"Vanishing of the Bees" Documentary: maybe we should pay attention?

Quote of the day--at what point do we pay attention to nature?

“The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,  The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees.” --UNEP executive director Achim Steiner

Mr. Steiner was responding to the following announcement from the United Nations:

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN on Thursday expressed alarm at a huge decline in bee colonies under a multiple onslaught of pests and pollution, urging an international effort to save the pollinators that are vital for food crops.

Much of the decline, ranging up to 85 percent in some areas, is taking place in the industrialised northern hemisphere due to more than a dozen factors, according to a report by the UN’s environmental agency.

They include pesticides, air pollution, a lethal pinhead-sized parasite that only affects bee species in the northern hemisphere, mismanagement of the countryside, the loss of flowering plants and a decline in beekeepers in Europe.


At what point are we going to pay attention?

At what point are we going to care?

When the food system totally breaks down?

Link to original post:  United Nations Sounds Alarm Over Vanishing Bees
http://www.disinfo.com/2011/03/united-nations-sounds-alarm-over-vanishing-bees/

Nature's die-offs so far: anyone paying attention? (updated)

Sure everyone heard about the 5,000 blackbirds that died in Arkansas over the New Year's holiday, you bet.  And then the fish kill, nearby.

Both events surprising, unexpected and unexlained, so far.

But it's important to look at the "big picture", especially in nature and especially with "die-offs" being experienced in nature in recent times.  We need to be sure we're putting and keeping all the puzzle pieces together, in a manner of speaking, so we don't miss anything.

Herewith, then, is a recent list of some of these big "die-offs" in nature that we can't quite seem to explain:

1)  Again, the 5,000 blackbirds killed in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year's Eve.  Maybe it was from people shooting a "fireworks cannon" and so, explained, maybe not.  No one knows yet;

2)  Next was that kill of 100,000--yes, one hundred thousand--drum fish near Ozark, Arkansas on about 20 miles of the Arkansas River.  Nothing to sneeze at.  At this point, they still don't seem to know what killed them, either;

3)  Next up was a 2nd large bird kill, this time in neighboring Louisiana, where an estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School.


The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward...

That was just down the road from Baton Rouge.

4)  Word out in the last 24 hours tells of a huge die-off of 2 million fish in recent days in Maryland's section of the Chesapeake Bay, the Baltimore Sun says;

5)  "The Huffington Post says, meanwhile, says there have also been reports of "mass fish deaths ... in Brazil..."  ParanaOnline reports that 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish have washed up in Brazilian fishing towns since last Thursday. The cause of the deaths is unknown, with an imbalance in the environment, chemical pollution, or accidental release from a fishing boat all suggested by local officials.

6)  "...and New Zealand":  In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on Coromandel Peninsula beaches, many found with their eyes missing,

7)  The same Huffington Post article tells of another, but smaller, die-off of about 50 birds that mysteriously "fell from the sky" in Sweden and again, unexplained.  Oh, joy;

8)  Next up is more than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs have wound up dead on England beaches.   If I can say "fortunately" here, I would say fortunately this seems to have simply occurred due to hypothermia.  It seems they may have just gotten hit with terribly cold weather this winter;

9)  Then there is the massive die-off, worldwide, of pollinating bees we're aware of.  The abundance of four common species of bumblebees in the us has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades, according to the most comprehensive national census of the insects.

Again, we aren't quite sure why yet though I can't imagine humankind's spraying insecticide all over millions of acres of the world can't be doing them any good, at minimum.  It's also been posited that maybe it's our cell phones.  Stay tuned;

10)  Added to all this is the die-off of bats the world over and again, we aren't quite sure why though they have found a fungus that seems to be a common thread in their situation;

11)  Then there's the possible collapse, this time of a plant, of the banana crop across much of the world.  It began in Australia, it seems, and has spread across the world, seemingly headed for our source for bananas, South and Central America.  They're all the same strain of bananas, you see, so any fungus that gets the one, gets them all eventually;

12)  Finally, there is the bleaching and dying off--this more slowly--of the coral reefs that has been noticed by scientists and divers the world over, possibly, if not likely, due to climate change and the increased temperature of the oceans.

There you have it.  I think that's all I have for today, I think.  I guess.

And isn't that enough?

Isn't it far too much?

At what point do we start paying attention to nature, folks, and to this planet we need to live on? 

At what point do we start giving credence to the idea that we need to live with and take care of nature and our planet so we don't end up with the "Silent Spring" Rachel Carson warned us of so many decades earlier?

Now seems like a good time.

Links:  http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/04/Arkansas-bird-kill-likely-due-to-noise/UPI-56241294152955/
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-02/us/arkansas.fish.kill_1_massive-fish-dead-birds-bird-deaths?_s=PM:US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/another-large-bird-kill-reported-this-time-in-louisiana
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/05/132675539/latest-report-of-animal-carnage-2-million-fish-die-in-chesapeake-bay
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/05/dead-birds-fall-from-sky-_n_804591.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/03/bumblebees-study-us-decline
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978877668
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=bees+dying&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/10/110110fa_fact_peed
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/coral-reefs-in-danger-of-being-destroyed-1908544.html
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=coral+reefs+in+danger&aq=0p&aqi=p-p2g8&aql=&oq=coral+re&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/mass-bird-fish-deaths-worldwide-phenomenon/
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/916503--40-000-crabs-join-slew-of-animal-death-mysteries

Note to Missouri chemical companies Bayer and Monsanto

To the chemical companies--and even the farmers--around the world:

You're killing us:

"The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides."

Do you know how central, how pivotal, the common honey bee is to our existence, folks?

Extremely.

Pollinization is key to a great deal of plant's lives around the world and if we don't have bees, it can't happen.

What else, other than the common honey bee, is going to go from plant to plant, pollinizing?

You? Me?

Nope. And we know it.

Check it out: "About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini."

Note that it's from A to Z.

One third of the human diet potentially not available because we use--overuse, really--chemicals and pesticides.

"This year bees seem to be in bigger trouble than normal after a bad winter, according to an informal survey of commercial bee brokers cited in an internal USDA document. One-third of those surveyed had trouble finding enough hives to pollinate California's blossoming nut trees, which grow the bulk of the world's almonds."

As Bob Dylan wrote and sang "A change is gonna' come" and it better be sooner than later, folks.

We'd better start paying attention to what we're doing to our world.