Missing Bees (part 3)
Learn how these missing bees relate to the use of cell phones, and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes in January 2007 and found half of his 100 million bees missing.
In 24 states throughout the United States, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable.
Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg was the first beekeeper to report to bee researchers what’s become known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country.
Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction.
A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.
The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the off season to be normal.
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world – the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon – which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe – was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly, far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And John Chapple, one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”.
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees’ behavior changes near power lines. Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause.
Although the Bible plainly speaks of great famine in the last days, the prophetic words of Revelation 6:6 states that the olive and grape harvest will not be damaged.
In general, breeders have assumed that grapes were either completely self- fertilizing or were cross-pollinated by wind, so that in either case insects were considered of no value. The grape harvest will not be affected by the missing bee population.
Bees and other insects play a minor role in olive pollination; wind moves most of the pollen from tree to tree. Most olive varieties are self-fertile, but increased production often results from cross pollination. And neither will the olive harvest be affected by CCD.
Grape and olive oil production will only be minimally impacted by Colony Collapse Disorder while much of the fruit, vegetable and nut production will be severely reduced resulting in famine. These end time biblical prophecies are coming to pass within our own lifetimes demonstrating once again that the Word of God is true and to be trusted.
Missing bees have been observed in many parts of the United States where mobile phones range from fair to poor. Interestingly this is not the case in parts of Asia where there are high density mobile phone bases. In Europe, missing bees appear to be mainly in the southern parts of the continent.
In the United Kingdom and many other countries mild to moderate cases of missing bees appear to occur. This is despite the fact that their mobile coverage is at least as good as that found in rural parts of the United States of America and other areas where disappearing bees has been at its worst.
An in-depth study at the Landau University in Georgia has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried this experiment out, said this could provide a clue to a possible cause of missing bees.
An excerpt from Wikipedia about missing bees states: In May 2010, two researchers from Chandigarh’s Panjab University published a study alleging to find significant changes in honeybee behavior as a result of the placement of two functional cell phones of GSM 900 MHz frequency inside the hive.
The study was immediately criticized for systemic errors, primarily based on the low sample size (four colonies). Criticisms also noted that the researchers mischaracterized the electromagnetic environment of areas where CCD has been reported and drew a false comparison to the electromagnetic environment of India.
“From Various Internet Sites”