Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Sounds much like "Global warming/change/whatever"-----Bee Facts Changed – Green Agendas Did Not

Bee Facts Changed – Green Agendas Did Not | Somewhat Reasonable
Activists and White House appear ready to present new justifications for unjustified policies
The White House finally appears ready to announce conclusions and policy recommendations from the Pollinator Task Force it appointed a year ago...
Long before the White House weighed in, anti-insecticide activists promoted claims that honeybees were headed for extinction because of pesticides, specifically neonics – unless the government banned them. 
Time magazine picked up their refrain, devoting a long cover story to the scary prospect of “a world without bees.” 
Other news stories uncritically repeated the end-of-bees assertions. 
One-third of the food we eat could disappear without bees to pollinate crops, they proclaimed. 
But there was a problem.
The narrative turned out to be false, extensive evidence now demonstrates – and inconvenient truths had gotten in the way of another slam-dunk Executive Branch edict.
...U.S. Department of Agriculture annual beekeeper surveys reveal that the number of honey-producing hives in the United States has held steady at about 2.5 million since 1995. 
Indeed, the numbers increased four of the last five years and are actually higher now than when neonics first came on the market in the mid 1990s. 
Most beehive problems now involve less experienced hobby beekeepers.
sounds much like  
Recent large-scale die-offs of domesticated bees appear to be caused primarily by Varroa mites (which feed on bees and can transmit bee viruses and diseases), parasitic phorid flies, Nosema intestinal fungi, and tobacco ringspot viruses. 
Beekeepers have accidentally killed entire hives trying to combat these problems.
...They, the White House and EPA need to check their facts this time. 
U.S. Geological Survey wild bee specialist Sam Droege says scientists still don’t know which species are declining or flourishing, but he believes most are doing fine.  
(There are some 4,000 native species of wild bees in North America.) 
Similarly, a 2013 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed U.S. native bee populations over a 140-year period and echoed that assessment. 
Of 187 native species analyzed, only three showed steep declines, and they were likely due to pathogens....
The White House would do well to leave science to experts, rather than activists with an ax to grind. If bee numbers are increasing, it is much harder to justify restricting a pesticide that is needed by farmers – and that would be much better for honeybees, wild bees and other beneficial insects.
As Randy Oliver emphasizes, it is important to let science do its job, figure out and address what is really happening to bees, use all insecticides carefully and responsibly, and not stigmatize neonic seed treatments on ideological or junk science grounds.
Otherwise, bee problems are likely to get worse, while neonic bans cause crop losses and a return to spraying pesticides that really can cause significant environmental problems.

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