bodhi
2007-04-29 08:02:28 UTC
Hey you .......... yeah .......... you ..... the guy on the
cellphone ...... yeah ....... you ....... hey .... can I talk to
you ....... yeah ...... now ........ can you hang up the phone and
talk to me ...... er ........ now ...... I need ...... to tell
you ..... YOU'RE KILLING THE GODDAMN
BEES !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious
'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But
some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause
massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile
phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the
more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the
abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week,
some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the
US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain
as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees'
navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from
finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem,
there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants
suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature
workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never
found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites,
wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left
behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned
hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all
American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of
its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East
Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy
and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-
keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly
abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west
England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops
depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the
bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites,
pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all
have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power
lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to
return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen
Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a
possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and
mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said:
"I am convinced the possibility is real."
The case against handsets
Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But
proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils,
such as cancer, take decades to show up.
Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an
official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more
than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on
the same side as they held the handset.
Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation
from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's
teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.
Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who
use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more
prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a
form of RSI from constant texting.
Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries,
warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a
series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.
-------------
No Bees? Not Just Strange, But Scary
by Dave Lindorff
April 26, 2007
The Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/26/783/
Where are the bees?
As an unwilling and disgruntled suburbanite, I take great pride in my
dandelion crop. Over the decade that I have owned my 2.3-acre lot in
Maple Glen, just north of Philadelphia, I have watched as the
dandelion population in my lawn has grown year on year.
One reason I've enjoyed the display is that I know these bright-yellow-
flowered plants, which bloom early and continue blooming well into
fall, are popular with honeybees. Given all the problems the bees have
been having with insecticides, destruction of natural habitat, and the
like, I'm happy to give them some help.
I remember that when I was a kid growing up in rural Connecticut,
getting stung by a honeybee was almost a weekly occurrence that went
along with going barefoot in the lawn. (My parents liked dandelions,
too.)
Today, though, you could walk all day barefoot around my yard and
never get stung. There's not a honeybee to be seen.
I walked two miles recently around the neighborhood, past plenty of
dandelions, including through a feral field full of them, and didn't
see a single bee. Not one. This is particularly strange because in the
first warm days of spring, the hives are usually out in full force
trying to replenish supplies after a long winter and in anticipation
of a big period of egg-laying and hatching of larvae.
And it's not just dandelions.
Behind my house is a wild cherry tree. A few days ago, it was in full
bloom. Ordinarily, this would be an occasion for a true bee fiesta.
The tree at this time in prior years was virtually a cloud of buzzing
insects, all zipping from flower to flower.
This year, there was not a bee to be seen on the entire tree.
This is beyond strange. It's downright scary.
When you consider that perhaps half the plants in nature depend upon
pollinators like bees to reproduce, you have to wonder what a future
without bees holds - not just for the animals that live on those
plants, but for human beings.
And it's not just honeybees that are missing. Honeybees, after all,
are immigrants from Europe, and the Americas survived quite nicely
without them before their arrival with the colonists. But the native
bees - ground bees and bumblebees, for example - are gone, too. The
only bees I've seen since the spring began are wood bees - large,
clumsy-looking, bumblebee-like creatures that bore neat circular holes
into the wood of the house and lay their eggs in solitary nests. Thank
heavens for them, or there wouldn't be a bee on my property.
But even several hundred wood bees can hardly compensate for the total
absence of other pollinators.
What's happening here?
There are a lot of possible culprits: climate change, ubiquitous
microwave radiation, overuse of herbicides and pesticides, stress, and
lowered immunity to fungal, viral, bacterial and mite infections, or
perhaps a combination of all of the above.
My feeling, though, is one of dark foreboding.
When something as basic as bees vanishes from the scene as quickly as
this, you know we're in Big Trouble.
---------------------------
namaste;
bodhi
http://psychedelictourist.blogspot.com
cellphone ...... yeah ....... you ....... hey .... can I talk to
you ....... yeah ...... now ........ can you hang up the phone and
talk to me ...... er ........ now ...... I need ...... to tell
you ..... YOU'RE KILLING THE GODDAMN
BEES !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious
'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But
some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause
massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile
phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the
more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the
abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week,
some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the
US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain
as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees'
navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from
finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem,
there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants
suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature
workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never
found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites,
wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left
behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned
hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all
American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of
its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East
Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy
and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-
keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly
abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west
England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops
depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the
bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites,
pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all
have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power
lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to
return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen
Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a
possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and
mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said:
"I am convinced the possibility is real."
The case against handsets
Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But
proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils,
such as cancer, take decades to show up.
Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an
official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more
than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on
the same side as they held the handset.
Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation
from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's
teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.
Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who
use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more
prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a
form of RSI from constant texting.
Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries,
warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a
series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.
-------------
No Bees? Not Just Strange, But Scary
by Dave Lindorff
April 26, 2007
The Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/26/783/
Where are the bees?
As an unwilling and disgruntled suburbanite, I take great pride in my
dandelion crop. Over the decade that I have owned my 2.3-acre lot in
Maple Glen, just north of Philadelphia, I have watched as the
dandelion population in my lawn has grown year on year.
One reason I've enjoyed the display is that I know these bright-yellow-
flowered plants, which bloom early and continue blooming well into
fall, are popular with honeybees. Given all the problems the bees have
been having with insecticides, destruction of natural habitat, and the
like, I'm happy to give them some help.
I remember that when I was a kid growing up in rural Connecticut,
getting stung by a honeybee was almost a weekly occurrence that went
along with going barefoot in the lawn. (My parents liked dandelions,
too.)
Today, though, you could walk all day barefoot around my yard and
never get stung. There's not a honeybee to be seen.
I walked two miles recently around the neighborhood, past plenty of
dandelions, including through a feral field full of them, and didn't
see a single bee. Not one. This is particularly strange because in the
first warm days of spring, the hives are usually out in full force
trying to replenish supplies after a long winter and in anticipation
of a big period of egg-laying and hatching of larvae.
And it's not just dandelions.
Behind my house is a wild cherry tree. A few days ago, it was in full
bloom. Ordinarily, this would be an occasion for a true bee fiesta.
The tree at this time in prior years was virtually a cloud of buzzing
insects, all zipping from flower to flower.
This year, there was not a bee to be seen on the entire tree.
This is beyond strange. It's downright scary.
When you consider that perhaps half the plants in nature depend upon
pollinators like bees to reproduce, you have to wonder what a future
without bees holds - not just for the animals that live on those
plants, but for human beings.
And it's not just honeybees that are missing. Honeybees, after all,
are immigrants from Europe, and the Americas survived quite nicely
without them before their arrival with the colonists. But the native
bees - ground bees and bumblebees, for example - are gone, too. The
only bees I've seen since the spring began are wood bees - large,
clumsy-looking, bumblebee-like creatures that bore neat circular holes
into the wood of the house and lay their eggs in solitary nests. Thank
heavens for them, or there wouldn't be a bee on my property.
But even several hundred wood bees can hardly compensate for the total
absence of other pollinators.
What's happening here?
There are a lot of possible culprits: climate change, ubiquitous
microwave radiation, overuse of herbicides and pesticides, stress, and
lowered immunity to fungal, viral, bacterial and mite infections, or
perhaps a combination of all of the above.
My feeling, though, is one of dark foreboding.
When something as basic as bees vanishes from the scene as quickly as
this, you know we're in Big Trouble.
---------------------------
namaste;
bodhi
http://psychedelictourist.blogspot.com