Honey bees dying by the Billions....

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So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
17
81
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

That Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. I'd bet he's not far off either.

We definitely need to find the cause of this and then figure out a solution.

Right, because Einstein never made any mistakes, especially talking about a topic outside his expertise *cough*quantum physics*cough*...

You do realize that bees are responsible for pollinating most of our crops right? :roll:

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the bees die we have a real big problem on our hands.

:roll: Yes I'm well aware that Bees are important. :roll::roll:

I just don't like it when people like to pretend that because a person was skilled in on field they are automatically an authority on *everything*. Next time you're talking about relativity, feel free to quote Einstein.
 

ITJunkie

Platinum Member
Apr 17, 2003
2,512
0
76
www.techange.com
Actually people are attributing this quote to Einstein: The quote goes: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."

According to snopes though no one has found proof that he ever said it....
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,125
30,076
146
I've also heard about a study providing evidence for cell phone frequencies screwing with honeybees' flight senses.

Is it possible, if proven necessary, that we will decide to sacrifice our precious cellphones in order to save humanity?

hmm...
 

JulesMaximus

No Lifer
Jul 3, 2003
74,534
911
126
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

That Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. I'd bet he's not far off either.

We definitely need to find the cause of this and then figure out a solution.

Right, because Einstein never made any mistakes, especially talking about a topic outside his expertise *cough*quantum physics*cough*...

You do realize that bees are responsible for pollinating most of our crops right? :roll:

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the bees die we have a real big problem on our hands.

:roll: Yes I'm well aware that Bees are important. :roll::roll:

I just don't like it when people like to pretend that because a person was skilled in on field they are automatically an authority on *everything*. Next time you're talking about relativity, feel free to quote Einstein.

Well, if he was a basketball player I'd agree with you 100%. My point is, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this could be a very serious problem.
 

So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
17
81
Originally posted by: zinfamous
I've also heard about a study providing evidence for cell phone frequencies screwing with honeybees' flight senses.

Is it possible, if proven necessary, that we will decide to sacrifice our precious cellphones in order to save humanity?

hmm...

Here's the problem with that: It makes no *sense*

Cell phone tower penetration is not significantly different in 2007 from 2004-6, yet bees suddenly started dying in the US in numbers in late 06 and then it spread elsewhere? HTF could this be cell phones?
 

JulesMaximus

No Lifer
Jul 3, 2003
74,534
911
126
Originally posted by: zinfamous
I've also heard about a study providing evidence for cell phone frequencies screwing with honeybees' flight senses.

Is it possible, if proven necessary, that we will decide to sacrifice our precious cellphones in order to save humanity?

hmm...

I could give mine up anytime. I hardly ever use the damned thing anyway.
 

JulesMaximus

No Lifer
Jul 3, 2003
74,534
911
126
Originally posted by: ITJunkie
Actually people are attributing this quote to Einstein: The quote goes: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."

According to snopes though no one has found proof that he ever said it....

Bee that as it may, it doesn't make the point any less valid. It just makes it annoying that people quote him as having said it. ;)
 

So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
17
81
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Well, if he was a basketball player I'd agree with you 100%. My point is, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this could be a very serious problem.

That's fine. Then say what you just said instead. I hate it when people try to lend credence to an argument through an appeal to (non) authority.
 

jdini76

Platinum Member
Mar 16, 2001
2,468
0
0
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

That Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. I'd bet he's not far off either.

We definitely need to find the cause of this and then figure out a solution.

Right, because Einstein never made any mistakes, especially talking about a topic outside his expertise *cough*quantum physics*cough*...

You do realize that bees are responsible for pollinating most of our crops right? :roll:

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the bees die we have a real big problem on our hands.

:roll: Yes I'm well aware that Bees are important. :roll::roll:

I just don't like it when people like to pretend that because a person was skilled in on field they are automatically an authority on *everything*. Next time you're talking about relativity, feel free to quote Einstein.

Although I agree that Bees are important, It has not been proven that Einstein has actually said that. There is no evidance to the like other than people saying he said it.


snopes
 

jdini76

Platinum Member
Mar 16, 2001
2,468
0
0
Originally posted by: zinfamous
I've also heard about a study providing evidence for cell phone frequencies screwing with honeybees' flight senses.

Is it possible, if proven necessary, that we will decide to sacrifice our precious cellphones in order to save humanity?

hmm...

I imagine one day cells phones will have little pictures on them stating that they are 'bee safe'. Similar to the tuna cans and dolphins.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
I'd much more rather talk about this seriously than fling insults.

I need to do more research, as I don't really know the extent of it. Does the big picture really link to the pathogen theory? I don't know. Just depends on how widespread it is, and how it is being spread if that is the caase.

I could understand if this was just a state, or even a region. But if it is world wide, something is seriously wrong and it certainly doesen't have anything to do with cell phones. Cell phone EMR covers a very small percentage of the Earth's landmass.
 

JulesMaximus

No Lifer
Jul 3, 2003
74,534
911
126
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Well, if he was a basketball player I'd agree with you 100%. My point is, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this could be a very serious problem.

That's fine. Then say what you just said instead. I hate it when people try to lend credence to an argument through an appeal to (non) authority.

Point taken.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,125
30,076
146
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: zinfamous
I've also heard about a study providing evidence for cell phone frequencies screwing with honeybees' flight senses.

Is it possible, if proven necessary, that we will decide to sacrifice our precious cellphones in order to save humanity?

hmm...

Here's the problem with that: It makes no *sense*

Cell phone tower penetration is not significantly different in 2007 from 2004-6, yet bees suddenly started dying in the US in numbers in late 06 and then it spread elsewhere? HTF could this be cell phones?


I'm not saying it makes complete sense, but hell...I don't think it's completely out there either. Birds can see UV colors, dogs and cats hear at higher frequencies, bats use sonar, somehow, the Monarch butterfly repeats the same annual migration year-by-year, despite being an entirely new generation on each trip and never having migrated before...

point being, it's pretty difficult to ascertain the entire effect that our communication technology-driven lifestlye has on the natural world. It's perfectly sensible to imagine that radio waves, dyes, noise...whatever, have a larger effect on animals that we simply will never be aware of.

Anyway, population crashes, (and yes, including the bees) don't occur suddenly. We only noticed the populations dying; it doesn't mean the cause(s) haven't been there for some time. This could be a classic case of a bottleneck. For whatever reason, large numbers of bees have been dying out for years and years--but not large enough for us to notice it. Now that those numbers are out of the genepool, we're forced into a bottleneck situation. And now the crash is occuring.

But seriously...we lose the honeybees we are most definately screwed.
 

hanoverphist

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2006
9,867
23
76
i found about 20 bees in my bathtubn 2 days ago. kids freaked out and called me in there. i didnt have to kill a one of em, they were all on their last breath. i found a few on the window sill and figured it was a mass effort to get into the house that the pesticides had foiled. turns out they have burrowed a hole into my wall next to my power distro box and set up camp. they are alive and well over at my house so far. gonna kill em all tonite.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: zinfamous

But seriously...we lose the honeybees we are most definately screwed.
We will not be screwed. We will be inconvenienced.

We will find other ways to pollinate crops, even if its a brute force method like dumping pollen on the crops from the air.

It's the natural world that we need to worry about. Nobody is going to care enough to hand pollinate ButterCup-Like Flower #7297343.

What happens if another creature relies solely on the seeds of ButterCup-Like Flower #7297343? It suffers or dies too.

And the local foodchain crumbles.

Does anybody realize that we lose ~50 species a day(Depends on the source, it ranges from the low teens to thousands)? Fifty! A day!

Think about that for a minute. I dunno. That blows my mind. Fifty unique organisms do not exist anymore because of our actions. At the least.

Most have no understanding of the loss that this is. Even the loss of one organism should be extremely alarming, especially if we didn't know very much about it. We get most of our insights from the natural world. Nearly all of our drugs are derived from discoveries pertaining to new chemicals, reactions, etc; the results of studying microorganisms. Or maybe not so micro-organisms.

How many of you know that we have only discovered a few percent of the total estimated microorganism species on the planet? Being the widest variety, they are also suffering the most. No doubt, most of the species in those numbers are microorganisms.

That's where it starts. This started something like 30,000 years ago; Humans became resourceful enough to start influencing the natural evolutionary rate of ~1 species extinction every few days. This snowball has been rolling for a long time, and it is getting very large now. Where does it stop?

We have ideas of where it stops. What other mass extinctions do you know of? The only difference is those are theorized to have been caused by natural disasters.

I'm not saying this bee thing has anything to do with this, it probably doesen't.. I am saying that we need to take care of our home. We claim to be intelligent. Let's be intelligent. Regardless of what you believe; "The planet will be here long after we're gone..". No doubt. The natural world collapsing around us wouldn't be a fun thing to go through, and assuming it is preventable in the first place, we should try.
 

Phlargo

Senior member
Jul 21, 2004
865
0
0
So.. what you're really saying is that now is the perfect time to stock up on honey and that honey futures are an exceptionally good buy right now.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
one of the few insects i do life:(

takes a buncha bees lifetime just to sweeten my coffee, thats amazing.