The Coming Bee Rapture: Is Mitch McConnell at fault?
Is Senator Mitch McConnell killing all the bees?
I’ll admit the answer is probably no, but I’m not ruling it entirely out. If he didn’t do it out of pure malice, he might do it out of sheer incompetence.
No, on a more serious note, the reason I’m posting this article is because DMKY.com’s target audience is Kentucky and agriculture is incredibly important to Kentucky. And bees are important to agriculture and well over half the bees are dying in this nation for no good reason. We don’t know why.
The article I’m excerpting is an English translation of a German-language piece from Germany’s Der Spiegel. I found the quote from Albert Einstein in the second paragraph particularly haunting:
A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.
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As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
Mysterious events in recent months have suddenly made Einstein’s apocalyptic vision seem all the more topical. For unknown reasons, bee populations throughout Germany are disappearing — something that is so far only harming beekeepers. But the situation is different in the United States, where bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.
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One thing is certain: Millions of bees have simply vanished. In most cases, all that’s left in the hives are the doomed offspring. But dead bees are nowhere to be found — neither in nor anywhere close to the hives. Diana Cox-Foster, a member of the CCD Working Group, told The Independent that researchers were “extremely alarmed,” adding that the crisis “has the potential to devastate the US beekeeping industry.”
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Millions of bees disappearing? Did scripture foretell of a bee rapture in the End Times? Are the other bees being LEFT BEHIND?!
It is particularly worrisome, she said, that the bees’ death is accompanied by a set of symptoms “which does not seem to match anything in the literature.”
In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi — a sign, experts say, that the insects’ immune system may have collapsed.
The scientists are also surprised that bees and other insects usually leave the abandoned hives untouched. Nearby bee populations or parasites would normally raid the honey and pollen stores of colonies that have died for other reasons, such as excessive winter cold. “This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them,” says Cox-Foster.
It’s a fascinating and worrisome phenomenon.
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Without bees about 30% of the food humans eat each year ceases to exists. Maybe more for cattle and sheep and goats. After a few years the number of animals we eat will drop to a small portion of what we now eat in a year. And there won't be the plant foods there for us to turn to or that is required to rebuild the stocks of animal we feed on.
quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: I understand what bees do BEE gee. You can make a reason to throw money at anything. JOB creation is what we need to focus on right now.
If memory serves, Marie Antionette held the same philosophy as you MooCow. I believe she lost her head over it too.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: I understand what bees do BEE gee. You can make a reason to throw money at anything. JOB creation is what we need to focus on right now.
Like I said, poor ignorant fool!
Have you any idea ho many farming jobs will disappear when the crops they used to handle cease to be there because bees aren't around?
Of course you don't, because you were only parroting the crap from the Party and never bothered to think.
Then on down the line, how many truck drivers and RR employees will be laid off because there aren't the crops to take to mills and plants and markets? How many grocery store workers?
How many kids will go hungry because mama and daddy can't afford the resulting high cost of a loaf of bread and their Quaker Oats for breakfast?
You don't think, cow, you just parrot and insult. Good ol' Fat Rush has you well trained at the "don't think, just ditto" game.
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quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: I understand what bees do BEE gee. You can make a reason to throw money at anything. JOB creation is what we need to focus on right now.
If memory serves, Marie Antionette held the same philosophy as you MooCow. I believe she lost her head over it too.
Yup, like the exciteable Johnny Ringo in Tombstone, the strain was more than she could bear...
-------------------- Nashoba Holba Chepulechi Adventures in microcapitalism...
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