Oh, great, another way I'm destroying the world

[mmcirvin]

Via wigu: An article in the Independent suggests that cell phones are causing colony-collapse disorder in bees and, in the apocalyptic tradition of British newspaper futurism, implies that this could cause worldwide famine and destroy civilization. The article ends with a laundry list of alarming claims about cell-phone dangers, including that cell-phone radiation means "today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives".

The bit about CCD strikes me as an odd claim for a reason one of Jeffrey's commenters gave: why did CCD spread from the United States to Europe, with the UK last? That doesn't sound like it tracks cell usage at all; it sounds more like a parasite. But I know absolutely nil about this subject, so I don't know if this article smells as funny to people who know something.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Also, are the honeybee species affected by CCD really the only bees responsible for pollinating most of the world's crops?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The Wikipedia article on CCD answers my question to some degree: in the US, about a third of crops depend on honeybees for pollination, mostly fruits but also almonds and soybeans. So if the honeybee population were wiped out, it would have a pretty big effect, though probably not mass starvation.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

See also discussion on the Wikipedia talk page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Colony_Collapse_Disorder#Cell_phones.3F):

If this "theory" were true, we'd be seeing massive losses among hobbyist beekeepers (who primarily keep their bees near their houses and near such radiation sources) and almost none among commercial beekeepers (who keep their bees in orchards and other predominantly rural areas). In fact, the pattern is exactly reversed.

[jwgh]

Boy, there sure are some strange theories about bees out there.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I misread CCD as OCD and was spooked.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Whereas I was wondering how it was that CCDs, the Charged-Couple Devices found in digital cameras in the millions (as in 1 per pixel), and by comparison just barely so in 2MP-max digicams of camera phones, were threatening bees.

From what I've been reading, none of the major grains are pollinated by honeybees, but by a different variety of bees in which all of the females are fertile.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking of Catholic religious education (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03711b.htm).

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

I thought it was smelling funny, though I can't lay claim to any special knowledge. I'm thinking it's the usual "blame the newest technology" - I mean, why mobile phones and not electricity/tv and radio broadcasts/radar/sonar etc.?

I did run across an article describing how there is a pollination industry, where this particular species of bee is trucked across great distances - so the problem might be less a general problem of environmental pollution and more one of us simply indulging (yet again) in monoculture.

Crazy(and not nearly expert, so keep the salt at the ready!)Soph

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing: whatever the proximate cause, the real problem is clearly that there are multiple huge industries based on a monoculture of bees, which is inherently fragile.

Hey, maybe the killer bees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee) are what we need?...

[skapusniak.livejournal.com]

This one automatically hit my mental killfile under its longstanding 'Since Electromagnetic Radiation at longer wavelengths than visible light is not generally ionizing, any claimed damaging effects to living things at those wavelengths at any power level I'm ever likely to encounter is mostly likely bunk.' rule, and therefore I've not read the article ever since I became aware of it's existence a few days ago.

Of course that's actually a horribly lame, inaccurate (ignores heating for intance) and lazy mental shortcut designed to avoid having to engage in any thought or analysis at all, like dumping all email that has a subject line ALL IN CAPS or mentions my (non-existent) ebay account as being spam.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

As you say, there are actually some holes in that reasoning, but it can be a good rough intuitive guide.

I think it actually holds up against things like "electrosensitivity" and the supposed powerline menace, though in regard to health effects of putting a cell transmitter next to your head ten times a day so that heating might actually be a contributor, it's less clear to me.

But even there, all the reports of positive effects I've seen are pretty marginal.