BEES BEES BEES
So my brain is abuzz with facts about bees! Particularly facts about Honey bees and bumble bees. While searching for information bout bees and cranberries and how the two make each other happy, I came across a startling piece of information. There are no scientifically substantiated claims about a decline in cranberry pollinating bees! It’s the growers who have claimed that they’ve seen a decline in native pollinator bees over the last 4 decades. This may actually just be a response to the stress of a higher demand for cranberries, and a lack of INCREASE in bees, that’s why growers rent honey bee colonies for the pollination season.
Bumble bees have an average of 200-300 female worker bees per colony while
Honey Bees have an average of 40,000 to 50,000 female worker bees per colony. So by volume Honey bees are more effective, however their method of pollination is not the most efficient.
Unlike the honey bees who just kind of rub up on a flower to get nectar and pollen, Bumble bees are in the practice of ‘buzz-polination’ a technique where they dislocate the area that controls wing function and vibrate to a high frequency (middle C) which actively shakes the pollen loose and collects on the bumblebees hind legs.
Even with the nifty pollination trick, cranberry growers feel there just aren’t the number of native bees necessary to keep up with the cranberry demand.
0I met with Prof. Averill
My interview yesterday went swimmingly. She was more than happy to talk to me about her research, as well as some of the more fringe efforts that aren’t covered under the 5 year 3.3 million dollar grant that she received to study CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder)
She seemed incredibly concerned about the native bee populations. there are more than 4000 kind of bees, and the pollinators, (mostly honey and bumble bees) have been hit hardest by CCD. Bumblebees are native to the area where as honey bees are actually originally from Europe, however, the two species are genetically similar, which allows them to share pathogens. Which means if migratory honey bees are picking up pathogens on their travels, then coming to New England and pollinating, and a native bumble bee lands on the same flower, it can pick up a pathogen from California that it would not have other wise have been exposed to.
Most scientists are focused specifically on Migratory bees, as those are where the money is, because they are kept in bee yards then shipped to where they are needed. Prof. Averill realizes that the issue may not be about increasing migratory bee numbers, but facilitating the growth of native bee colonies.
Because many of the crops that rely on pollinators span across vast tracts of land it pushes native bee populations out of what would otherwise be their natural habitat. Averill is currently working with cranberry growers to change business practices with concerns to pesticide use, as well as creating on sight habitats for bee populations.
Her goal is to educate, about how to care for bees, including trying to give farmers (and politicians) an idea as to the economic value of pollinator insects.
5Bee research grant.
I’m focusing on bees for my next paper which is only ironic in the fact that I have a crippling fear of the buzzing insects. Fearful as I may be, UMASS’s Associate Professor of Entomology Anne Averill has received a 3.3 million dollar grant to study the little buggars.. ahem bugs.
Since the early 2000’s we’ve all heard about bees dying off. At one point there was an argument that increased cellphone use was interfering with bee migratory patterns and communications, though that has been widely thought to have been debunked.
Prof. Averill will be taking a more ecological look as to the cause of the dwindling population of wild bees and there relation to farm habitats. In a press release on 10/17 she mentioned that her research will focus primarily on how bees are effected by landscape farm size pesticide use, and crop diversity.
the goal is to develop a solution that identifies key predictive factors that can be expanded as research continues.
There are 3 other UMASS professors joining her in this research, as well as scientists from Maine, New York, Connecticut, and Tennessee.
While I myself am ok with seeing fewer bees around, they are a necessary component to the environment especially in farm communities where pollinating insects are a necessity for healthy crop production. The shrinking bee population could lead to huge pollination problems if it is not fixed, and the bee population doesn’t bounce back.
12Ezra Small
After listening to the new sustainability manager Ezra Small talk about goals for the umass campus, I can’t help but notice there seems to be only a few achievable short term goals that weren’t prefaced with the words “we want to continue”.
The only thing that didn’t seem to have a “continue” clause was his desire to increase recycling. Over all the main focus appears to be on getting staff faculty and students interested and involved in the idea of campus sustainability.
Perhaps it’s because he’s only been here for 7-8 weeks and hasn’t even had his budget approved, or maybe it’s because there are already a number of things on his plate, but I can’t help but feel like his optimism is clouding the view of reality. While in a perfect world everyone would be interested and active, the fact is people need to first care.
Having a sustainability week is a good way to draw attention, but I don’t think it will necessarily cut through the apathy and inspire the activism that Ezra is hoping for. However as he mentioned, it may just be a matter of hammering it into people over time. A goal that may become accomplishable with the integration of sustainability education into the curriculum.
Imagination seemed to be the theme of the day, as he explained that essentially everything had to be on the table in terms of what Umass can accomplish int he area of sustainability.
Some steps like creating a permaculture garden and initiating a bike share program have already been enacted. Now he’d like to see our recycling rate go up, and to get the campus to carbon neutrality. Where the campus will be saving the same amount of eco-materials as we use.
Ezra says that for the time being he has to tread lightly because he is so new, but at the moment the main focus is just on making his department more visible on campus and getting students staff and faculty interested in the changes that he’s like to make.
0Anonymous asked: Micah, A great example of the extreme and silly fight to obscure Climate Change concerns. Clear, well argued, but with a definite voice or tone. Did you link the original articles? jj
If you click the title it should take you to the article
0Smart Cars.
So while I am not a couch potato, I do have a small list of television shows that I like to take in on a regular basis, Jeopardy for study breaks, House, that godforsaken medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, and my new found addiction FX’s American Horror Story, which if I’m being completely honest I have no idea what is going on in this little piece of TV gold but it’s like a car crash, I just can’t look away. With the roughly 4.5 hours of TV that I watch in a week, I figure that at least an hour of it is taken up by bane of my existence, commercials.
Now I’ve never been particularly attentive to commercials, in fact at a young age I adopted a practice of hitting the mute button in between actual program content. Lately, however, I’ve been paying a bit more attention the boob tube when advertisements flash across the screen. Wether this is because I’ve turned into an Ad consuming zombie or I am actually growing into a spud like lump on the couch, your guess is as good as mine.
In my new commercial attentive state I’ve noticed something, every third advert that I seem to see is an ad for some kind of motor vehicle. The most recent one to rise above the car park clutter is for the smart car. You’ve probable seen the commercial I’m talking about, where everyone is repeating “Big” an obnoxious number of times in reference to something that one can only imagine, when all the sudden a guy in a conference room looks out to the parking lot and says “small” as he watches what looks to be a little lime green clown car maneuver it’s way out onto the street. If you’re still clueless or have no clue what a television looks like due to you’re residence being under a rock here’s a link to the commercial: http://youtu.be/JcAp1ogn79g
I’ve only seen a handful of smart cars in real life, and the only thing I can think is “Why would anyone be interested in purchasing a car you can barely fit your legs into.” After a little time spent on google, I think I may know the answer, they’re ‘eco-friendly’.
As I previously mentioned, my new familiarity of the car commercial arena has led me to notice an increasing number of auto ads that are trying to hock “environmentally friendly” vehicles, most commonly the hybrid car. All of these commercials pride themselves in assuring their audience in the environmental purity of their cars, talking about emissions and mixing words about eco-logic and gas milage. Recalling what I can from my previous eco centric classes, hybrids as they are now are NOT the environmentally conscious cars that they are presented as. For one Hybrid cars use up more rare earth recourses than the average economy car, and because of people’s driving habits, the battery component accounts for less than 20% of the car’s power, and that’s not even mentioning the manufacturing process which consumes petroleum and produces a number of pollutants in assembly alone.
But then behind this pack of hybrid sports models shoving their contorted message down my throat comes our little friend the smart car. One might imagine that the smart car was created by magical fairies in some remote location like middle earth (after all who else but fairies and hobbits could actually fit comfortably in the tiny car), or at least one might think it was created by a company that values efficiency over aesthetic, however the truth managed to surprise even myself.
Smart cars are manufactured DaimlerChrysler. Yup the company that hawks stately looking cars and sleek but elegant convertibles like the Mercedes that one expects to see cruising down places like wall street is responsible for the creation of an 8 foot long glorified clown car.
That being said, smart cars appear to be decidedly… well… smart, at least from an environmental perspective. About 95 percent of the vehicle is made of recycled material cutting down on it’s production consumption in comparison to its ‘hybrid’ competitors. It’s battery is also more recyclable than the battery used in the majority of hybrids, which are on the whole non-recyclable and have no real safe means of disposal.
Fuel wise, the smar car uses less fuel than hybrids, and still gets around 40 MPG’s regardless of how much you like to baby your break pedal. The tiny car has considerably lower emissions than average soccer mom car.
Granted, knowing about the environmental worthiness of the ‘eco=friendly’ cars on the market don’t exactly help me to compile the necessary funds to actually purchase one. However it does give me comfort to know that automotive companies are recognizing the call to create more environmentally appropriate cars, even if they aren’t quite there yet.
Now I guess I should be focusing on reducing my own carbon footprint, perhaps I’ll start by turning off the tube.
1Global Warming is a Hoax Because of Polar Bears? »
I present to you an article that decries global warming.
Apparently, the fact that four polar bear deaths were not related to melting ice caps means that global warming is a sham, a myth, a kids story, a hoax. The article discusses how a study written by scientists Jeffery Gleason and Charles Monnett where 4 polar bears were found dead floating in the ocean, implies that their deaths can be directly attributed to global warming, even though it was more likely related to wind type incidents.
Both Gleason and Monnett explicitly say that the polar bear deaths are most likely related to windstorms. So why is this article written by a staff member of the NaturalNews.com saying that it IMPLIES global warming is the cause? One reason might be that the article mentions “drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open-water periods continues”. Sure, you can infer that the regression of pack ice is due to global warming, and if you have any knowledge of the increase in temperature over the last few decades in relation to pre industrial revolution history, you might be inclined to agree.
The article fails to cite any real contradictory evidence, instead it points out potential flaws in the research, saying that the carcasses were never recovered, and that there is no proof that the polar bears they saw in the water were the same that they had seen a week or so prior. However the biggest point of this article seems to be calling into question the validity of global warming as a whole, because of a single study that in all fairness isn’t even focused on temperature change and the green house effect.
This article is just plain terrible, like many of the other ‘climate-skeptic’ articles I have read, the author seems intent on tearing the global warming perspective down based on a few flimsy facts. Painting the picture of a polar bear on a melting ice cap as the poster and prevailing concern of global warming, and then saying that the whole idea of global warming holds no merit based on this one idea is ridiculous. Global warming is not a reaction to trying to save the polar bears, but rather a reaction the the real and dangerously rapid rise in climate change. This change will effect humans, as warming water temperatures can contribute to the power of tropical storms and hurricanes.
If the article intends to cure people of their belief in global warming, then perhaps they should look at some peer reviewed scientific studies that document the actual climate change, instead of trying to use 4 dead polar bear carcasses as the means by which to do away with the entire issue of global warming.
Much like those who reacted poorly to the ‘hockey stick graph’, this article has taken hold of some pretty insignificant data, and has hollered “You see? It isn’t real, global warming never existed!” without even considering the other scientific data that supports global warming.
0A video from Hank Green of youtube’s Vlogbrothers, as well as a contributor to EcoGeek.org
Thoughts from a butterfly hatch.
I think this illustrates my love of the balance in ecosystems in an informative and entertaining way. It illustrates the intricacies and importance of all links in the ecosystem and how is one link is disrupted the whole system falls apart
