Ecological Apocalypse: Why Are All The Bees Dying? UPDATED!

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Ecological Apocalypse: Why Are All The Bees Dying?
GM, toxic chemicals, chemtrails destroying eco-system, threatening very survival of humanity

Prison Planet | April 10, 2007
Paul Joseph Watson

The alarming decline in bee populations across the United States and Europe represents a potential ecological apocalypse, an environmental catastrophe that could collapse the food chain and wipe out humanity. Who and what is behind this flagrant abuse of the eco-system?

Many people don't realize the vital role bees play in maintaining a balanced eco-system. According to experts, if bees were to become extinct then humanity would perish after just four years.

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," said Albert Einstein.

Others would say four years is alarmist and that man would find other food sources, but the fact remains that the disappearance of bees is potentially devastating to agriculture and most plant life.

Reports that bee populations are declining at rates of up to 80% in areas of the U.S. and Europe should set alarm bells ringing and demand immediate action on behalf of environmental organizations. Experts are calling the worrying trend "colony collapse disorder" or CCD.

"Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent," reports AFP .

"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.

The article states that U.S. bee colonies have been dropping since 1980 and the number of beekeepers have halved.

Scientists are thus far stumped as to what is causing the decline, ruling out parasites but leaning towards some kind of new toxin or chemical used in agriculture as being responsible. "Experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor," reports Germany's Spiegal Online .

Bee populations throughout Germany have simultaneously dropped 25% and up to 80% in some areas. Poland, Switzerland and Spain are reporting similar declines. Studies have shown that bees are not dying in the hive, something is causing them to lose their sense of orientation so that they cannot return to the hive. Depleted hives are not being raided for their honey by other insects, which normally happens when bees naturally die in the winter, clearly suggesting some kind of poisonous toxin is driving them away.

"In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed."

A study at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004 showed that toxins from a genetically modified maize variant designed to repel insects, when combined with a parasite, resulted in a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" than normal.

"According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know."

Kaatz was desperate to continue his studies but funding was cut off.While we are lectured by government to change our lifestyle and cough up more taxes for the supposed peril of man-made global warming, an environmental catastrophe that could eliminate the human race in the figurative blink of an eye is looming.

Why are major environmental groups and lobbyists ignoring this mammoth threat to our very existence? Where is Greenpeace?

The hyperbole surrounding man-made global warming is swallowing up all the attention while real dangers like the rapid die-off of bee populations and its link to GM food is largely shunned by governments and activist foundations.

Is it a stretch to hypothesize that government mandated spraying of crops with deadly chemicals as well as toxic substances contained in chemtrails could be part of a deliberate program to eliminate the bee population? Or is this just another example of big business flagrantly abusing the eco-system in order to drive up profits?

The elite have publicly stated their desire to significantly reduce world population on numerous occasions. Just yesterday we featured a story about a British Government Ministry of Defence report that postulated on the future use of bio-weapons to thin the human population in under 30 years.

Making bees all but extinct would be a swift and plausibly deniable method of enacting global population reduction long dreamed of by the maniacal sociopaths that control the world.

Either way, this issue represents an overwhelming threat to the food chain and an environmental crime of the highest order, for which the perpetrators need to be brought up on charges of accessories to genocide, should a deliberate effort to endanger the food chain be proven, and the chemicals responsible immediately banned.

Please circulate this article to environmental groups and demand they investigate who and what is killing our bees![youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAWWL4HQDg[/youtube]NBC news: Chemtrails over California

Last edited by TheResistance on 13 Apr 2007, 12:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

The beekeepers here in this Oregon Valley have lost over 90% of their bees from hives they keep for the orchards and farms here. Our beekeepers seem to think it is that the sun is so bright it disorients them from flying back to the hives. they just get lost and die where they run out of 'gas'.


Merle

I found this...

"colony losses are occurring mostly because bees are failing to return
to the hive (which is largely uncharacteristic of bee behavior)"

They are not dying in their hives, adult bees fly away from the hive and lose the way home.

Here is my idea. It is known that Bees use polarised sunlight to determine orientation when navigating between hive and flowers. I think there is an atmospheric pollutant that is subtly altering the polarisation of sunlight. As a result the bees can’t tell which way north is. Mostly, this is not a problem, they just have to fly further to find their way home, but transporting them around to pollinate crops tires them out, they can’t fly as far. Disorientation and tiredness means they die before returning to their hive. This is why they can’t find any disease affecting the bees, the bees are healthy, sunlight polarisation has gone wrong.

The same can happen to Homing Pigeons, if there is a geomagnetic storm, they lose their way and die because magnetic north moves by up to 7 to 12 degrees. Bees don’t use magnetism (they use light) and the solar cycle is at an 11 year minimum.

[quote]The beekeepers here in this Oregon Valley have lost over 90% of their bees from hives they keep for the orchards and farms here. Our beekeepers seem to think it is that the sun is so bright it disorients them from flying back to the hives. they just get lost and die where they run out of 'gas'.


Merle......I don't think it's from the sun being too bright I think it's some type of a toxic chemical or genetically modified plants. It's scary to hear that up in Oregon 90% of the bees are dying. I never hear this stuff on the news.

If people saw this kind of thing in the news they might wake up to the chaos around them. The solar idea is an interesting one , I keep reading that this next solar cycle is going to be a particularly lively one so we may be in for interesting times.

The case of the Missing bees
A nationwide phenomenon of bees mysteriously
abandoning their hives has hit the Rogue Valley hard, and no one's quite sure why
By john darling
for the Mail Tribune

Scientists don't as yet know why, but millions of honeybees — vital to pollinating a wide array of vegetables and fruits — are missing and presumed dead, not just in Southern Oregon but across the United States.

Called colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon has cost Ruch beekeeper Don Ruddick 92 percent of his bees.

"I've got only 300 colonies left out of 4,000. It's almost put us out of business," said Ruddick, noting each hive is worth $150.

Another local beekeeper, Scott Keene of the Applegate, lost 1,000 of his 1,400 colonies and "the last time I checked, we're still losing them."

John Jacobs of Rogue River, director of the Southern Oregon Beekeepers Association, also has had heavy losses. He believes it may go back to the pesticide Gaucho, which was banned in France after a bee die-off they called "mad bee disease."

Said Jacobs, "CCD is absolutely a problem. In a nutshell, bees have struggled with mites for years, the hives are already stressed, they've had cold winters — and people suspect pesticide residues are not good for bees. It's been studied and they say it's non-lethal, but there are only so many environmental impacts you can pile on bees."

Bees have struggled for years against the varroa mite, which carries an array of viruses that can harm the creatures, said Jacobs. The mites and the chemicals used to fight them weaken the immune system and, he added, "it doesn't take much to push them over the edge."

Compounding the problem has been a series of nights in the 20-degree range, forcing bees to huddle close together in hives and work to keep their hive temperatures up to 91 degrees.

Bees are flying away from hives and not coming back, Jacobs noted, "and no one knows why. There's no smoking gun yet, but there's a great deal of research and hubbub going on. We think the polarized light they use for determining how to get back to the hives is too bright or disorienting for them."

In the bigger picture, the "disappearing disease," as CCD is sometimes called, is not just about the impact on beekeepers, Keene said, but on the food chain — in the quality, availability and price of produce.

"This could potentially be devastating," Keene said. "It's affected 33 states so far and we're hearing there's been over 50,000 colonies lost. It could be devastating to the farming industry, although you can grow all kinds of stuff without bees."

Pollen is disseminated by the wind and other insects, but crops grown without bees are smaller, poorly formed and have fewer seeds, said Keene.

Beekeepers from many states drive their hives to Central California to pollinate vast almond orchards, he said. "The nuts won't set without bees. Same with cherries, blueberries. They need bees. Anything with a bloom, bees will hit. Without bees, tomatoes have 30 to 50 percent less quality," he said.

The value of increased yield and quality from bees is estimated at $15 billion. Bees are needed to pollinate about a third of the food we eat — all the main fruits and vegetables, said Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor at University of Montana who is heading up research on CCD in the West.

"The big issue is, what's the quality of produce going to be in the marketplace?" said Bromenshenk in an interview with the Mail Tribune. "The worst case is we'll be looking at produce the same as we look at oil and will become more dependent on what comes from overseas."

CCD started in the East last year, moved to the Midwest and now is in the Western states, he said. It is being intensely studied at Penn State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Maryland and at University of Montana — but with no conclusion yet as to the culprit, he said.

The cause of CCD could be any combination of syrup contamination, new pesticides, new mite-controlling chemicals, new viruses carried by mites or the stress of being transported many places to do pollination work, Bromenshenk said.

However, one clue, he said, is that other "opportunistic invaders," such as the wax moth and hive beetle, are not going in abandoned hives, indicating "something in the box possibly repels them, some disease or pathogen."

Just back from a research swing in Central California, Bromenshenk said CCD hasn't yet affected the availability of produce in stores, but he's seen beekeepers with 40 to 80 percent loss of colonies.

"We're talking million-dollar loses and you can't sustain that. Some beekeepers say it will put them out of business if we don't get a handle on it this year," he said. "We hoped it would play out this (past) winter but now there are major collapses going on in California and the Southeast."

Most vegetables and fruits need bee pollination, but some crops, such as wheat, potatoes, corn and lettuce, don't need much help from bees, said entomologist Eric Mussen of University of California-Davis in an interview. "We have to be optimistic. It's hard to explain and there are endless possibilities about what's going on."

About two-thirds of U.S. bees are now in California, pollinating almonds, Ruddick said. He noted that if the problem turns out to be a contagious virus, "it might wipe out all the bees in the U.S. and the price of food would increase drastically."

Ruddick and other local beekeepers pollinate California almonds in February, then return to the Rogue Valley to pollinate pear orchards. Ruddick and Keene said they would still be able to pollinate pears here, but only by augmenting with healthy colonies from California.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.

I'm violently allergic to bees, so I'm probably not as concerned as I should be about them dying off...

do you eat fruits and vegetables?



Merle

I never noticed any bees on my apple tree I did see some in a swamp yesturday.

oh. well, if neither of you mind the bees dying off mysteriously, then I guess it doesn't matter.


Merle

It DOES matter ! !! Bees pollinate most fruit trees, if there's a mass die-off, then the fruit growers are going to have problems.

Another theory is that the GM crops have weakened the bee's immune system.

Top of my list of suspects would be EMF (electro-magnetic-frequency) pollution.

In central london, a once common bird called the sparrow has almost completely disapeered - this is thought to be because of mobile phone masts (which may operate on a similar frequency to the sparrows brain-waves or some other biological function). Its worth noting that although scientific papers have been written on this theory, you never seem to find EMF mentioned anywhere near sparrows in the corporate controlled media - why might that be?

In the UK theyve recently built TETRA masts for communication between emergenct services - and they operate at nearly the exact same frequency as HUMAN brainwaves. There is a massive controversy over the health implications of this. Were told their harmless to the general public, but some people (autistics maybe?) are so sensitive and irritated by them that you can blindfold them and they will be able to lead you straight to the nearest TETRA mast.

I do mind. I planted the apple tree many years ago because I wanted apples. I had two
trees to increase the chance of pollination. One tree died so I'm left with one tree that did not get alot of bee visits. Which means the odds they found another apple/crab apple tree nearby may not be high. Which means the logarithmic growth production may not happen this year as it has in the past 3 years.

They mentioned this story on the local news where I go to college. They didn't make it out to be nearly as alarming as it really could be. I find that strange, usually the news would jump on the opportunity to be lurid or alarmist. I wonder what it is about this story makes it "unnewsworthy."

The article I read said that the beekeepers are missing bees. They don't come back to the hive and drop dead, they disappear. If it was some immune system problem, wouldn't they die in the hive? Seems unlikely they lose their way, as that's such an instinctual thing for them. Like one day they leave, and the light is so different they lose their way and die of exhaustion trying to find their way back. Very odd indeed.

Sure.

But birds are more fun to watch and don't give me anaphylactic shock.