By Julia Conley In addition to devastating effects on bee populations and the pollination needed to feed humans and other species, widely-used pesticides chemically related to nicotine may be deadly to birds and linked to some species’ declines, according to a new study. Researchers at…
By Derek Mitchell, University of Leeds Honey bees are under extreme pressure. The number of honey bee colonies in the US has been declining at an average rate of almost 40% since 2010. The biggest contributor to this decline is viruses spread by a parasite,…
By Nicholas West This article contains excerpts from Issue 28 of our premium monthly newsletter — Counter Markets. When the reality show Doomsday Preppers aired its Pilot episode in 2011, the critical reviews were mixed at best. But as soon as the ratings started coming…
By Alex Pietrowski There is a time bomb ticking away that spells disaster for human beings and the quality of life on planet earth. We’ve been watching and waiting, covering this story for years, and the more time goes by the more bad news keeps…
By Elias Marat While the role played by honeybees and wild bees as important pollinators is well known, the bumblebee also plays a crucial role in maintaining the health and viability of crops such as chili peppers and tomatoes. And now, researchers at the National…
More “intensive” beekeeping does not raise the risk of diseases that harm or kill the insects, new research suggests. Intensive agriculture – where animals or plants are kept crowded together in very high densities – is thought to result in higher rates of disease spreading….
Bees are valuable to humans not only because they produce honey, but also because they pollinate wildflowers and food crops. They exclusively eat nectar and pine pollen. So in areas where intensive agriculture is practised, they suffer from the thin supply of flowers in May…
By Arjun Walia In Brief The Facts: The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced “emergency” approvals to spray sulfoxaflor — an insecticide considered “very highly toxic” to bees — on nearly 14 million acres of crops known to attract bees. Reflect On: Why do corrupt federal…
Beekeepers across the United States lost 40.7% of their honey bee colonies from April 2018 to April 2019, according to preliminary results of the latest annual nationwide survey conducted by the University of Maryland-led nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership. The survey results indicate winter losses of…
By Tyler Durden The total number of honey bee colonies across Europe plunged 16% over the winter 2017–18, according to COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), an international, non-profit organization based in Switzerland, tasked with the goals of protecting honey bees. Allison Gray, the lead researcher…
By Emma Fiala London’s bee population will soon be getting a boost thanks to a seven-mile “bee corridor” being constructed in the London Borough of Brent. The borough recently announced plans to connect 22 “urban meadows” together to create the corridor in an effort to encourage…
By Tyler Durden Researchers from the University of New Hampshire conducted a study to document declines in about 100 wild bee species critical to pollinating crops throughout New England. What they discovered, according to the study, was a collapse in the wild bee population across the state, reported…
By Elias Marat The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted “emergency” clearance to sulfoxaflor – an insecticide that, by the agency’s own admission, is considered “very highly toxic” to bees. Sulfoxaflor will be used on over 16 million acres of crops that are attractive to bees….
By Alex Pietrowski Humans are good at reacting to crises that they can see right before their eyes, but if something isn’t recognizing as an immediate threat, we’re very good at ignoring it. For the last 8 years we have been receiving warnings about the…
By Rachel Blevins As the world population of honey bees continues to decline at a dangerous rate, a new study suggests that mushrooms could have a powerful effect on bees by helping them combat the viruses that have been killing their colonies. According to the…
By Melinda Cafferty, Natural Blaze Farai Chinomwe didn’t set out to bring awareness to bee decline, but his life has changed drastically in the last decade. He always enjoyed marathon running and eventually was inspired to run backward. Meanwhile, he made one very life-changing decision that most people…
By Joan Y. Meek, Florida State University Breastfeeding has long been the gold standard for infant nutrition. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and World Health Organization all recommend it. Thus, the recent New York…
By Brandon Turbeville, Natural Blaze “I’m not going to be like everyone else, I’m going to file suit against Monsanto” A beekeeping cooperative in northern France has filed a legal complaint against Bayer, the German chemical giant that recently merged with Monsanto after finding traces of glyphosate in their…
By Brandon Turbeville, Natural Blaze As bee populations continue to decline the world over, even more bad news is headed our way. According to numbers recorded in 2017, Irish bumblebee populations were at the lowest level since monitoring began six years earlier. The results indicated a relative marked loss…
By Lisa Egan Feared at best and considered a useless, disposable nuisance at worst, bees are among the most underappreciated creatures on the planet. That’s a shame because our very existence relies on the tiny buzzing creatures. We’ve known for years that bee populations all across North America…
