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Cell Phones Destroying Bee Colonies; No Bees = No Pollination
Posted by Pile
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| The latest environmental disaster appears to be related to the disappearance of bee colonies all around the world. Scientists are collecting evidence which suggests that cell phone signals and RF radiation is having an impact on bees and crops are not getting properly pollinated as a result. |
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
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".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real." |
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| Posted by Anonymous on 2007-04-15 13:00:37 | | someone call japan it has the largest cell phone use for the longest time so it should be hit the hardest. |
On the other hand
Posted by Judy on 2007-04-17 01:12:39 | | The colony die-off seems to have started in the US and spread to Europe. Since Europe has more cell phones per square kilometer than we do, that suggests to me there's something else going on. |
| Posted by Anonymous on 2007-04-17 07:38:50 | | we still have butterflys and humming birds |
butterflies and hummingbirds
Posted by leslie on 2007-04-17 11:54:57 | | people really need to learn a bit about biology and botany before they go spouting off. Butterflies and hummingbirds pollinate plants they are evolved to pollinate. The long bill of a hummingbird is matched to tubular flowers, not the flowers of alfalfa, apples, etc. Honeybees pollinate a significant portion of our commercially produced vegetable and fruit crops. To think that other pollinators will somehow magically fill the void is silly and uninformed. |
| Posted by Jim H. on 2007-04-21 09:54:59 | | Can the cell phone bee research at Landau be examined by another University for further understanding of the possible link to the bees’ adversity to the phones nearby? Has anyone else performed the expierment? |
| Posted by Nature lover on 2007-04-24 08:57:15 | I have done some reading on this and spoke to a number of people as well. As a skeptic, a realist, and optomist, I put my faith in evidence that shows bees do not go near the hives when cell phones are placed nearby. Further I spoke with a women who's father was a beekeeper for many many years and a cell phone tower was built near his apiary. His daughter stated that ALL of his bees dissapeared! The ones left behind in the hives died. He passed away 4 years ago after the passing of all his bees.
Common sense should prevail here.
Hope all you naysayers do your own research before you spout your shallow opinions!
As for myself, I turned my cell phone off for good, forever>.. I am done with my part of that terrible cause of killing our poor bees, cause we ourselves are self destructing to continue such an unecessary and dangerous toy, grow up people!
Please this is not joke anymore. |
Humming birds, bees & butterflies
Posted by Nature lover on 2007-04-24 09:19:50 | Thanks Leslie for your educated input.
More people should educate themselves before they spout off their arrogant opinions, because that is what it boils down to is an opinion unless you really put yourself out there and do your own research and investigating. I will continue my own investigating and research and keep you guys informed too. It really is appauling how stupid we as a society have become and how numb we are to the facts and science that support the evidence in front of us. It makes perfect sense in a world that has gone mad!
Oh... and we have lost most of our butterflies as well, that is why our children our now doing their part in school to keep the butterflies from going extinct. |
wow you are stupid
Posted by travis eno on 2007-07-29 22:23:41 | | you have got to be kidding me, what the hell is wrong with you people?? this is the most ridiculous thing i've heard in quite some time, before you go off ranting about the decimation of bee populations look at your source you're getting the information from. |
| Posted by Pile on 2007-07-30 15:30:22 | | Yea, listen to the anonymous, ambiguous moron. He's obviously on track. |
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