Posted on 09/12/2015 8:04:06 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A federal appeals court this week assailed the Environmental Protection Agency for approving a Dow AgroSciences insecticide linked to honeybee deaths, charging that the agency's action was based on flawed and inadequate data.
The decision by a three judge panel in San Francisco was a huge win for beekeepers who have argued that the new type of insecticide targeted in the case one of the causes of "Colony Collapse Disorder" blamed for the deaths of millions of hives.
It was a huge blow to Dow, which touted its pesticide Sulfoxaflor to investors. The company's stock took a hit on Wall Street today.
And the EPA also was smacked for approving the chemical that is part of a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids before it had fully tested the impact.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
That Washington Time editorial is just so wrong.
First of all, they disparage the EPA for trying to prohibit the use of neonicotinoids. Trouble is, the EPA actually allowed the use of that type of pesticide. The lawsuit just decided this past week found AGAINST the EPA for allowing the use of neonicotinoids because of insufficient studies.
Secondly, the Washington Times cherry picked the data from the Department of Agriculture’s report - http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2015/150513.htm. Yes, winter kill of honey bees is down. HOWEVER, summer kill is significantly up, and the yearly percentage of honey bees dying has been trending up. There is a problem with honey bees dying.
The government, whom many believe is the answer to every ill, inevitably succumbs to corruption and incompetence. Until that lesson is learned, mankind will continue to fashion its own yoke of servitude.
Well, I’m no expert on the subject, but some folks sure aren’t buying it.
I don’t know where you are located, but my hives are doing just fine.
Other than the drought has reduced a lot of the natural forage and production is down a little, I have not had any unusual problems.
No excessive winter or spring die off.
Right, and stories like this are a reminder that there are some functions that we need the EPA to be carrying out effectively. (That is, the whole agency should not be scrapped.)
Even if the die offs are up correlation does not equate to causation.
You need evidence linking the death of bees to the insecticides.
I read an article months ago showing microscopic mites in the hives of the dead bees.
Perhaps the new insecticides are causing the bee deaths but there needs to be science behind the removal of the insecticide from the market not just a reactionary federal appeals court.
Clever diversion. /s
Bees HAVE been getting scarcer for about the last 20 years. What is the cause of this is unknown. My favorite theory is “genetic entropy” aggravated by the apiarist’s bee handling practices that limit genetic diversity of the bee population.
I feel that the nebulous list of causes discovered for CCD reflects a general decline in the genetic “fitness” of bees. The extinction of bees may be inevitable eventually but beekeepers themselves are probably accelerating that trend.
Genetic entropy is a real phenomenon and must cause the extinction of every living thing eventually. See Dr. John Sanford’s (inventor of the gene gun) work called “Genetic Entropy”
Think genetic entropy. Re: “Genetic Entropy” by Dr. John Sanford (inventor of the gene gun).
It boils down to the fact that in every generation of every living thing, there is a small number of copying errors in its DNA. Those errors usually do not cause the outright death of the organisms, therefore there is no natural selection against the accumulating errors. Eventually there is such a general decline in function that the organism becomes so unfit that extinction results from a mildly adverse environmental change.
Government is the greediest, most corrupt and murderous force on Earth. It’s not even debatable. But lets’ have a religious faith in government anyway.
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