Are the Bumblebees Next?

[GRITtv]

Run time: 02:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVFeQ4ftTPg   Posted on YouTube: September 22, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 23, 2009 By DU Member: GRITtv Views on DU: 868

 
For several years we've heard the bad news about honeybees. They're disappearing. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has ravaged bee colonies throughout the world and is likely due to a perfect storm of factors—habitat loss, industrial agriculture, the heavy use of pesticides, global warming, etc.

Over the weekend the 41st world apiculture congress met in France to assess the state of the honeybee and noted that the situation is pretty grim. If current trends continue the European bee keeping industry will be wiped out in the next decade.

An average of 300,00 colonies a year have disappeared from France since 1995, the same year that Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin published their book, The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind, and in which they noted that 17,000 to 100,00 species vanish from our planet every year. Today, right now, we are living through the sixth great extinction and some estimate that by the end of the century half of all species will have disappeared.

“The golden frogs of Panama are gone,” reads a recent poem by Mark Strand.

Now we learn that it is not only the honeybee but also bumblebees that are fighting for survival. A report in Earth Island Journal reveals that a North American bumblebee found only in northern California and southern Oregon has disappeared, last seen in 2006. Several other species have also experienced alarming declines. These are insects that have been around for millions of years and on which plants, animals, and, yes, humans rely for their pollination.

As one of the scientists quoted in the article says, “It would be like if you went out one day and there were no cardinals or mockingbirds anymore. It’s that obvious to bee people.”

The cause: well, this time global warming is not high on the list. Rather, the spread of disease from commercially reared bumblebees used to pollinate greenhouse tomatoes is the leading culprit. As a result America's native pollinators may be in danger.

If there is a thread that connects the honeybee and bumblebee declines it is our system of industrial agriculture that depends on the bees for pollination and has at the same time accelerated habitat loss and the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson warned of a silent spring way back in 1962. It seems we still haven't gotten the message.

[zonkers]

1. Bumblebees COME BACK.....

[bertman]

2. We humans just aren't very good at playing god are we? We make a pretty good stab at it

for the short term, but over the long haul we just forget all those "details" that Gaia built in to her systems.

This reminds me of the salmon "farms" our commercial fishery friends have built over the years. Instead of taking steps to protect the natural order we devise our own industrial versions of nature.

Bummer about the bumblebees. There are still a few in our neck of the woods. I hope they stay around.

[HillbillyBob]

7. As I like to point out the the kreestian dominisists

Your good book tells us that we are supposed to have Stewardship over Earth not Dominion.

[bertman]

9. And a key point that is, Bob.

[gauguin57]

3. In my tiny garden plot, I've been trying to grow plants that attract pollinators

I always feel so good when I see butterflies and bees hovering around my flowering plants.

We have truly effed up our environment. I'll do anything I can to make the bees feel welcome.

[sasquuatch55]

4. Crickets, Grasshoppers, and many other insects are in decline. It's been a quiet summer.

nt

[ro1942]

5. Very important report, thanks for posting

[benld74]

6. Crickets I still see and hear, but grasshoppers? not for a long time

[HillbillyBob]

8. I asked our neighbor if her fathers bees were doing ok

She said yes, I usually get my honey from them, but they had a late start and we did not get any this year. He has a waiting list and I did nt get on it.
We have seen bumblebees and honey bees, plenty of wasps of all kinds.
Grasshoppers, butterflies have been kind of thin this year, plenty of moth and larve and Japanese and June beetles /bugs.
Same neighbor has guineas and chickens..well not so many chickens as a raccoon got in the hen house and they lost all of the Guinea young, but for one to the same raccoon we think. They are free range most of the summer so have cleaned up our yard of fleas and ticks which has been a blessing as far as I am concerned we have 4 dogs.