Bees vanish- all life has 4 yrs to live on Earth

Originally posted by Valorian

they are simply taking out the middle man (bees) so then they can have control of the farming and pollination of any genetic strain.

Valorian

This first part of your statement is accurate, the second part is absurd... to eliminate bees for that reason would be self defeating since they are the most prolific and wide ranging pollinators we have.

That being said bees are not native to the western hemisphere and if they were eliminated we would have to go back to growing crops (and cultivating pollinators) that were here before bees were introduced... and in all reality it would neither be cost effective or efficent.

I came across this article in Science daily Jan.22, 2008 entitled

96 million year old fossil sheds light on Early pollinators.
www.sciencedaily.com...

Here also is an image ( Credit: Image courtesy of the University of Florida of an ancient pollen clump) Rik Riley



[edit on 29-4-2008 by rikriley]

I'm pretty sure the bees just moved into abandoned/foreclosed houses.

I posted a separate thread on the issue because I felt it was important enough not to get lost in the shuffle. The bees didn't just "die off," and that was never the actual assertion anyway, they had "mysteriously vanished." Entire colonies were just vanishing from beefarms and trees.

Well, it stands to reason: bees like a secure, undisturbed, sheltered environment to build their hives. What better location than houses that were foreclosed on, abandoned, and have sat unoccupied for months or years? If you're a hive-mind, what makes more sense? A small wooden box that gets opened on a daily basis and your honey stolen? Or a large, abandoned house that no one enters or goes near?

There's no shortage of the empty houses. Further, the abandoned homes are nation-wide, and since this typically affects entire neighborhoods at a time, there wouldn't be many people around to notice the problem of a bee-infested empty house. It would also explain why bee bodies haven't been found in numbers equal to the disappearance.

reply to post by thelibra


Bingo! Thats just what I heard on the news channle! Many bees are going to live within empty houses, and spaces free of many human beings.
There is a huge influx in bees here in florida that have taken up living space within many empty houses.
Thats a good post thelibra thanks for comming in and pointing this out.

This thread should end up very very long, the fact the bees are not the only pollunator, most likley is not the meaning behind the statement - whomever made it.

The predators that wait around the flowers that the bees visit, will not have the bees to feast on, they will adapt and move on to the next largest supply -- and could they be the remaining pollunators you all say can keep up the work?

Will there be more then 1 predator after them? Will the larger plant life that bees pollunate die away, and since they provided shade for the smaller plant and ' the other insects ' work space, driving them away?

There is too many factors to argue its simply the bees as transport mediums that will bring us to our knees, without the plants they farm, there may be larger animals we depand on that can starve.. and so on and so on..

reply to post by thelibra


Hi theLibra, good point on bees finding another location to live. As a child my grandfather was a beekeeper and when the bees left the hive in mass they would swarm which was a sight to see.

When the honey bees left the hive they may swarm from a domestic hive to a large tree and you could actually lose those bees to another location off your property. My grandfather most of the time when he caught the bees in the act of swarming would get out his smoker to simmer down the hive. He would make us get in the farm house in a hurry for our protection. I saw him shoot one time his shot gun into the air away from the direction of the bees to keep them from heading toward the woods.

I would ask, grandpa why don't the bees sting you when you walk up to the hive with your smoker and remove the honey and honey comb without a suit on? He would say, the bees know me and my scent and won't bother me. Anytime I got near the hives as a kid they would chase me all over the farm. LOL Rik Riley









[edit on 29-4-2008 by rikriley]

I have been thinking, yes that is dangerous but my thought was to see how wild bees would be affected by a genetically engineered specific crop. Here is an article talking about the pollination compared to an organic, normal crop and genetically engineered crop and how wild bees reacted to each. Rik Riley

www.organicconsumers.org...

[edit on 29-4-2008 by rikriley]

Can you name the one continent that honey bees have not naturalized? I will give you a hint the continent in question starts with A and ends with an A and it is not America. LOL

Click onto the article presented by Organic Consumer Association
www.organicconsumers.org...
Go to:
Ice Cream Crisis as Bees Buzz off 3/01/08

There are many articles to read about the health of the Honey Bee on this particular site. Rik Riley

[edit on 29-4-2008 by rikriley]

I dont understand why they don't have bee breeding programs or "farms" so to speak...or at this rate of decline- just flatout clone them...

It seems so foolish that we can't handle a bee problem...I agree though that because bee's are used for so many products it would cause problems- but I wouldn't go around declaring everyone on earth has 4 years to live...That is not true, nor a statement you can make without valid proof....Bee's aside- we would survive. We would just adapt to life without them.

reply to post by grimm703


Apparently you did not understand what I said. I never said that the poles would switch polarity. They will and they have done so fairly regularly at an interval of 100,000- 200,000 years. What I do say is that the Earth will not flip. on its axis. I get the distinct impression that people believe that the Earth actually flip on its axis. That the the surface of the Earth will slip 180 degrees. This will not happen. There will be no sloshing of the oceans or or any other doomsday scenarios that I have heard predicted.

Also this article you referenced refers to the SUN not the EARTH. And what it is talking about is the sunspot cycle NOT the magnetic field of the Sun or Earth. The phenomena it is referring to is very well known and has been known about for several decades.

So far this spring I have only seen one honey bee and it was in town on a flowering bush at a fast food restaurant.
I have aceres of land covered in honey suckel and have yet to see a single honey bee and it is all in bloom! I did see one single bumble bee the other day as I sat out by my garden. A few years ago when I lived in another TX town i had a tree that was literaly covered in honey bees by this time of year. I am concerned and confused as to what has become of our dear little friends.

Originally posted by wayno
I have personally been concerned for a long time about our disregard for mother nature and growing reliance on everything artificial.

just for the record, everything created by humans is originally from Mother nature, there is nothing artificial on this planet. You cannot make anything artificial, the word has zero meaning with respect to Mother Earth


example: "artificial" sugar is still natural base substances mixed together to make something, no different than "refined" sugar..

oh and ALL food is organic.

I have hree nests in my yard alone, I leave them bee because I like them!

(see what I did there?)



edited for crappy spelling.

[edit on 30-4-2008 by gormly]

reply to post by PimpyMcgibbins


Hi PimnyMcgibbins, it has been assumed by many that Albert Einstein said, if the bees vanish then all life on Earth has 4 years to live. To this date no such statement has ever been found in recorded archives or speeches that he ever made although it is possible but not probable that he made the statement.

If the honey bees were to completely disappear it would definitely affect crop yields and most likely start the chain reaction of mass starvation throughout the human populace on this Earth. With starvation on the rise because of the energy crunch it would be even more devastating to the world.

How long would the human race survive if the honey bees completely disappear, it is anyones guess? Rik Riley



[edit on 30-4-2008 by rikriley]

Originally posted by groingrinder
Bees are all over the sage bushes outside my window.

I have heard the bees disappearing blamed on a virus from Israel as well as pesticides.

Same, honey bees are thriving around here; a long time ago my father had a bee colony and they suddenly died out, with no explanation. That was a long long time ago, and during that time carpenter bees thrived, but now it's mostly honey bees around and no carpenter bees. I have a feeling it is some sort of natural cycle or disease that we don't quite understand yet.

Have you ever heard of humans eating honey bees? Zachary Huang, associate professor of entomology at Michigan State University, has a link to people eating bees, which by the way is more common in Asia versus the U.S. With the disappearance of honey bees you want to think who would want to eat bees.

From the MSU Bulletin good information about honey bees and Zachary Huang.
www.newsbulletin.msu.edu...


Rik Riley



[edit on 30-4-2008 by rikriley]

i just join a few minutes ago and saw this topic. the first thing that came to mind was if its 4years then that would be 2012 and doent the myians say something about that ..idk about the details just wanted to put it out there

[edit on 30-4-2008 by k5v9n]

Originally posted by rikriley
The FDA chief Ralph Roachman back in 2007 said bees are dying from genetically modified crops, do I have to repeat. Then if this is the case and they know the cause why in the hell are we still growing genetically modified crops?

I read once that they tried to feed some lab rats some GE tomatoes, and the rats refused to eat them and had to be force fed.
So I'd give this theory some serious credit.
Your question is an excellent one. Either the GE crops are killing the bees, or it's a cover story for something much worse.

reply to post by NuclearPaul


Hi NuclearPaul, if the honeybees immune system is compromised by coming in contact with genetically modified crops what do you think is happening to humans that are eating massive amounts of the modified crops?

Europe does not allow the modification of crops unless something has changed drastically and at least they are protecting their people. Here is the real question are we humans the big corporation's guinea pigs in the U.S. and if so are we more important as guinea pigs or is it their profits or both?

Now I do not have all the answers but at this point I am asking a lot of questions? Rik Riley

No shortage of bees here,seems like every time I'm outside bee buzzing by me,just happy haven't been stung for a while

reply to post by Oldtimer2


Hi Oldtimer, there is nothing more I think most of us would want as for the Honey Bees to thrive and make a massive come back. I have faith in the Honey Bees but have less faith in Man. Although I have to keep believing that man will ultimately come up with the answers to save the Honey Bee from declining. Rik Riley