E - Bee Conservation CON

1. Beehives increasing

Entine, Jon. Bee Experts Dismantle Touted ‘Harvard’ Neonics-Colony Collapse Disorder Study
As ‘Activist Science’. Huffington Post, 13 Feb. 2015. Web. 9 Mar 2016.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/post_8761_b_6323626.html>

“One of the central problems with Lu's central conclusion--and much of the reporting--is that
despite the colony problems that erupted in 2006, the global bee population has
remained remarkably stable since the widespread adoption of neonics
in the late 1990s. The United Nations reports that the number of hives has actually
risen over the past 15 years, to more than 80 million colonies, a
record, as neonics usage has soared.
Country by country statistics are even more revealing. Beehives are up over the past
two decades in Europe, where advocacy campaigns against neonics prompted the EU
to impose a two-year moratorium beginning this year on the use of three neonics.”

2. Economy is what drives these losses

Porterfield, Andrew. Trade and economic growth, not pesticides, major driver of beehive

Declines? Genetic Literacy Project, 3 December 2015. Web. 9 Mar 2016.

<https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/12/03/trade-economic-growth-not-
pesticides-major-driver-beehive-declines/>

“Robin Moritz and Silvio Erler at Martin Luther University in Halle, Germany,
crunched numbers submitted to the FAO by more than 100 countries over 50 years (from 1961
to 2013), and found that major
economic upheavals and trade in honey
accounted for decreases in bee colonies. Pesticide use, disease or mite
infestation did not at all correlate with decreases in colonies.

Moreover, the data clouded the picture often seen in media and NGO reports, pointing to a
While some countries, like the US
consistent, global decrease in bee colonies.
and in Western Europe, have seen a consistent decline in colonies,
other countries have seen dramatic increases in colonies and honey
production. Southern Europe, for example, saw a doubling of colonies
over the past 50 years, while South American colonies grew by 5.2
percent annually, African colonies grew by 3.3 percent annually, and
Asian colonies grew by 4.4 percent annually (all over the past 50 years).
Overall, despite the decreases in Western Europe and the United States, the FAO data showed
an increase in the number of all colonies globally. Perhaps significantly, the data also showed
an increase in demand for pollination which was higher than the number of existing honeybee
colonies.

In fact, “countries
with a positive correlation between honey production
and colony number are the main honey exporters, while countries
with a negative correlation are those importing honey,” Moritz and d Erler
wrote. “None of the colony number dynamics of the past 50 years, neither increase nor
decrease, show any relation to the arrival of novel pests or the use of novel pesticides.””

3. Loss also driven by disease and a fungus, not pesticides

Kluger, Jeffrey. The Riddle of the Bee Deaths: Solved at Last? Time, 7 Oct. 2010. Web.

9 Mar 2016. <http://science.time.com/2010/10/07/the-riddle-of-the-bee-deaths-solved-at-

last/>

“The few bee remains that have been found have allowed some entomological autopsies to be
conducted and investigators elsewhere had already identified a fungus, known as
Nosema apis, in the guts of the dead insects. That would seem to be the
smoking gun, but the problem is, the fungus isn’t lethal—and indeed seems entirely harmless to
bees.

When the Army software, owned by DHS, was turned on the bee remains, it detected not
only the fungus, but also a virus known as the invertebrate iridescent
virus (IIV). Like the Nosema fungus, the IIV by itself does not seem to do bees any harm.
It’s only when the two come together, the scientists now believe, that
they somehow prove deadly.”