Source: Robotic Bees Are Now Being Built To Pollinate Crops Instead of Real Bees
Honeybees pollinate almost a third of the food we consume, but they’ve been dying at alarming rates due to threats like habitat loss and disease, as well as colony collapse disorder (CCD), the phenomenon where worker bees abandon their hives, leaving behind only the queen bee and enough food and nurse bees to help take care of the immature […]
Yes but can they make honey :-)
Chemical Company salesman manipulate half-life determinations to their own ends. Chemicals don’t simply evaporate at their half life time. It is what they break down into that is also critically important. DDT has a half life as little as 22 days.
So the chemical companies can say that in as little as 22 days, half the DDT is gone. And in 8 times 22 days or, just over six months, it’s all gone.
But it is not! DDT breaks down in “as little as 22 days” _into DDE_. The DDT is gone but DDE remains. And they know it. And DDE is thought to be more toxic and longer-lived than original DDT.
In particular it is the DDE that caused the bird egg shell thinning.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Environmental_impact
The biological thinning mechanism is not entirely understood, but strong evidence indictates that p,p’-DDE inhibits calcium ATPase in the membrane of the shell gland and reduces the transport of calcium carbonate from blood into the eggshell gland. This results in a dose-dependent thickness reduction.[1][61][62][63]
Also
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene
DDE is particularly dangerous because it is fat-soluble like other organochlorines, thus it is rarely excreted from the body and concentrations tend to increase throughout life. The major exception is the excretion of DDE in breast milk, which delivers a substantial portion of the mother’s DDE burden to the young animal or child.[3] Along with accumulation over an organism’s life, this stability leads to bioaccumulation in the environment which amplifies DDE’s negative effects.
Source: http://www.firefly.org/how-you-can-help.html
Create water features in your landscape.
Most species of fireflies have one thing in common: they thrive around standing water and marshy areas. Ponds, streams and rivers can all provide good habitats for fireflies, but even a small depression full of water can cause them to congregate. Build a small pond or divert a small stream to run through your property, and it’s more likely you’ll see fireflies at night. Chemically treated swimming pools aren’t a good substitute; fireflies are believed to eat the smaller insects, grubs and snails that thrive in natural ponds and streams, and these don’t live in chlorinated environments.
Cool cool cool!!!
But you also must not use algaecide or other toxins that will kill the same type of life-forms.
Source: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2016/09September/Pages/Gut-bacteria-may-be-linked-to-dangerous-body-fat.aspx
Gut bacteria may be linked to ‘dangerous’ body fat
The article is based on a UK study looking at faeces samples taken from twins and various measures of obesity. The study showed that people who had fewer different types of bacteria in their faeces were more likely to be obese.
The link was strongest for visceral fat, which is stored around the internal organs inside the abdominal cavity. This type of fat is associated with a higher risk of metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, as well as cardiovascular disease.
Nice story. There is some information at the end about where to find the original scientific paper but the story itself is pretty factual in my opinion. Since Roundup was originally described as an antibiotic and I have long suggested that Roundup could be poisoning our microbial flora and contributing to obesity. here. It has dawned on me that there may be a simpler explanation. That it is poisoning a specific class of our microbial flora and contributing to obesity that way
www.youtube.com/shared?ci=kxz3NMRcoo4
Hahahaha loved it. Nice interview. The Monsanto rep is the ultimate snake oil salesman. Do what I say, not what I do.
He says multiple times it’s safe to drink and then refuses to drink it. I’m still laughing. Walks off calling the interviewer a jerk.
Guess –The rep doesn’t even have a clue what irony is. laughing
If you ever doubted the value of a dead tree, please allows us to change your mind! And please share this entertaining video with others.
Source: http://cavityconservation.com
Very cool video. Bluebirds woodpeckers and more. Click it. It is not long.
Best
Bob
I have spent 20 years providing non-chemical ponds to my clients all over Southern California. I have never before seen the numbers of dead dragonflies that I have in the last 2 months.
Ecdysteroids are insect moulting and sex hormones. They are members of a complex chemical group known as steroids. Some of the insecticides being used recently target Ecdysteroids. These new insecticides thus disrupt the insects molting ability.
These dead dragonflies have failed to molt correctly. You can see that they were just ready to come out and even have tiny deformed wings. Adults that did manage to come out have deformed wings as well.
In addition these Ecdysteroid targeting pesticides, and related toxins harm the basic food chain in rivers and lakes.
An almost complete, but unfinished form of Ecdysteroids is known as an _ecdysone_. Sort of like a house with the walls up, the roof on, but not finished inside. A chemical that blocks the formation of something, particularly biologically, is an _agonist_. So an _ecdysone agonist_ is a biocide that targets an insect’s ability to molt.
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24197798 A potent ecdysone agonist, tebufenozide, has recently been developed as a molt-inducing insecticide to control defoliating lepidopterans. As part of continuing research efforts to assess the effectiveness and environmental safety of this material for insect pest management in Canadian forests, tebufenozide (RH-5992-2F) was applied to large lake enclosures and the effects on zooplankton communities were evaluated. There were significant treatment effects at all test concentrations (0.07-0.66 mg L(-1) tebufenozide). Concentration-dependent reductions in the abundance of cladocerans indicated that there were direct toxic effects of tebufenozide on this group of macrozooplankton.
Let me reiterate.
Quote: reductions in the abundance of cladocerans indicated that there were direct toxic effects of tebufenozide on this group of macrozooplankton. End quote
cladocerans, and other macrozooplankton form the basis of most freshwater food chains. I believe that it is likely that the aerial spraying for zika has contaminated freshwater ponds and habitats here in SoCal with these toxic insecticides.
This bill amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency or a state from requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act for a discharge from a point source into navigable waters of a pesticide authorized for sale, distribution, or use under FIFRA, or a residue resulting from the application of the pesticide. Point source pollution is waste discharged from a distinct place, such as a pipe, channel, or tunnel.
Source: H.R.897 – 114th Congress (2015-2016): Zika Vector Control Act
OMG. It would… prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency or a state from requiring a permit under the Clean Water Act for a discharge …of a pesticide … or a residue resulting from the application of the pesticide.
Sigh. It would block even the requiring of a permit to spray virtually anything.
Sponsor: Rep. Gibbs, Bob [R-OH-7] (Introduced 02/11/2015)
A Republican from Ohio.
Ohio: a notable hotbed of zika prevalence and infections.
Checkout
https://m.facebook.com/groups/982959398459301?view=permalink&id=1106856622736244&fs=2
total of 11,944 pregnant women with ZVD were reported in Colombia, with 1484 (12%) of these cases confirmed on RT-PCR assay. In a subgroup of 1850 pregnant women, more than 90% of women who were reportedly infected during the third trimester had given birth, and no infants with apparent abnormalities, including microcephaly, have been identified.
Source: Zika Virus Disease in Colombia — Preliminary Report — NEJM
None. Study ending last month, _no_ cases of microencephaly in over 12,000 pregnant, zika infected, women in Columbia. The statistical likelihood that zika causes any kind of micro encephaly is virtually non-existent.
The statistical relevance is, and always has been, in fact the reverse: that there is a strong likelihood that zika has nothing to do with the microcephaly.
Another article:
Since last November, more than 1,700 confirmed cases of congenital microcephaly or other birth defects of the central nervous system have been reported in Brazil.
Nearly 90 Percent of Brazil Microcephaly Cases Occurred in the Northeast
Amidst growing fear-based propaganda warning of the threat of Zika virus comes a quiet admission from health officials in Brazil: Zika alone may not be responsible for the rise in birth defects that plagued parts of the country.
Source: Brazil Admits It’s Not the Virus
Couldn’t possibly be that the Northeast Brazilian State was adding a Monsanto linked insecticide to its drinking water could it?
Source: https://m.facebook.com/groups/QuietOrganicYards/permalink/1086027174818890/
We don’t need chemical warfare in our yards with needless, cosmetic pesticides. Don’t spend your hard earned money buying and spreading more poisons across the planet!
Too right.
