The honeybee is a remarkably resilient species that has thrived for 40 million years, and the widespread collapse of so many colonies presents a clear #message: We must demand that our regulatory authorities require studies on how exposure to low dosages of combined #chemicals may affect human #health before approving compounds, Mark Winston wrote in The New York Times. 3 things humans can learn from the bee colony collapse 1. Bees put the #colony before the #individual. If we would put the #best needs of #society ahead of the needs of the individual, I think we would find a lot of problems we face as #humans would be fairly easily solved, Winston said on The Daily Circuit. 2. Excessive #management of agriculture is #harmful. We do need to #recognize that the more we manage, the more #problems we cause that need to be managed, he said, which leads to a descending spiral. 3. Take advantage of #natural services. Beyond honeybees, there are thousands of wild bee species that could offer some of the pollination #service needed for agriculture, he wrote in The New York Times. Yet feral #bees -- that is, bees not kept by #beekeepers -- also are threatened by factors similar to those afflicting #honeybees: heavy #pesticide use, destruction of nesting sites by overly intensive #agriculture and a lack of diverse #nectar and #pollen sources thanks to highly effective #weed killers, which decimate the unmanaged #plants that bees depend on for #nutrition. mprnews.org/story/2014/07/29/daily-circuit-bees-humans?from=dc
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 03:09:56 +0000
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