4 ms·

Insecticides might be killing insects? This must be studied for a few decades, we wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

by genwin 13y ago

will_brown 13y ago
It should be no surprise that bees (as pollinators) and chemical companies are multimillion dollar/billion dollar industries within the larger agricultural industry. It should also be no surprise the chemical companies are paying millions of dollars a year to special interest groups, lobbyists, PR, and "independent" research studies - all of which suggest Colony Collapse Disorder is not definitively linked with "insecticides", as you call them. CCD is analogous to almost every other scientific theory that runs counter to powerful interests and money, backed by observation, research studies, empirical data, and plain common sense - think evolution or global warming - science and common sense goes out the window in favor of the status quo.
- pstuart 13y ago
  Yes, nobody talks about how the industrial beekeepers themselves are partly to blame by shipping their bees around the world and exposing them to new diseases. Gotta maximize short term profits, eh?
- akiselev 13y ago
  It's a real bummer. Most of the fertilizer/insecticide companies are focused on the corn and a few other cash crop or subsidized markets. The problem is that most of those crops self-pollinate or are pollinated by wind (like corn). This leaves the industry at odds with the beekeeping industry which is absolutely necessary to keep pollinating quite a few of the other crops we actually want to EAT.
Blahah 13y ago
Insects are not all the same, some are hundreds of millions of years evolutionarily distant from one another. This leads to quite specialised biology in different insect groups, and many insecticides have highly specific action that targets only a subset of insect species by interfering with molecular pathways specific to them. So actually, we really don't want to jump to conclusions. Just because something is an insecticide, doesn't mean it kills or harms all insects. A further relevant fact is that bee decline is related to many factors, possibly including pesticide use, but almost certainly including the modern practise of intensive bee farming and transport for pollination services, which leads to rapid spread of diseases.

Insecticides might be killing insects? This must be studied for a few decades, we wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

by genwin 13y ago

Insecticides might be killing insects? This must be studied for a few decades, we wouldn't want to jump to conclusions.

It should be no surprise that bees (as pollinators) and chemical companies are multimillion dollar/billion dollar industries within the larger agricultural industry. It should also be no surprise the chemical companies are paying millions of dollars a year to special interest groups, lobbyists, PR, and "independent" research studies - all of which suggest Colony Collapse Disorder is not definitively linked with "insecticides", as you call them. CCD is analogous to almost every other scientific theory that runs counter to powerful interests and money, backed by observation, research studies, empirical data, and plain common sense - think evolution or global warming - science and common sense goes out the window in favor of the status quo.

pstuart 13y ago
Yes, nobody talks about how the industrial beekeepers themselves are partly to blame by shipping their bees around the world and exposing them to new diseases. Gotta maximize short term profits, eh?
akiselev 13y ago
It's a real bummer. Most of the fertilizer/insecticide companies are focused on the corn and a few other cash crop or subsidized markets. The problem is that most of those crops self-pollinate or are pollinated by wind (like corn). This leaves the industry at odds with the beekeeping industry which is absolutely necessary to keep pollinating quite a few of the other crops we actually want to EAT.

Blahah 13y ago

Insects are not all the same, some are hundreds of millions of years evolutionarily distant from one another. This leads to quite specialised biology in different insect groups, and many insecticides have highly specific action that targets only a subset of insect species by interfering with molecular pathways specific to them. So actually, we really don't want to jump to conclusions. Just because something is an insecticide, doesn't mean it kills or harms all insects. A further relevant fact is that bee decline is related to many factors, possibly including pesticide use, but almost certainly including the modern practise of intensive bee farming and transport for pollination services, which leads to rapid spread of diseases.