Bees now disappearing worldwide, UN report warns.

[Gamera]

News from March, but rather worrying:

March 21, 2011 - For several decades, colony collapse disorder (CCD) — a mysterious condition where entire bee colonies die for seemingly no obvious reason — has been inflicting bee populations across both Europe and the US. But scientists from the United Nations (UN) say the phenomenon is now a global crisis, afflicting bees across China, Japan, and Africa, as well as in other places.

The report, issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), explains what many NaturalNews readers already know — mainly that without bees, there will be no more food. Bees are one of nature’s primary pollinators, and over 70 percent of the world’s food supply relies on them to grow.

“Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director. “Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to seven billion people.” One such mode of “technological prowess” is the flagrant and irresponsible use of genetically-modified organisms (GMO). GMO technology is heavily reliant on the use of toxic pesticides and herbicides, which several recent studies have pinned to the widespread bee deaths.

In January, a leaked document revealed that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actually knowingly approved a bee-killing pesticides known as clothianidin. This Bayer CropScience chemical has been identified as a primary instigator of CCD, and yet it has remained freely available on the market since 1993 when the EPA first approved it.

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpre...ing-worldwide/





Another one:

It’s Official – Cell Phones are Killing Bees

Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones may be to blame. Research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that the signal from cell phones not only confuses bees, but also may lead to their death. Over 83 experiments have yielded the same results. With virtually most of the population of the United States (and the rest of the world) owning cell phones, the impact has been greatly noticeable.

Led by researcher Daniel Favre, the alarming study found that bees reacted significantly to cell phones that were placed near or in hives in call-making mode. The bees sensed the signals transmitted when the phones rang, and emitted heavy buzzing noise during the calls. The calls act as an instinctive warning to leave the hive, but the frequency confuses the bees, causing them to fly erratically. The study found that the bees’ buzzing noise increases ten times when a cell phone is ringing or making a call – aka when signals are being transmitted, but remained normal when not in use.

The signals cause the bees to become lost and disoriented. The impact has already been felt the world over, as the population of bees in the U.S. and the U.K. has decreased by almost half in the last thirty years – which coincides with the popularization and acceptance of cell phones as a personal device. Studies as far back as 2008 have found that bees are repelled by cell phone signals.

Bees are an integral and necessary part of our agricultural and ecological systems, producing honey, and more importantly pollinating our crops. As it is unlikely that the world will learn to forgo the convenience of cell phones, it is unclear how much they will contribute to the decline of bees, and their impact on the environment.

http://inhabitat.com/its-official-ce...-killing-bees/

[Beorn]

Cities could be the key to saving pollinating insects

"Some people do think we're a little odd," says Professor Jane Memmott, as she rummages around in someone's front garden, hunting for plants and insects.
"But once we explain what we're doing - and we do ask for permission to do this - people are generally very interested."
Professor Memmott and her team, from the University of Bristol, are in a typical residential street just outside of the centre of Bristol.

They are gathering data for a Britain-wide survey, which will provide a snapshot of the number of insect pollinators - bees, butterflies, beetles and flies - that can be found in an urban area like this.
To do this, they are sweeping along a transect - a 1km-long straight line - across the city, and stopping every 10m to count and identify the number of flowers and pollinators they find.

<snip>and so on....

<snip>Tim Lovett, from the British Beekeepers Association, says: "We have concerns about the decline in insect pollinators.
"And if you track it, over the last 30 or 40 years, the number of bee keepers has declined, the number of hives has declined - and there must be a tipping point when you don't have enough pollinators to carry out the job that they do."

As with all industries, they decline.</snip></snip>

[BeerBaron]

We were studying this back in 07 when i was at university. The University i went to had a whole department dedicated to just this topic.

[Sikeliot]

Despite my fear of bees, the idea of life without them after having read this article is not a pleasant one.

[Groenewolf]

As with all industries, they decline.</snip></snip>

Not to mention that many bee keepers, at least in my country, do it as a hobby. And they are not that young.

[Mercury]

I would love to be a beekeeper one day. It looks like a great hobby, and I know bees pay an important role in the environment. Plus I can make some extra $$ from selling the honey.

[Aces High]

There is a vast region in China where they grow pears and apples and crowds of people now have to polinate the trees by hand as the bee's are all gone.