Monday, August 19, 2013

Vanishing Bees

Many Culprits

 
 
In the last analysis, modern civilization--or in other words, human consciousness from which it springs--causes the dire plight of bees.
 
And because one-third of our food supply requires bee pollination, you and I and our fellowmen are setting the stage for our mass starvation--and many other sufferings not directly related to bees but which, nevertheless, stem from causes similar to those plaguing bees.
 
 

New Discoveries  

 
 
Widespread pesticide contamination
 
  • When bees collect pollen almost exclusively from weeds and wild flowers, the pollen can be contaminated with pesticides even though the weeds and wildflowers were not directly sprayed.  Poisons travel!

  • No matter what type of fungicides or pesticides are used, or applied to seeds prior to planting, pollen contaminated by them reduces bees' ability to resist infections from parasites implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Dramatic Consequence of Honeybee Degradation--The U.S. Almond Crop!

 
 
In 2013, many of the 6,000 owners of almond orchards in California could not find enough bees--to import, at any price--to pollinate their almond trees.  Because almonds are California's top agricultural crop and 80% of the world's almonds come from California, the world is beginning to take notice.
 

Major Culprits

 

Here are some major culprits responsible for the demise of honeybees worldwide.    To be sure, there are others:
 
  • Pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides kill insects by attacking their nervous systems, but they get into pollen and nectar and may damage beneficial insects such as bees.
 
  • Monoculture agriculture leads to malnutrition.  Hives placed near fields where only a single crop is raised deprive bees of the wide variety of nectar they thrive on.
 
  • Electromagnetic fields (EMFs).  Radiation generated, for example, by cell phones near hives disorients bees, preventing them from returning to their hives.
 
  • Natural foraging areas destroyed.  When grasslands are massively converted to cropland (corn and soy in the U.S. Midwest), natural foraging areas disappear.
 
  • Genetically modifies (GM) crops.  Studies show that bees feeding on nectar affected by GM crops produce young ones mirroring genetic traits in the GM crop.
 

 

When we recognize that Earth and all its creatures are an organism

--and we are part of it--

we can nurture the return of honey bees!

 
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