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Bees added to US endangered species list for the first time

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N

Nokterian

Member
Seven types of bees once found in abundance in Hawaii have become the first bees to be added to the US federal list of endangered and threatened species.

The listing decision, published on Friday in the Federal Register, classifies seven varieties of yellow-faced or masked bees as endangered, due to such factors as habitat loss, wildfires and the invasion of non-native plants and insects.

The bees, so named for yellow-to-white facial markings, once crowded Hawaii and Maui but recent surveys found their populations have plunged in the same fashion as other types of wild bees – and some commercial ones – elsewhere in the United States, federal wildlife managers said.
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More at the link

So thanks to Monsanto and a lots more idiots killing the most important animal we need for our food supply i am baffled on how this is happening all done by assholes.

Bee if me old.
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
The bees faced a variety of threats including “feral pigs, invasive ants, loss of native habitat due to invasive plants, fire, as well as development, especially in some for the coastal areas”, Jepson told Associated Press.
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Which of these reasons is Monsanto responsible for?
 
H

hydragonwarrior

Member
The worst thing about the pesticide is that it can grow with the plant, and the moment a bee touches the pollen of said plant, it's a goner.

What's even worse? We ingest the stuff and we still have no idea what the long term effects are on human life (it wasn't tested that far but FDA approved it anyway).
 
Liljagare

Liljagare

Member
What I read/watched about the GMO by Monsanto is that the pollen is the last piece in the puzzle that makes the bees loose their ability to navigate. Bees subjected to GMO pollen end up loosing their way home. The nutrition of the pollen has also been called into question, bees will select the best pollen for food, and almost all species reject GMO pollen as food, they prefer native plant pollen.

I am not sure about what is true and not, but something tells me we haven't heard the last of the GMO discussion.

The mono-culture of our farms must also be a factor, bees eat like 30 different kinds of pollen to get all their needs filled, bumblebees even more, and almost all the pollen they prefer are from native plants.

If you want to help out, plant native plants in your gardens, butterflies will also love you for it.
 
A

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
ponpo said:
I saw this a short while ago, maybe they are trying to not be as terrible

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/jerry-hayes-how-to-save-the-bees-monsanto/
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Was just about to link this.

Glyphosate poses little to no harm for bees.
Liljagare said:
What I read/watched about the GMO by Monsanto is that the pollen is the last piece in the puzzle that makes the bees loose their ability to navigate. Bees subjected to GMO pollen end up loosing their way home. The nutrition of the pollen has also been called into question, bees will select the best pollen for food, and almost all species reject GMO pollen as food, they prefer native plant pollen.

I am not sure about what is true and not, but something tells me we haven't heard the last of the GMO discussion.

The mono-culture of our farms must also be a factor, bees eat like 30 different kinds of pollen to get all their needs filled, bumblebees even more, and almost all the pollen they prefer are from native plants.

If you want to help out, plant native plants in your gardens, butterflies will also love you for it.
Click to expand...
That's quite a conspiracy you got there. The bees would have to recognize the modified protein to do that. Bt isn't a protein that bees code for.
 
J

Joe

Member
Are all bees equally important? If not, how important are these bees?

"Bees" + "endandgered" + "first time" sounds terrible but it doesn't mean it is terrible.
 
M

maquiladora

Member
Joe said:
Are all bees equally important? If not, how important are these bees?

"Bees" + "endandgered" + "first time" sounds terrible but it doesn't mean it is terrible.
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Bees pollinate a third of everything we eat and play a vital role in sustaining the planet’s ecosystems. Some 84% of the crops grown for human consumption – around 400 different types of plants – need bees and other insects to pollinate them to increase their yields and quality. These include most fruits and vegetables, many nuts, and plants such as rapeseed and sunflowers that are turned into oil, as well as cocoa beans, coffee and tea. Crops grown as fodder for dairy cows and other livestock are also pollinated by bees. And it’s not only food crops that rely on bee pollination, cotton does as well. As a result, annual global crop pollination by bees is estimated to be worth $170bn.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/17/why-are-bees-important
 
A

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
These are for a specific populations in Hawaii.
Let's not overreact. The US mainland bee population is fine.
1.png
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D

Dazza

Member
Get some tobacco plants if you can, aside from going pesticide, herbicides, fungicide free and having more polyculture it's the next best thing as it helps them resist the Varroa
Mite
 
T

The Beard

Member
I used to work at a hardware store. People would come in looking for bee killer, like bee spray. I always told them that they shouldn't be killing bees and to just leave them alone and they won't fuck with you.

People are assholes.
 
D

Derwind

Member
The Beard said:
I used to work at a hardware store. People would come in looking for bee killer, like bee spray. I always told them that they shouldn't be killing bees and to just leave them alone and they won't fuck with you.

People are assholes.
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Many times many people mistaken wasp for bees, it sucks and I think more education can be helpful.
 
Liljagare

Liljagare

Member
A Fish Aficionado said:
Was just about to link this.

Glyphosate poses little to no harm for bees.

That's quite a conspiracy you got there. The bees would have to recognize the modified protein to do that. Bt isn't a protein that bees code for.
Click to expand...

Even Montantos own report states that bees prefer non-BT pollen over BT pollen, though they fail to explain why.

Between lice, pesticides, mono-cultures, Bees have been under pressure for a long time, now, we introduced something that in studies was deemed safe, it was found to have had effects, but theese effects in the study were deemed negligent (a difference in weight of about 17% between BT and non BT, lifetime spans differed, a negligent 12%, BT feeders die earlier).

Here is a interestind article about the CCD too:

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/05/smoking-gun-bee-collapse

We also have the "event 176" and its adverse effect on another species, which they call the effects for "being negligent on the species", but what if that is simply the last nail in the coffin? Or, the thing that makes the balance switch from being viable, to being non-viable?

Then there is the case of the Monarch, it went from, the monarch is dying from the GMO altered corn with BT, to, it is not affected by it, the fear was that the BT pollen could blow with the wind and land on the larvae, this was found to have a tiny effect on the development of the pupae, but, the effects were neglible..

However, the researchers estimate that the amount of milkweed in in the Midwest plunged by 58 percent from 1999 to 2010, pressured mainly by the expansion of Roundup Ready genetically engineered crops.

Whether or not Bt-infused pollen hurts monarchs, largely wiping out milkweed with Roundup makes the debate largely academic. Monarch caterpillars can only be exposed to the pollen when they're crawling about on milkweed leaves. Trouble is, they can't exist unless they're crawling about on milkweed leaves.

How things have unfolded shows that we weren't carefull enough, didn't think about the consequences, and failed to do proper studies. Bees also really, really, really like pollen from milkweed, so it is connected in the end.
 
Liljagare

Liljagare

Member
A Fish Aficionado said:
Show me the studies. Because this smells of horseshit.

The bee population is doing fine. Mites, and some pesticides might be culprits.
Now, it's up to the scientists to make sure the findings are right, and then with empirical evidence scale back on those specific compounds.


How anti-GMO activists use monarch butterflies as ideological pawn
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No, that is the sad part, the Monarch was called a bluff, and now it turns out, it was affected, but not by BT, but by Roundup. Take away a species habitat is a really good way of killing it.

Now, on the bees:

ccd-bee.png

honeybee-losses.jpg

bee-populations.jpg


Less bees should mean more expensive honey, maybe people will care about that?

Honey.jpg
 
A

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
Uh, citations?
I can make a spooky graph too.

Mitigation is a legitimate process. The monarch episode is a farce.

I'm hearing static when I just want the music.
 
H

Hazmat

Member
I think the thread title should replace the word "Bees" with "Some types of bees in Hawaii." It's not that the US endangered species list now has "Bees" on it.
 
A

ArkhamFantasy

Member
My neighbor has a tree that overlaps over my fence, it has flower petals on it so theres bee's over there. but they've never messed with me and i dont mess with them.
 
K

Kyzer

Banned
my friend was telling me this story in a very "gotcha" manner in relation to GMOs. please tell me shes wrong
 
M

Meffer

Member
Joe said:
Are all bees equally important? If not, how important are these bees?

"Bees" + "endandgered" + "first time" sounds terrible but it doesn't mean it is terrible.
Click to expand...
Bees are one of the most important living beings on this planet. No bees means no pollen for plants. No plants means no food. No food means bad shit.
 
Goro Majima

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Monsanto has such a bad image problem. The other 5 or so major companies like Dow and Bayer (who just bought Monsanto) must love being able to fly under the radar because of this weird Internet crusade against Monsanto specifically.
 
W

wumster3000

Member
hydragonwarrior said:
The worst thing about the pesticide is that it can grow with the plant, and the moment a bee touches the pollen of said plant, it's a goner.

What's even worse? We ingest the stuff and we still have no idea what the long term effects are on human life (it wasn't tested that far but FDA approved it anyway).
Click to expand...
Go to your local farmers market. We try to buy organic food, as much as possible. The idiots that pushed this through without testing, aren't eating this stuff. It's a form of population control. Eating Monsanto's pesticide food is like smoking a cigarette.
 
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