Thank you I read this at Reuters website a while back, so today searched again to get the proper citation... and also in Scientific american...
very important you know to cite the original source, it is : I quote.... Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved! By Richard Schiffman April 9, 2012 at URL: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/04/09/mystery-of-the-disappearing-bees-solved/ end quote... please let us follow this way of quoting... if we are not making the news ourselves Usha di === On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 10:53 AM, Kiran Srivastava <srivastava...@gmail.com>wrote: > Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved! > By Richard Schiffman > April 9, 2012 > > If it were a novel, people would criticize the plot for being too > far-fetched – thriving colonies disappear overnight without leaving a > trace, the bodies of the victims are never found. Only in this case, it’s > not fiction: It’s what’s happening to fully a third of commercial beehives, > over a million colonies every year. Seemingly healthy communities fly off > never to return. The queen bee and mother of the hive is abandoned to > starve and die. > > <http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/files/2012/04/RTR3000M_Comp.jpg>Thousands > of scientific sleuths have been on this case for the last 15 years trying > to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in such alarming numbers. > “This > is the biggest general threat to our food > supply,”<http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/10/are-bees-the-ne.html>according > to Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. > Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program. > > Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the > mysterious “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of > beekeeping worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a > culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known > as > neonicotinoids<http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/03/bayer-pesticide-bees-studies> > . > > In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German > chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 > million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common > ingredient in home gardening products. > > Research published last > month<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/recent>in the prestigious > journal > *Science* shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system > and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. > They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to > damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their > mysterious failure to make it back to the hive. > > Another study <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22292570> published in > the American Chemical Society’s *Environmental Science and Technology*journal > implicated neonic-containing dust released into the air at planting > time with “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed > by beekeepers.” > > Purdue University entomologists observed bees at infected hives exhibiting > tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of acute > insecticide poisoning. And yet another > study<http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0405-hance_colonycollapse_pesticides.html>conducted > by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health actually > re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by > administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid. > > But scientists believe that exposure to toxic pesticides is only one > factor that has led to the decline of honey bees in recent years. The > destruction and fragmentation of bee habitats, as a result of land > development and the spread of monoculture agriculture, deprives pollinators > of their diverse natural food supply. This has already led to the > extinction of a number of wild bee species. The planting of genetically > modified organism (GMO) crops – some of which now contain toxic > insecticides within their genetic structure – may also be responsible for > poisoning > bees and weakening their immune > systems<http://non-gmoreport.com/articles/apr07/gm_crops_killing_bees.php> > . > > Every spring millions of bee colonies are trucked to the Central Valley of > California and other agricultural areas to replace the wild pollinators, > which have all but disappeared in many parts of the country. These bees are > routinely fed high-fructose corn syrup instead of their own nutritious > honey. And in an effort to boost productivity, the queens are now > artificially inseminated, which has led to a disturbing decline in bee > genetic diversity. Bees are also dusted with chemical poisons to control > mites and other pathogens that have flourished in the overcrowded > commercial colonies. > > In 1923, Rudolph Steiner, the German founder of biodynamic agriculture, a > precursor of the modern organic movement, predicted that within a hundred > years artificial industrial techniques used to breed honey bees would > lead to the species’ collapse<http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1032682>. > His prophecy was right on target! > > Honey bees have been likened to the canaries in the coal mine. Their > vanishing is nature’s way of telling us that conditions have deteriorated > in the world around us. Bees won’t survive for long if we don’t change our > commercial breeding practices and remove deadly toxins from their > environment. A massive pollinator die-off would imperil world food supplies > and devastate ecosystems that depend on them. The loss of these creatures > might rival climate change in its impact on life on earth. > > Still, this is a disaster that does not need to happen. Germany and France > have > already banned > pesticides<http://www.greenrightnow.com/wabc/2008/06/23/germany-and-france-ban-pesticides-linked-to-bee-deaths-geneticist-urges-us-ban-would-save-the-bees/>that > have been implicated in the deaths of bees. There is still time to > save the bees by working with nature rather than against it, according to > environmentalist and author Bill McKibben: > > “Past a certain point, we can’t make nature conform to our industrial > model. The collapse of beehives is a warning – and the cleverness of a few > beekeepers in figuring out how to work with bees not as masters but as > partners offers a clear-eyed kind of hope for many of our ecological > dilemmas.” > > ---- > > This article is reproduced courtesy Taej Mundkar. Apart from bees other > insects are also effected and so it goes up the food chain to the apex > predators. > > Regards, > > Kiran Srivastava > > > > -- > > > > -- Usha di =========== --
