First the Bees Died, then the Birds, are We Next?
I had planned to write a piece about our deep disconnection from each our bodies, other people and the natural world but that was derailed after a chat with my friend Buzz the beekeeper [not a nickname, this is his actual name] who told me that ALL his bees had died this past winter. As a former beekeeper myself I was deeply shocked by this news and wondered if there is more to this story. Well guess what – there is!
My deeper interest in all things environmental began over 20 years ago I read a book “Our Stolen Future” – a book that examined the implications of man-made chemicals called “endocrine disruptors”. It had a huge impact on me and ever since I have been noticing evidence of what they predicted will be coming: behaviour modifications, sexual confusion, increased sterility. I know this does not sound very exciting or relevant to your life, but give me a bit of time: I hope to have you see that this long term, quiet force of death is already impacting us is as much a threat as global warming and is in some ways a greater threat to us as a species.
Before we begin I need to emphasize that I am NOT a “doom and gloom” kind of guy. I actually find satisfaction and positive energy from facing the harsh truths of the simultaneous beauty and harshness of life. This attitude is captured well by the Chinese in their wording for crisis as: crisis = danger + opportunity
Would you like to know the extent of the massive North American wide honey bee deaths this past winter? Here are excerpts from the news stories.
Mike Parker doesn’t sugar-coat the scale of the problem that his Beamsville beekeeping business is facing. “It would finish us,” he said. When he opened his hives after winter, the president and owner of Charlie-Bee Honey wasn’t expecting the scale of the bee deaths he found. But by his estimation, he’s lost around 90 per cent of his bees. [normal is 15%] That means “millions and millions” of bees at one site alone. Out of the 8,000 hives that he manages, only 500 are viable. Roughly 7,500 of the bees were completely dead. He fears that it could be the end of the business, one of the largest apiaries in Ontario that was set up by his father Charlie Parker in 1970.
Losses in the honey and bee industry could surpass the billion-dollar mark in Canada this year, a Niagara-based beekeeper warns, due to a massive die-off of bees. In 2020, the total estimated contribution from the Canadian honey and bee industry was between $4 to $5.5 billion. “This is the worst that we have ever seen and I’ve been doing this for 50 years,” George Scott told CBC Hamilton. Scott is the president of Niagara Beeway, which sources queen bees from the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine. “In Niagara, we’ve lost thousands of colonies. Most of our operations here are so severely impaired that we are not going to provide pollination services this year,” he said.
And what are the causes of all this death? Well, that is very, very tough to discover. The reason for that is that there are multiple causes. Most people think the #1 cause are varroa mites, which were picked up by the European honey bees in eastern Asia when the Russians built the trans Siberian railway to Vladivostok and let their honey bees go wild. This mite had been living in relative balance with local bee species but weakens the honey bee so much that is much more susceptible to other stresses/ disease. Thus the #2 stress comes into the game – noenicitinoids. This new pesticide is a favourite for farmers because the seed is soaked in it so there is no spraying required. It also has the “advantage” of being long lasting and impregnating all parts of the plants. The problem is the nervous of the bees is affected by micro doses of it – as are some birds [and probably us, but there is no evidence of that…yet] The chemical does not kill them outright, but it makes them confused, they get lots, their fertility is decreased… you get the idea – it is an indirect death. Cause #3 of bee deaths is climate change. The variability of the seasons and extremes of hot and cold play havoc with the life cycle of the bee hive. It is just another stress on top of these 2 others that is just “too much”…. And the bees die.
Now varroa mites and noenicitinoids are probably not going to kill you. However, the evidence is over whelming that the attitude that we have towards other species always backfires and bites us in the bum. We think short term and don’t look at the big picture. So yes, noenicitinoids help the farmer who uses them, but destroys part of the ecosystem around the farm, that, in the long term, is necessary for the sustainability of the farm and food production. If you use the same logic you can see that this same attitude has us using endocrine disrupting chemicals which are used in plastics and the electrical grid and are thus useful in the short term but in the long term has the unintended consequence of making us stupid and sterile. If you are curious enough to want to learn more about noenicitinoids and endocrine mimickers here is a short synopsis of the dangers of each of these dangers and references to read from.
Endocrine mimickers
Our Stolen Future examines the ways that certain synthetic chemicals interfere with hormonal messages involved in the control of growth and development, especially in the fetus.
The developing fetus uses these natural hormonal messages, which come from both from its own hormone system and from its mother, to guide development. They influence virtually all of the growing individual’s characteristics, from determining its sex to controlling the numbers of toes and fingers to shaping intricate details of brain structure.
Scientific research over the last 50 years has revealed that this hormonal control of development is vulnerable to disruption by synthetic chemicals. Through a variety of mechanisms, hormone-disrupting chemicals (also known as endocrine disrupting chemicals or endocrine disruptors) interfere with the natural messages and alter the course of development, with potential effects on virtually all aspects of bodily function.
Our Stolen Future explores the scientific discovery of endocrine disruption. The investigation begins with wildlife, as it was in animals that the first hints of widespread endocrine disruption appeared. The book then examines a series of experiments examining endocrine disruption of animals in the laboratory which show conclusively that fetal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals can wreak life-long damage. These experiments also reveal some of the biological processes by which these chemicals have their effects, and that endocrine disruption effects can be caused by exposure to infinitesimally small amounts of contaminant. Moving from animals to people, Our Stolen Future summarizes a series of well-studied examples where people have been affected by endocrine disrupting chemicals, most notably the synthetic hormone dietheylstilbestrol (DES), to which several million women were exposed through misguided medical attempts to manage difficult pregnancies in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
Our Stolen Future then asks a broader, more difficult and more controversial set of questions. Given what is known from wildlife and laboratory studies, and from examples of well-studied human exposure, and given that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in the real world is widespread at levels comparable to those sufficient to cause animal harm, what effects should health scientists be looking for in people in general? Effects to be expected include declines in fertility and other impacts on the reproductive system of both men and women, impairments in disease resistance, and erosions in intelligence.
http://www.ourstolenfuture.com/ – since 1997 reports on this issue have been collected so the research there is up to date
Neonicitinoids
Neonicotinoid pesticides commonly found in agricultural areas kill bees and hurt their ability to reproduce, two separate large-scale studies confirmed for the first time Thursday.
The two studies — one that examined honeybees in Canada and the other that looked at three bee species in the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary — were the first large-scale investigations to test the popular agrochemicals influence on bees in real world settings. The work also turns many preconceived notions about bees and pesticides on their heads.
While many studies had connected neonicotinoids — a common class of insecticides derived from nicotine — to bee deaths in the past, few studies had examined how much pesticide is needed to harm bees or how long the exposure must take. Critics argued previous scientific studies used unrealistic quantities of pesticides in their experiments.
The new studies say the environmental levels of neonicotinoids surrounding farms do not obliterate bee colonies outright, but instead kill them over extended periods of time. The pesticides also threaten bee queens in particular — which means colonies have lower reproductive rates. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/neonicotinoid-pesticides-slowly-killing-bees
Here is a great article that makes it clear that these chemicals damage more than honey bees.
Neonicotinoid Pesticides Cause Mass Fatalities of Native Bumble Bees
https://academic.oup.com/ee/article/50/5/1095/6305931
Some of you may be thinking: “Too bad for the bees and the birds. These chemicals improve my life so I see not point in changing. Well, the plain fact is that humans and your body in particular are part of the environment around you. Having toxins in the world and expecting no impact on yourself is like peeing in your water cup, drinking from it, and expecting not to be affected. Niemoller, the German pastor who was part of the German resistance against Hitler, said it the best:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
So, what are you to do? See this crisis, all the others as well, as opportunities to change and make the world a better place to live in. There is not point in being either depressed/anxious or simplistically “hopeful” as both can keep you from changing and from taking action. With respect to this particular issue there are few things you can do, but as usual, the real change needs to happen at a system level. Start by only buy local honey so that the local beekeepers can make a living. Then, if you can afford it, buy organic food or other food that has not been grown with noenicitinoids. Reduce your use of plastics to a minimum. Recycle like mad. Most important of all – pressure governments to measure, control and stop as much as possible to use of endocrine mimicry chemicals and noenicitinoids. And while doing so, keep enjoying life and know that since we got ourselves into this mess we are quite capable of extracting ourselves from it.
Waste no more time arguing what a good man/woman should be, just be one.
– Marcus Aurelius
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