last, especially if they're not being pollinated.
cloudberriesAug 9, 2010
Sensationalist statement is sensational. Isn't the one the media trots out every now and again and attributes to Albert Einstein for some unfathomable reason?
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
You're so naive. People are such also. Why can't we understand this? Yes, we use a lot of technology and science in agriculture today but don't let that blind you from the facts. Bees play a HUGE part in the ecosystem. They are in virtually every part of the world and without them MOST people on this planet not privileged with certain back up plans (most of the world) would surely starve to death.
lalongecarabineAug 9, 2010
Hyperbole much?
You can pollinate fruits and vegetables with a small artist paint brush, I've done it.
Bees are important and it would really cause us a lot of grief for sure.
The problem of the Bee decline is multi-fold not just pesticides but parasites and I've read a fungus is also responsible. 30 years ago when my dad kept bees we lost most of our hives over one winter, never knew why. We lived in oat/alfalfa country and I don't think pesticides were used for several miles.
shmike9Aug 9, 2010
Whatever happened to the swarms of Africanized bees that we're supposed to invade the world?
captininsanityAug 9, 2010
They hate the cold a little more than expected.
jman5Aug 9, 2010
Yeah, they are still around and a bit problem in the southern states and countries.
skintighAug 9, 2010
They are hyper aggressive and focus on molting and spreading, not storing for long winters, so they die out in sates with cold winters. And they are genetically compatible with domesticated European bees, so interbreeding makes them more docile. So as long as beekeepers keep importing domesticated bees (which some southern states tried banning in some irrational-fear-based policies) they should be kept at bay.
zenmojoAug 9, 2010
Africanized bees are already mated with domesticated European bees. That's why they're called "Africanized."
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
lol irrational fear based policies. Thats just the republican way...
harrypowersAug 9, 2010
At the end, it turns out the the Africanized bees are Jodie Foster's Father.
narfboy93Aug 9, 2010
Really? Pesticides are killing the flying bugs called bees?!? I thought pesticides hurt all but bees.
iatethecrayonAug 9, 2010
NO NOT THE BEES!!
samoan27Aug 9, 2010
I've never seen that movie, but I watched the original Wicker Man last night (which has a lot more t**s and a lot fewer bees), and I highly recommend it to everyone (for the plot, the t**s were just a bonus).
infestusAug 9, 2010
I think a larger part of the decrease in bee populations are due to that virus.
samoan27Aug 9, 2010
Pesticides killed the bees! Well it's always who you least suspect.
redhawktechAug 9, 2010
They aren't dying out. They are just returning to Melissa Majoria.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
Is that one of the Labias?
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
vagina.
captininsanityAug 9, 2010
Nature isn't helping too much either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor
I've seen a lot of damage to colonies in my area from parasites as well. We need to stop the pesticides, and try to find a solution to the mites. If that fails we're just going to have to trust evolution does it job before it causes any mass extinctions.
skintighAug 9, 2010
That is a known mite and there are ways to check for it and combat it, at least in apiaries. CCD is an unknown problem that can wipe out 3/4 of the hive in an apiary in one season.
dtfinchAug 9, 2010
Luckily we have pesticides that kill the mites.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
MMMMmmmm... non-treated crops.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
Well, since global warming, and the hurricane scare, and the BP oil spill have all petered out, the media needs a new hysteria.
So, humans have only 4 yrs after the bees are gone? That should do nicely - for 4 yrs anyway.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
spinningheadAug 9, 2010
Its not hysteria. Its simply a warning that we need to be more responsible about our activities. Is that a bad thing? We have already seen that when people hear moderate warnings about global warming, they tend not to give a s**t.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
The reason is that people are told every day over and over about the latest scare. It gets old after decades and decades. Remember the population bomb? Global cooling? Hetrosexual Aids? Aloe in Apples? Remember the homeless that the media stopped talking about as soon as Clinton got in office. Remember the flu scare last year? It goes on and on.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
spinningheadAug 9, 2010
Well, population, AIDS, and global warming are huge problems. There have also been numerous recent studies showing that there were hardly any peer-reviewed articles in the 70s promoting global cooling. That's a myth from the right to turn our attention away from industrial pollution. Yes, the media thrives on hype. That does not mean the issues do not exist.
jman5Aug 9, 2010
This isn't a "new scare". The problem has been known for years and is well documented beyond dispute.
oninboninAug 9, 2010
It will just go away, don't worry about it.
bintoAug 9, 2010
Why doesn't anyone care about the bees!?
iatethecrayonAug 9, 2010
THEY'RE IN MY EYES!!
xiiiganonAug 9, 2010
Will someone please think of the children....and the bees!
protodonAug 9, 2010
I work at an huge chemical company and I also keep bees. A lot of the employees here use pesticides on their own vegetable gardens, like anyone else might use water. A beekeeper would never do such a thing. I think the problem is people have lost all touch with the world that sustains them. The irony is these people cover they're tomato plants with these pesticides then bring them to work for other people, meanwhile they're buying them organic at the supermarket. wtf.
skintighAug 9, 2010
CCD spread like a disease from continent to continent, reaching Australia and Hawaii last, and then hopping from island to island in Hawaii like a disease.
I'm not saying it can't be pesticides, but how do they explain that? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
McScoliosisAug 9, 2010
we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
Terrible headline is terrible - it should say something like "green groups call for ban on pesticides after SCIENTISTS link them to bee decline." Attributing the research to the green groups, with all the implied bias and lack of objectivity, is pretty under-handed.
jimbolauskiAug 9, 2010
Like the Scientist that faked GW data.
xiiiganonAug 9, 2010
I thought the bees were leaving because they knew the earth was going to be stolen by Davros and sent to the Medusa Cascade.
wordsncollisionAug 9, 2010
"So long, and thanks for all the pollen!"
asianwasteAug 9, 2010
Really? I thought a few years ago, everyone was convinced it was the increasing use of cell phones.
Who would have thought it was something as far out as pesticides??
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
Who was convinced of this, exactly? I've never heard that bats**t insane theory in my life.
crapolatimeAug 9, 2010
And for those city officials that are looking to impose bans.......
Pesticide kills bugs(pests). Please ban it, as people are stupid in it's use.
Herbicide kills plant life(herbs). I'm too lazy to weed.
So don't get the two confused. Like many morons have done before you. They have banned both and done their literature that both are actually pesticides.
But I haven't drank any RoundUp from the bottle to test how bad it is in initial liquid form on the plant
.
drivebayAug 9, 2010
So they've discovered that chemicals designed to kill insects... kill insects?
sangjmoonAug 9, 2010
Actually, bees will continue to exist. Just the ones beneficial for humans will suffer, and they suffer because they are not able to adapt. We humans tend to have tunnel vision when we consider other species and only really care about those we have adapted for our own use. Often it is our manipulation of those species over the long term which have made them less able to handle abnormal conditions than their wilder cousins.
breakawayAug 9, 2010
This makes me want to watch The Happening again.
grungemusic3001Aug 9, 2010
Meaning you're about two seconds from jumping through a window? 'cause that's the mental state 'I'd have to be in to watch that movie again.
Beep111Aug 9, 2010
It's not just one factor, it's a combination. It's repeated environmental destruction, environmental poisoning, electromagnetic interference and misuse of industrial pesticides. It's not like one day we woke up and all the bees were gone....we've been slowly killing them for the last 50 years and they just finally collapsed. I'm surprised they lasted this long, given how much DDT we put into their environment....
wassamattaAug 9, 2010
Who dugg this person down? What are you? A digg patriot Monsanto Lover? (not beep... to the persons digging him down).
Beep111Aug 9, 2010
There's a hit squad on my today all of my stuff, no matter how innocent is being dugg down. I think I got put on the "always down" list or something.
grungemusic3001Aug 9, 2010
DDT hasn't been legally used in the US since the 1970s. My guess is that bee populations have actually expanded with the growth of industrialized farming (the farmers rent beehives by the pallet). I've never seen any solid evidence that electromagnetic interference has caused harm to any animal.
I will give you habitat destruction and misuse of pesticides, but if you can find links to back up any of the above I would like to see them.
Beep111Aug 9, 2010
1) DDT is a POP (persistant organic pollutant). DDT is still found in our ecosystems today, even though spraying ceased years ago. POPs can stay in the environment for a very long time, even a century. This is a fact.
2) It is a fact that electromagnetic radiation from cell phones and cell phone towers kill off living cells. Bees are living, and thus it is POSSIBLE that this might be the case.
3) I'm not going to search around the internet looking for academic sources to prove my point. It's a fact. It's very obvious and very clear that environmental pollution and destruction negatively impacts species in the area of the event. If you don't know this, I don't know what to tell you....
grungemusic3001Aug 9, 2010
#1. I cede to you on this. I'm a chemical engineer and should have checked it first.
#2. It is not a fact that cell phones frequencies kill living cells.
#3. The hype is not about native or wild bees, it is about non-native European honeybees. Farmers rent millions of these hives each year to pollinate the vast industrial farms that are the norm these days. These are the hives associated with colony collapse disorder. None of these bees would exist without beekeepers.
For the record I haven't dugg you down in either of your comments.
Also for the record I keep bees as a hobby.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
I have a quote to back it up,
"Hey Farmer farmer put away your DDT; I don't mind spots on my apples but save me the birds and the bees"
-source Counting Crows.
wassamattaAug 9, 2010
Prediction: High fructose corn syrup imitation honey in 3 years (like the FAKE ASS MAPLE SYRUP today)
Closed AccountAug 9, 2010
dugg for fake ass maple syrup
/Canadian
dtfinchAug 9, 2010
Honey-flavored caramel-colored corn syrup is actually pretty tasty. KFC uses it.
inactiveuserAug 13, 2010
That stuff constipates you...
jman5Aug 9, 2010
This is why Bees are vitally important to our society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees
gumphlumphAug 9, 2010
"there's no enough evidence..." just like there's not enough evidence of global warning. However, there does appear to be enough evidence to prove that humans are dense. Or is it just greed?
akutacoAug 9, 2010
My favorite quote: "We have already been considering this and pesticide companies will soon need to provide this data under new EU rules."
As if these companies would say anything other than, "Of course there's no risk!"
dtfinchAug 9, 2010
You'd think knowledge that a pesticide kills bees would be enough for a farmer to stop using it, to avoid sabotaging their own crops.
socialstacyAug 9, 2010
Poor little bees!
phen0mAug 9, 2010
It's disheartening to realize that the major US Agriculture Industry players will probably prevent any bans for like 5 years so they can keep their profits high by using low cost pesticides until the evidence is 'concrete'.
mcwhitebreadAug 10, 2010
In a widely publicized study by Stanford and Benet, a lot of really stupid people went to Wal-Mart, indiscriminately bought powerful pesticides and shat them all over the place.
What did you think would happen?
(from a licensed pesticide applicator. . .)
dorabadgerOct 6, 2010
Great article...the EPA has a nice breakdown on their website: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/honeybee.htm.
In the 10 years I've lived here, this was the first summer I've spotted honeybees at several separate spots in Detroit. Last week, I discovered a tiny (3-hive) apiary on a side street, in the yard of an abandoned house.