Bee decline already having dramatic effect on pollination

[biffvernon]

Yes. A positive step.

[clv101]

The Independent - 31/03/12

The Government is to reconsider its refusal to ban neonicotinoid pesticides, the nerve-agent chemicals blamed for the collapse of bee colonies worldwide, the chief scientist at the Department of the Environment, Sir Robert Watson, told The Independent.

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Interesting! I wrote to my MP about this a couple of weeks ago, received a fairly standard reply from her. Then yesterday I received a further letter from Richard Benyon MP, minster for natural environment and fisheries stating, with respect to the scientific studies I cited: "[they] raise some interesting questions, such as how laboratory studies relate to field conditions, but do not cause a need for a change in the regulatory process."

[Aurora]

IMHO, it's a no-brainer.

Urban bee colonies are thriving. No pesticides.

Rural bee colonies are dying in areas where the liberal use of pesticides is common place.

Answer: Ban the offending pesticides.

[SleeperService]

Why is everybody so hostile to the idea that something that kills can, at a lower dose, have lesser effects.

Do you expect to be able to knock back 5 litres of vodka in an evening and survive? No.

Do you expect to be impared after 0.25L? Yes. That imparement often means the difference between life and death. Just read the local papers no end of dead drunks around here over a year.

Alcohol acts as a neurotoxin as well as a lot of other things. But then the bees don't have a vested interest group

[kenneal - lagger]

The decision over whether or not to ban these chemicals is a similar one over whether or not to acknowledge Global Warming and take action. The result of not instituting a precautionary ban are so horrendous that on a risk basis the ban is essential until, at least, a definite answer is found.

If they ban neonicotinoids temporarily and the bee populations start to recover the ban should be made permanent. If they ban them and bee populations don't start to recover there was probably something else causing the problem.

[kenneal - lagger]

Interesting! I wrote to my MP about this a couple of weeks ago, received a fairly standard reply from her. Then yesterday I received a further letter from Richard Benyon MP, minster for natural environment and fisheries stating, with respect to the scientific studies I cited: "[they] raise some interesting questions, such as how laboratory studies relate to field conditions, but do not cause a need for a change in the regulatory process."

You could write to Richard Benyon through your own MP and ask him if bee keepers on his organically managed estate have any problems with colony die off. His personal opinion on this may not match the official one.

[nexus]

Or maybe some people are reluctant to admit that neonicotinoid pesticides are a bad idea.

This is from Private Eye no.1311:

Two new studies linking the collapse of bee populations to the use of neonicotinoid pesticides were published to great fanfare last week. Funnily enough, neither study came about thanks to the £1 million of projects launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2009 to investigate the disappearing bee phenomena-with generous funding from pesticide manufacturer Syngenta (Eye 1247).

Although the research teams that received the funding, at Warwick University and the Rothampstead research labs have since published studies on bee health looking at fungal infections, mites and environmental factors, there is no sign of any findings related to the impact of the current generation of pesticides.

Professor David Goulson said his Stirling University team, which did link pesticides with the collapse in bee numbers hadn't had any industry funding for its work, " in fact it wasn't really funded at all," he told the Eye, saying that researchers in the biological and environmental sciences team had done the work in their spare time between other projects. The other paper citing a link with pesticides was produced by France's National Institute for Agronomic Research.

Several European countries banned neonicotinoids years ago, as reported by the Eye in 2008.

Another case of scientists being influenced by their paymasters, shame it is about something so important.

[biffvernon]

Nice one, Private Eye. It tells of the sad state of British science.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Several European countries banned neonicotinoids years ago, as reported by the Eye in 2008.

So it should be a simple matter to compare the instances of CCD in these countries with those that haven't banned them.

At first glance I would imagine that the results would be pretty conclusive either way.

Has anyone done the study?

[biffvernon]

Yes and they are. Even across USA where some states use the stuff and some states don't.

[kenneal - lagger]

The difference between town and country in the UK is pretty staggering too.

[Aurora]

Pesticides are to blame for colony collapse disorder - yet more proof from the Harvard School of Public Health.

The Independent - 06/04/12

A commonly used nerve-agent pesticide is the likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honey bee colonies in the last five years, a scientific study claimed yesterday.

Imidacloprid, one of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides introduced over the past 15 years, is likely to be responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the recently observed phenomenon in which bees abandon their hives en masse, according to the study by scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States.

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[frank_begbie]

If its not a daft question...what the hell are we waiting for?

[biffvernon]

Presumably people from Monsanto and Bayer have been to supper with Dave and Sam.

[woodburner]

Perhaps they have worked out how to cause die-off and avoid getting the blame.