Airwaves: The effect of insecticides on bees

biodiversity & environment

By Gavin

April 11th, 2011

0 Comments

New scientific research suggests that pesticides have a lesser effect on bees than first thought. The debate took to the airwaves last week on BBC’s Radio 4, here’s the full transcript…

 

Charlotte Smith (Farming Today, BBC Radio 4): Insecticides may not be as bad for bees as previously thought, according to the American researcher who’d linked bee deaths with a type of insecticide, neonicitinoids. Dr Jeff Pettis from the US Agricultural Research Service now says the chemicals don’t appear to have as big an effect on bee health as he first thought. In the US honey bee numbers have fallen by a third and here too there’s been a decline in the bee population. Well as we’ll hear in a moment environmentalists and the pesticide industry disagree on the safety of neonicitinoid insecticides which are applied to seeds and so are taken up by the growing plant…

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Bee-cause we don’t know

biodiversity & environment

By Gavin

July 29th, 2010

4 Comments

The buzz about the disappearance of bees continues – it’s a frenzy of speculation, finger pointing and occasionally, research. Here’s a brief round-up of some recent cyberspace chatter on the subject…

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The latest buzz

biodiversity & environment

By Gavin

March 12th, 2010

1 Comment

Everybody loves bees, and so do we. Bees pollinate our plants so that we can grow food, they fulfil a valuable role in ecosystems – they even make honey. As a species, the honey bee is suffering a reported global decline in population, a phenomenon termed ‘Colony Collapse Disorder‘ (CCD). The disappearance of honey bees is an issue that receives regular media attention – coverage that all too often feeds speculation and fails to deliver fact.

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More on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) from around the web

biodiversity & environment

By Gavin

November 18th, 2009

3 Comments

Another round-up of online press and research covering the debate on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name given to an apparent global decline in the pollinating bee population. Comments and link contributions are welcomed – look for the ‘Comments’ link at the base of this post.

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