Enjoy those Gardens and Flowers....We May Be Running Short on Time

 

We could be heading for a massive die-off, and I'm not talkin' bout the
bees.......I'm talkin' 'bout us.

I know this has been talked to death, but solutions aren't appearing,
whilst excuses are rampant.


Charlie
------------------

http://alternet.org/environment/53491/

Colony Collapse: Do Massive Bee Die-Offs Mean an End to Our Food System
as We Know it?

Excerpt:

"It is real," argued Dewey M. Caron, professor of entomology at the
University of Delaware and one of several authorities investigating the
issue with the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension
Consortium's Colony Collapse Disorder Working Group (MAAREC). "We
surveyed a few states and figured out that half to three-fourths of a
million bee colonies have died. This is no urban legend. It is
serious."

What is so serious is not only that the bees themselves are dying off
without a smoking gun present, but that most people have no idea of the
role they play in the food supply at large. Commercial beehives
pollinate over a third of America's crops, and that web of nourishment
encompasses everything from fruits like peaches, apples, cherries,
strawberries and more, to nuts like California almonds, 90 percent of
which are helped along by the honeybees. Without this annual
pollination, you could conceivably kiss those crops goodbye, to say
nothing of the honey bees produce or the flowers they also fertilize.

But as the world has grown, so has its hunger and crowds, which has
paved the way for the death of wild pollinators as well as the
importation of honeybees from different climates in order to have
massive crop pollination.

In the case of California's aforementioned almonds, the largest managed
pollination event in the world, the growing season occurs in February,
well before local hives have suitably increased their populations to
handle the pollination load. As a result, the region is increasingly
dependent on the importation of hives from warmer climates.

The same goes for apple crops in New York, Washington and Michigan, as
well as blueberries in Maine. Almonds alone require more than one-third
of all the managed honeybees in the United States, so it's entirely
possible that the honeybees may have already been stretched to the
breaking point, as far as environmental and chemical stressors are
concerned. In fact, it's safe to say that the nation's honeybees,
already a tireless lot, are totally exhausted from work.

"The honeybee is so important for pollination of hundreds of
agricultural crops, because humans have made it so," Caron explained.
"We destroyed the natural pollinators, plowed up the area they needed
to live and continued to replace their habitats with strip malls and
housing developments. So, farmers have come to rely on honeybees
because of mushrooming human populations and our own destructive habits
to the natural ecology."

And not just here, either: The disappearance is under way across the
world. Regions of Iran are experiencing the same phenomenon, as are
countries like Poland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland,
Germany and more every day, including Latin American and Asia. The
breadth of the problem suggests that a major environmental balance
could be to blame -- what else is new? -- yet no authority will sign
off on the possibility and the specific causes still remain unknown.

"Other countries are also experiencing serious declines of honeybee
colonies," said Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate at MAAREC
and the department of entomology at Penn State University. "But we are
not certain that the cause behind the losses here in the United States
are the same as those causing [losses] in other parts of the world."

Throw in the fact that this type of thing has been recorded as a
regular occurrence since the 19th century, and you have an apiary
mystery of mammoth proportions.

"Bee colonies die all the time," Caron added. "They die over winter,
lose queens, are destroyed by pests or diseases. But this is different,
as the bees are simply gone and do not develop normally."

"We have had honeybee die-offs in the past which may or may not be
related to the current situation," said Frazer. "However, they seem to
be getting more severe. If the problem of honeybee health isn't
addressed quickly, there could be serious consequences."

 

<Charlie> wrote in message

Okay, I'll bite.  What is the natural pollinator for wheat and corn, our
largest crops that feed both us and our meat producing animals, and make
fuel to boot?  These gone, yep, major problems for us.
Dave

 

wrote:


Grasses (corn) and most grains are self-pollinating, Dave.  That is one
of the fears, that mankind may have to adapt to a diet that is based
more upon grains.  But so much land is being converted to biofuel
production.

The whole biofuel issue is a *bad thing*.  Food is being removed from
diets and pumped into fuel tanks.  People are already going hungry and
being displaced, and killed, over the rush to biofuel prduction.

It is a serious issue that appears we have no answer for at the moment.
It is seriously underfunded, as far as research goes.

Perhaps Gaia has had enough of us.  Endgame.

Care, and love like there is no tomorrow, for perhaps there aren't too
many more

Charlie

 



Between the natural gas for fertilizers and the petroleum for
insecticides and fuel to get it to market, we get about a calorie out
for every OPEC calorie put in. Clever? The oil companies look green for
giving us bio-fuels? Puleeese. It is a freakin' giant rip off and all
our representatives are playing(?) dumb. Just say "bah" and follow the
sheep in front of you.

Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (Sheldon is a jerk)

 

wrote:



You think anyone is listenin' to us, Billy?


When the last living thing

has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

"It is done."

People did not like it here.

         --Kurt Vonnegut