What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths

Australian government has mentioned that they may have given up trying to eradicate the Asian bee. Instead the focus has shifted to trying to reduce their spread and population control. The Asian honey bee is a known carrier of the Varroa mite.

Fuck the Beez! We're all dead!

Just ride it out!

Ha! I knew it ! The devil IS in the details .

Adding facts to the discussion, rather than political/philosophical opinions woud be refreshing! I'll see what I can find on news sites--anybody else want to do that?

I can't possibly believe that pesticides/environmental toxins aren't involved. Also, haven't read all the comments yet but I'm sure I read something recently that implicated cellphone tower transmissions in the bees' disorientation. Anything on that?

I just wanted to throw in my two cents as I can sort of see both sides of the argument (that seemed to have sidetracked into some name-calling but anywho...). I'm an atheist and certainly don't think the world was made for us (a distilled version of the religious Earth-view) or that we are its benign protectors chosen by evolution (a distilled version of the Scientific view)...we're simply another species that will get to be 'dominant' for say another ten or twenty thousand years. Its certainly not our job to ensure the Earth stays just how it was when we started scraping things out in Africa nor is it our job to simply run roughshod over it. It may be in our interest (not the Earth's interest...it'll work things out whatever the scenario) to ensure that we find ways to maintain the species that we've entered into a symbiotic relationship with. To that end, I think finding ways to genetically modify fruits and vegetables so that they last longer and then avoid the use of pesticides is a worthwhile goal.

As I read most of these post, I could not help but think that all the name calling and labeling going on here is what keeps us from haveing any intellegent diaolog. Since we are at each other throats, ripping each other apart, corporations and government go about their day laughing at the savages ripping each other apart. Divide and conqure.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the pesticides were found to weaken the bees immune system such that they became susceptible to fungal and viral attack.

Thats how it always happens, big corp hire their own scientists, or pay them off to find the best answer that suites the corporations

If true , this is an excellent post.

hmm...to me this article is simply about sloppy science...a good scientist should always disclose their bias. he probably didn't mention his previous affiliations with bayer or his business dealings because it would draw speculation to what he was doing. i saw a lot of concern about whether or not this skews humans as good or bad. i don't know that it does or doesn't. we certainly act in some ways that are counter-intuitive to survival--killing off honey bees would be a good thing to avoid doing.

We need our honey bees.

I've been trying to learn more about bees lately and I think that the whole
fungi-virus tag team idea is inaccurate. Such widespread death is obviously caused by something unnatural. Pesticide is what my local beekeeper holds to be the problem and I agree with him.

Added to Bees group

That's hysterical...such sound integrity. Sort of like the 'scientist' that decided autism is caused by vaccines.

Its an extremely troubling situation. Im surprised about the little effort thats been done to find out what the problem is.

Actually Im not surprised but Im sure people in 50 years will think "what the fuck"

Hopefully we are next.

These companies have hijacked the very agencies that are meant to police them and hold them accountable...they hijack scientific studies...and then they also have huge lobbies that work with high level policy makers to create legislation that is favorable to them and to their profits. This needs to be reformed and stopped before they unleash the final straw, the one the breaks the camels back.

I am really happy to see that Monsanto is feeling the pinch and that efforts to put them under a microscope are succeeding.

Another classic example of why people cannot assume that science is fact. This is why it is ALWAYS important to know who is funding these "studies".

THE WHITE DEVILS, MADE TO MAKE MAN WHO DONT LOOK LIKE HIM EXTINCT, AND ANIMALS BECUASE HE DOES NOT EXCEPT THAT THEY DO LIVE THINK PLAY IN THIER OWN WORLD BUT SO WHAT, INSECYTS ARE BECOMEING EXTINKT PASS THAT WORM SOME MONEY HE LL SHUT HIS TRAP

Current flagged the truth, too funny ! Hal Lewis !!!!!

"The study "doesn't say pesticides aren't a cause of the underlying vulnerability that the virus-fungus combo then exploits...."

BINGO! It is indeed plausible that the virus-fungus combo is dealing the death blow, but this is like telling someone unprotected sex with someone who is HIV positive could cause AIDS. The virus-fungus combo has been implicated many places, but what lies beneath, what conditions are causing this particular disease pattern to proliferate remains undisclosed, not addressed, another one of the elephants in the room, because we want to devise a solution without ever admitting we created the problem.

It is simple ecology really, and we have seen it over and over again. When you wipe out one species, another proliferates, balance is hard work, never passive, and always in flux.

Well, the cool thing about science is that there's no conspiracies allowed.

If you make something like this up, then when you try to fix it based on a phony solution it won't work.

So if the guy was really taking money from Bayer to put out a false study (which seems pretty unlikely) his study won't assist in ending CCD and he'll be exposed.

This is a results based system, lies won't work like they do in politics.

AHH Shit!

the happening is happening.

Is it just the honey bees or are all the bees equally important?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Will-Australia-be-the-Coun-by-amicus-curiae-090...

I am an amateur beekeeper. Since discovering the incredible intricacies of their lives and habits, I have been doing a lot of reading and question asking. Particularly, I have been looking at Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Varroa mites are neither new or especially more prevalent lately. In countries that have had them for many years, they have never been a colony threatening problem -- more an annoyance, from all the data I could find.

New Zealand had an outbreak, but seems to have eradicated it now. Even when the mites were found, we did NOT have massive bee deaths.

Now I find that rather strange, if Varroa was the sole cause, there should have been issues.

I read that Bayer is being taken to court in the EU, over selling chemicals that they knew were harmful to bees and bats (!) which are also dying in masses in the US. hmm? Also affected are small vertebrates (mice, voles and whatever other native fauna eat the bugs).

I believe that the GM pollens combined with physically affecting pesticides, allows the Varroa mite to prey more heavily on already weakened bees.

Recently, last autumn, just before the moratorium on GM crops was supposed to come up for discussion, in Victoria, Australia, it was lifted without public assent, and done very quickly by the state government. Suspiciously so, I believe. Western Australia followed suit recently also.

The 258 GM R/R Canola crops were dud :-) The highest yield was, (feel very free to laugh very loud) 1 whole tonne per hectare! [hectare (ha) = 2.47 acres, or 10,000 square meters]

Next best was 0.65 tonnes/ha. Rather a low average indeed.

That aside, the Kool-Aid crew of farmers, who have seen and heard Moe Parr mr Murray and even Percy Schneider, and still (?) think they know better, and that Monsanto and Dow always tell the truth... are pushing to put in ten times the area of the same dud Canola, from 100+ growers in 285 sites, to 1,000 on heaven knows how many places.

The bees I am affiliated with are run on native trees, and occasionally on organic only orange trees. Almonds, clovers and lucerne aren't so good for them; too many pesticides are being used. The keepers who are happy to lose bees to those issues can. We won't.

Now, as we have no Varroa, and until recently had no GMO either, it will be of great interest to see if the bees on the canola areas begin to die off.

I firmly believe they will, and that maybe this fact would be enough to STOP GMO plants being further approved in my country, and hopefully elsewhere in the world too.

I am adding some info on the Bayer story, and the bats die off also.

cont.

_________________________
Another reason why they patent their seeds... even the pollination process belongs to them, so if you wanted to do research on it to see if it is causing CCD in part you wouldn't be able to. Patenting nature is part of this problem in getting to a solution.

Well, it's VERY, VERY unlikely that some virus and fungus combo just popped up out of nowhere. They have probably been around for a while, but have been unable to take hold. I stand by my assumption that SOMETHING must have been compromising the bee's system in order to allow this fungi-virus tag team to take hold. Just like in humans, improper nutrition, or presence of specific toxins will lead to disorders disease, fungi, etc.

This doesn't prove Bayer's innocence at all.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Bayer-CropScience-Monsanto-Enter-Agreeme...

Another reason to keep it quiet? And look here, Bayer and Monsanto are now partners in crime. They can contaminate the food supply, lie to consumers, and still be in business making millions while the biodiversity of this planet is threatened and we are used as a science experiment along with bees and other species. Who knows how many other species have been affected by their toxic pesticides and products that go unreported?

I knew it! I knew it! It was always corporations and business causing this! This is what happens when you give into the libertarian right laissez faire attitude!

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_673968.html

Bayer also had to pay damages due to Liberty Link rice contaminating US farmer's rice crops.

http://current.com/news/92316225_bayer-intentionally-contaminated-u-s-rice.htm

http://current.com/news/92094688_bayer-must-pay-1-5-m-to-ak-ms-rice-farmers-for-...

They knew it contaminated farmer's rice, yet covered it up. What else are they covering up? What were these GM crops sprayed with?

http://beecharmers.org/index.html

Is an insecticide made by Bayer killing all of our bees?

Is "Colony Collapse Disorder" just a label for a corporate cover up?

Below are articles from around the globe.

France & Italy ban neonicotinoids. In the past six years, a new group of nicotine-based pesticides have emerged called neonicotinoids. The most common is imidachloprid. Ironically, these were originally manufactured to be less lethal. But about four years ago, French and Italian beekeepers complained that imidachloprid crop spraying was killing their honey bees. So the French and Italian governments banned the nicotine-based pesticides.

Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation Germany has banned a family of pesticides that are blamed for the deaths of millions of honeybees... The move follows reports from German beekeepers in the Baden-Wuerttemberg region that two thirds of their bees died earlier this month following the application of a pesticide called clothianidin."It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "50-60% of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their hives." Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. Source/Full Story: The Guardian, May 23 2008

Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Dept. of Agriculture, Gainsville, Florida: "The interesting thing about the Colony Collapse Disorder is that bees are leaving the colony and not coming back, which is highly unusual for a social insect to leave a queen and its brood or young behind. They are seemingly going out and can't find their way back home. Imidachloprid, when it is used to control termites, does exactly the same thing. One of the methods it uses to kill termites is that the termites feed on this material and then go out to feed and can't remember how to get home. And it also causes their immune systems to collapse, causing what would be normal organisms to become pathogenic in them (bees).

What 60 Minutes didn't air The cause is imidacloprid, plain and simple," said David Hackenberg, the beekeeper who was the subject of a 60 Minutes story that aired Oct. 28.Hackenberg, who has tended bees his entire adult life, said he told 60 Minutes about this imidacloprid theory in these same direct terms. After editing Hackenberg's comments, however, the venerable CBS program quoted some scientists who said they weren't sure, thereby leaving doubt in everyone's mind. Here's the background you need to understand: The primary product used to control grubs on your lawn, or insects on your fruit trees, or termites in your basement, contains a chemical compound known as imidacloprid, a synthetic nicotine, which is most commonly marketed as Merit. No one debates that imidacloprid is toxic to bees, yet Bayer, the exclusive patent holder from 1988 until this year, denies its product causes CCD.

The cause of CCD has been greatly disputed. Everything from radio waves to cell phone towers were blamed initially, with the most recent high-profile theory involving Israeli acute paralysis virus that was detailed in a scientific paper released Sept. 4. Many beekeepers and other scientists, however, state that the Israeli virus is only a symptom and that imidacloprid is the true culprit.

Products that contain imidacloprid other than Merit include Admire, Confidor, Connect, Evidence, Leverage, Muralla, Provado, Trimax, Premise and Winne. Though imidacloprid has been patented since 1988, . its use on American crops escalated significantly in the past three years, just as products containing diazinon came off store shelves. In the case of bees, the imidacloprid apparently does not directly kill the hives, but disorients the bees and causes them to disband — at least according to beekeepers who are closely observing bees' behavior. That's why, when Colony Collapse Disorder is the problem, no dead bees can be found near the hive. That, said Hackenberg and others, is the biggest indicator that imidacloprid is involved. Entire Story