Bees vanish as GOP slashes science budget

The ignorance that is the Right wing in America deny climate change as well as science.  No doubt they deny the threat that faces us today as they take the red pen to the budgets of scientific research organizations including those that are studying the collapse of the bee colonies worldwide.  I recommend you contact your representative and let him or her know that you are opposed to such insanity.

Here is some background:

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Colony collapse is significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.

European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree while the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.

The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood. In 2007 some authorities attributed the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases (i.e., pathogens including Nosema apis and Israel acute paralysis virus). Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition, pesticides (e.g.. neonicotinoids such as clothianidin and imidacloprid), and migratory beekeeping. More speculative possibilities have included both cell phone radiation and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics, though no evidence exists for either assertion.

The following interview and story is reprinted from the Mother Nature Network:

Inception star chats with Bill Maher about colony collapse disorder and how industrialized farming is harming bee populations.

For those who believe no good role models exist in young Hollywood, look no further than Ellen Page.

The 24-year-old, who recently starred in the hit movie “Inception,” appeared on Bill Maher’s show last week — with the comedian and political commenter calling her the “anti-Kardashian.”

Page went on “Real Time” to discuss colony collapse disorder, a topic she became passionate about thanks to her narration of the 2009 documentary “The Vanishing of the Bees.”

“People need to understand that one-third of the food that we eat is pollinated by bees,” she said, adding that more than $16 billion worth of annual crops in America depend on the insects.

Page also mentioned the month she spent at an eco-village outside of Eugene, Ore., studying permaculture. In a 2009 interview, she said:

“You’re learning how to live in a holistic way with the cycles of the Earth. At one point I was digging goat [manure] and putting it into a wheelbarrow, and while shoveling it, I just went, ‘Oh, my God, this is exactly what I want to be doing right now.’”

Check out Ellen on Bill Maher — and a trailer for “The Vanishing of the Bees” — below:

You can read about the corporate war on bees, yet another threat, HERE

Related articles

• Proposed Beekeepers Tax Stirs Up Swarm (abcnews.go.com)
• Honeybees ‘entomb’ hives to protect against pesticides, say scientists (guardian.co.uk)
• Study reveals how bees reject ‘toxic’ pesticides (independent.co.uk)

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