Bumble Bees in Britain going extinct

[lovuian]

Plight of Britain's bumblebees worries experts

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18142347/#storyContinued

LONDON - Britain's bumblebee population is under threat in a crisis that could wipe out entire species and have a devastating knock-on effect on agriculture, scientists say.

The furry yellow-and-black creatures, essential for pollination, are being killed off by pesticides and agricultural intensification, which have cut back on hedgerows and removed their source of food.
snip...

"If we knock out an important group like bumblebees, it can have a huge knock-on impact on other things, such as the pollination of important crops and flowers."

Britain once had around 25 native species of bumblebee, but three of those have been wiped out in the past 50 years and 10 more are now "severely threatened," Goulson said.

"There are two that are teetering on the edge of extinction and could be gone in five to 10 years quite easily," he said.
more...
This is really a wake ip call to britain and others

[live love laugh]

1. Must be those pesky cell phones. nt

:sarcasm:

[leftofthedial]

3. could be

sarcasm or no

[BushOut06]

4. It's a serious problem

What's with the sarcasm? Cell phone radiation is just a theory that's been offered, but obviously SOMETHING is causing bees to die off. I'd say that's a pretty serious fucking problem, unless you have some other way take care of the pollenation. Whether it's cell phones, global warming, or something else, we better get a grip on it pretty fast.

[progressoid]

6. Oh hardy har har.

Everybody knows it's chemtrails.

[kineneb]

2. interesting. loss of honey bees seems to be problem in US

I still see lots of our native bumble bees here. (or at least I have seen them in previous springs...haven't been out that much yet)
Honey bees are non-native and probably more fragile.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. We don't know the scope of the problem. It could be enormous.

As long ago as the 1980s, entomologists noticed strange insect diseases that spread like wildfire, then disappeared without a trace. For one example, the big 2005 cicada brood that was supposed to emerge in my area didn't, and one Penn State entomologist suggested the brood had been hit by a local disease that wiped it out.

Bees, though, aren't just any old bugs. They do most of the pollinating in our (biological) era. If honeybees were to become extinct, there would be hell to pay in agriculture; biologically modern plants like grasses, flowering angiosperms, and the like, would face incredible losses within a few years. It would be a biological disaster.

Hopefully, CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) will come and go, and apis mellifera will continue to abide, but in these times, we can't be so sure. Unfortunately, this won't be getting much funding (except from the honey industry) until a crisis is noticed.

For all the species we have caused or allowed to lapse into extinction, the honeybee is one of the species that we absolutely must protect.

--p!

[Jcrowley]

7. This should

not be taken lightly.

This is beyond simple words.

[truedelphi]

8. Check out this report from BS alert (You know, the quit eating

Cheetos, put down the remot, and nobody will get hurt group that deflates urban and internet legends.))

They think the bee disappearance is actually happening.

Read the report: http://tinyurl.com/39vmpz.

Well written and scary, very scary. If George Carlo says there is a possibility of the EMF's hurtingthe bees ability to recognize and hone in on where their home is, than there IS that possibility.

[bluethruandthru]

10. This entire story needs more attention.

Too many people are treating this lightly. Wonder if there would be a mass uprising if cell phones were banned because the radiation was leading to the bees demise. Wasn't it Albert Einstein who said that if bees were to vanish, humans had four years left?

[truedelphi]

13. People have posted that here - about four years left

And I saw it quoted in several articles about the hive collapse.

I have tried assidiously to avoid the cell ph thing. I am hoping that it is NOT cell phones' electro magnetic interruptive pollution causing this - but I fear it is. (Both my husband and I can hear microwave pollution - and I can only imagine if I was a bee -that constant SCREECH and WEIRD THRUMMING would throw off my instincts as a bee)

Most people won't care enough to stop, or will feel that they cannot afford to stop.

[jean]

9. "Bee Colony Collapse Disorder - Where is it heading?" link

Bee Colony Collapse Disorder - Where is it Heading? » Celsias
http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/03/15/bee-colony-collapse-disorder-where-is-it-heading/

[EnviroBat]

11. Are the bees being outsourced?

I'm sorry for the levity... This is a serious problem, and one that really scares the hell out of me when I think about it for very long. That's why I make weak attempts at humor sometimes. Because really, deep-down, I'm afraid...

[Toots]

12. Everyone has been taught about the birds and the bees

We let them die off and we are next...