ENVIRONMENT
July 28th, 2011 by Barry Eaton
Teenage Bee Keeper on a mission to save the bees from Colony Collapse Disorder
Saturday, January 14, 2012 by: PF Louis
http://www.naturalnews.com/034644_bee_keeper_colony_collapse_disorder_teenager.html#ixzz1jWLWoZ5v
(NaturalNews) A bright, hyperactive boy named Henry Miller undertook an unusual mission at the age of eleven. The mission was unusual because he was so young and new to country life. His family had moved from urban Los Angeles to a rural spot in Washington State when Henry was ten.
His adopted mission was to contribute to the honey bees survival. He started his own bee keeping and turned it into a family business producing raw honey on their small run down farm outside of Bethingham, Washington. Now at 14 years of age, Henry runs a family business producing raw honey. And he contributes part of his profits to the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees.
How Henry learned about colony collapse disorder (CCD)
Henry was inspired by a serendipitous and sudden awareness of colony collapse disorder (CCD). When he was eleven, he boarded a plane with his mother and a stranger sat beside him. That stranger was a bee farmer, who found a pair of ears with the precocious young boy. Henry was informed of the bees important role of spreading pollen around to maintain agricultural and wild plant life.
The bee farmer explained how a strange phenomenon called colony collapse disorder was causing bees to suddenly disappear in large numbers in several regions around the world. He told Henry that if all the bees disappeared, in seven years there would be serious problems with the entire food chain.
This situation is not exaggerated. The bees disappearing from CCD has been a mysterious honey bee pandemic for over a decade. The global problem synchronized with Bayer’s introduction of neonicotinoidand clothianidin pesticides. Both are toxic to insects that fly because the plants suck them up from the soil and into plant pollen areas.
Butterfly populations had dropped as well. But the bees were affected worse because they return with polluted pollen to their crowded hives. What are claimed to be sub-lethal toxins accumulate over a short time into lethal levels. France was the first to ban Bayer’s toxins in 1999, and their bee populations increased.
Naturally Bayer disagrees with that assessment. But in 2003, the French Minister of Agriculture banned Bayer’s pesticides once more. Obviously, EU nations have more responsible agricultural agencies than we do in the USA.
In the USA, Bayer was granted conditional registration of their clothianidin pesiticide in 2003 while testing that product. Bayer’s profitable marketing continued throughout the testing period of 2003 to 2007. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considered Bayer’s four year foot dragging test during their marketing explosion as “scientifically sound.”
However, leaked EPA internal memos demonstrated otherwise. The tests were faulty and should have been considered inconclusive. But they were allowed, and Bayer’s pesticides are flourishing in America. This type of “wink and nod” generosity is common toward chemical companies who do their own testing.
Grassroots hope for honey bees
The European cooperation among independent large and small bee farmers and bee keepers managed to get governments on the bees side. France, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia have banned most of Bayer’s pesticide use. In the USA and wherever Bayer and other chemical companies have their way with top government agency bureaucrats, grass roots action is the only solution.
There is a movement toward more sustainable organic small scale bee keeping letting bees breed and grow naturally. And promoting natural immunity for bees is chosen over killing natural enemies with chemicals.
More bee keeper hobbyists have sprung up recently, promoting honey bee survival by raising a few bees of their own in backyards and on apartment building roof tops. And of course, there’s Henry Miller.
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Space and Earth Scientists On Edge over Solar Effect
by Mitch Battros - Earth Changes
Top international scientists and disaster experts have come together with a sharp message for the world’s political leaders: ‘Get ready for more dangerous and unpredictable weather caused by the Sun’s effect here on Earth.’
The scientific panel was formed by the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization. In the past, it has discussed extreme events which were mostly manipulated by global warming enthusiasts, but this time scientists are putting variant studies together.
Sami Solanki, of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPISSR) in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany said: “After looking at data of past solar activity, we have pointed out that it is just as likely that the Sun will go into a grand maximum in the current cycle (24) and then again into a grand minimum in cycle 25.”
Experts fear that without preparedness, crazy weather extremes may overwhelm some locations, making them uninhabitable. This may be the first time a group of differing scientific body’s has focused on the dangers of extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and storms.
In August, the U.S. government said the United States had already tied its yearly record for the number of weather disasters with an economic loss of $1 billion or more. I guess it still comes down to the money (and greed) to make significant shifts.
Cycles Which Supersede Cycles
Solar activity increases and decreases in an 11 year cycle, but it also displays broader patterns over longer time scales. The Sun’s activities have a direct casual effect to us on Earth. When the Sun erupts with charged particles in the form of solar flares, coronal holes and CMEs, it has an effect on Earth’s magnetic field; this in-turn, can knock out satellites, power grids and create extreme weather.
Studies have shown massive disasters such as hurricane Katrina or the 2010 heat wave which hit Russia - were most likely related to external influences related to the Sun-Earth connection. Maarten van Aalst, director of the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Center in the Netherlands said: “A pattern of cyclical shifts from smaller events have been noticed.”
Scientists have been tracking solar activity for about 300 years by noting the comings and goings of Sunspots, temporary dark patches on the solar surface that often give rise to powerful flares and CMEs. These records show that virtually no sunspots were observed from 1645 to 1715 - a period of prolonged solar quiescence now known as the Maunder minimum.
The Sun may be coming out of a 70 year-long “grand maximum” of high activity at the end of this cycle, and some astronomers have suggested that our star could now be transitioning toward another Maunder-like minimum.
Scientists investigated this possibility by studying the Sun’s past, have combed through the old sunspot data but also looked at records of certain isotopes of the elements carbon and beryllium, which allowed them to go back much further in time.
These isotopes, carbon-14 and beryllium-10, are produced when fast-moving cosmic ray particles slam into Earth’s atmosphere. Because solar storms help sweep cosmic rays away from our planet, the abundance of carbon-14 and beryllium-10 enables researchers to reconstruct the Sun’s activity as far back as 11,000 years ago. These records show that virtually no Sunspots were observed from 1645 to 1715 - a period of prolonged solar quiescence now known as the Maunder minimum.
A Shift From Specialist Battlegrounds
The debate continues between environmentalists - as to the cause of weather extremes, however, the focus appears to have made a marked shift from solar vs manmade politics, to a focus on the solution.
Scientists are getting better and better at predicting solar activity hours or days in advance, thanks in large part to Sun-watching spacecraft such as NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency.
The new SDO and the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft, which is due to launch in 2017, should teach researchers more about the Sun’s interior, but our star’s rumblings will likely remain mysterious for a while.
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Author:‘Solar Rain - The Earth Changes Have Begun’ and
‘Global Warming: A Convenient Disguise’
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