• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Probably the same reason we had 40+ tornadoes, huge hailstorms, floods, and drought-enabled wildfires in six adjacent states within 48 hours. Anthropogenic climate change is real, whether you believe in it or not.

    The upside is now farmers won’t have to worry about what to do with the crop surplus from trade wars, dismantled USAID, and defunded school lunch program.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Well, one would expect mountainous areas to flood because elevation focuses water flow. I’m in Florida, flattest state in the union. We never flood except in hurricanes, and those floods don’t last like they do in other places, in and out.

          • Yeather@lemmy.ca
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            23 days ago

            Hurricanes are known to travel in land and up North though. The fact a hurricane hit Tennessee isn’t odd. It was the strength and the length it lingered over the state that made it devastating.

            • shalafi@lemmy.world
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              23 days ago

              It’s always the lingering part. What was that one that fucked Houston not long ago? Sat on top of them forever. Hurricane Ivan was like that down here. Only a CAT-3 at landfall, but I listened to that freight train sound for over 10 fucking hours.

    • Doctor_Satan@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Anthropogenic climate change is real, whether you believe in it or not.

      You know who believes in climate change? Fossil fuel companies, insurance companies, the military industrial complex, and every single politician talking about buying or taking Greenland by force. All the very same people who have spent the past half century publicly denying the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Not only do they believe in it, but they are designing their profit models around it at our expense.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    24 days ago

    We’re pretty sure it’s the Monsanto pesticide and anyone who suggests it is hit with a litigation threat. Curiously, as we’re speed-breeding domesticated bees the wild bees are dying out faster, so as the bee population dwindles it also becomes more domesticated and less wild. I know that’s a bad thing, but I am fuzzy on the why details.

    I’m a brown thumb, and plants wilt as my shadow falls on them, but if you’re a green-thumb, plant pollinators, which will help the bees.

    Also plant milkweed for the monarchs.

    • mlg@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Some beekeepers actually mentioned that they’ve been scraping the beeswax clean off their hives more frequently because its known that the beeswax collects pesticides and herbicides over time which affects the colony due to exposure.

      The problem is its not just monsanto acid, there’s a ton of other issues also correlated like weather/climate, seasonal flowering, untreated parasites, bacteria, etc.

      We’ve literally nuked the environment so hard that even if we fix one problem, the population will not make a full bounce back (although I would think monsanto is the biggest threat)

      Biggest scam of this century was corporate produce monoliths convincing people Organic was about health and not the fact that it doesn’t use a scorched earth policy and scam one off hybrid plant seeds to grow food which has been setting us up for a widespread fammine for decades.

      Some random superweed is gonna crossbreed with some rapid out of control growth plant and wipe out half of the food chain.

    • MintyAnt@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Plant native. Plants that are native to your ecosystem. Those are the true pollinator powerhouse plants that bees need to survive

    • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      24 days ago

      Also, the domesticated bees are generally honeybees. And unfortunately, honeybee and wild bees don’t fulfill the same rile, so even if we replaced wild bees with honeybees 1:1, we still wouldn’t be able to polinate everything.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      I’ll hop in here and add that your locality probably does pesticide fogging/spraying. For what it is worth, you can ask them not you spray your property. Make some local wildflower patches in your yard. Less stuff you have to mow, more food and habitat for native birds and insects. It’s a win-win.

      • MintyAnt@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Native plant patches can also absorb some of the harmful crap like pesticides to a degree. It does help.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      23 days ago

      It’s Bayer’s now. Monsanto sold it to Bayer when they started getting heat for neonicotinoids killing all the bees.

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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    24 days ago

    it’s the European honey bee that’s dying in unprecedented numbers

    but it’s not all bees

    European honey bees are the easy button for farmers but they are going to have to decide if pesticide is more important or not

    this nobody knows what’s happening is bullshit provided by the likes of the Monsanto and other chemical companies

    • Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      24 days ago

      They (save for a smarter minority) are 100% gonna decide that pesticides are more important. Until they learn they aren’t, but it will be too late.

      • Rob1992@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        The company that makes roundup and the GMO plants that can resist it will decide for them

          • AugustWest@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            I guess I am going to be that guy…

            Roundup is a pesticide. It is an herbicide, but it also is a pesticide. As are insecticides, fungicides, etc. Pesticide is the catch all, herbicide is the descriptive.

      • Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Say what you will about RFK, but he’s broken clock right on a couple of issues, pesticides being one of them. Sure, maybe his rationale isn’t right, but his end game may be a benefit. Unfortunately it’s at odds with Trump’s complete destruction of regulation, but he (RFK) seems to be chugging along. I think making America healthy is good; I don’t think pesticides or ultra processed foods make kids transgender.

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          23 days ago

          I don’t think pesticides or ultra processed foods make kids transgender.

          Of course not. That requires being infected by a trans first - they work under vampire rules which is why we need to keep trans and children away from each other! /s

    • Redex@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      I’m not too up to date with this story, but haven’t pesticides been used for forever now? Why would the suddenly cause a 80% drop in population?

      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        24 days ago

        I think bee populations are under threat from pesticides, habitat reduction, disease, climate change, nutrition, et cetera.

        Of that list, pesticides are probably the easiest to solve.

      • 0tan0d@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        It’s not the same pesticides year over year. My bet is some MBA pushed a tweak to the formula for short term gains.

        resist

      • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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        24 days ago

        neonicotinoids were invited in the 1980s and it’s been recently understood that it’s like a forever chemical. it will get into the dirt and go through the plants and pass on through pollen

    • Flemmy@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      Finedust from traffic, mircoplastics, insecticides, GMO infertile weeds… etc. Bayer as well.

  • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
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    24 days ago

    I was worried so I looked for the source of the information, it seems to be from 'Washington State University" from their website they say it concerns “Commercial honey bee colony”, so it might not be all bees (I don’t know enough to say what the difference is exactly), they say “60 to 70% losses” (not 80), and they also say “Over the past decade, annual losses have typically ranged between 40 and 50%.”, so it is probably worrying but not as much as the CBS article was making it seem.

    Source: https://news.wsu.edu/news/2025/03/25/honey-bee-colony-declines-grow-as-wsu-researchers-work-to-fight-losses/

    • xta@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      so worry but not panicking yet. gotcha, nothing will be done then.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Part of the panicking should be wild bees. They’re dying at accelerated rates.

        We also know why, commercial bee keeping is part of it, as is hobbies bee keeping.

        And pesticides… and monoculture farming.

      • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
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        23 days ago

        I don’t know whether you were satiric or not, but it feels like it, hard to tell on a text medium. No hard feelings either way 😄

        If you were “mocking my post in a satiric way”: I didn’t mean to say that nothing should be done or that it was not a reason to worry. I actually believe we should protect our ecosystems, but I think we need accurate data and this kind of posts, even if they convey the “right” message according to me, are misleading and create false information about what is going on. I truly believe we should try to avoid doing this.

    • dantheclamman@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      This story is about domesticated honeybees, which have been declining for decades due to Colony Collapse Disorder and other stressors. Native North American bees are in their own long-term decline, with 1 in 4 species at risk of extinction. However, domesticated honeybees are tremendously important for the pollination and yield of many crops important to humans, and this population drop, thought to be the largest annual losses seen, should be considered in the context of the longer decline, and the possibility that we could hit a tipping point when pollination, and a crucial pillar of our food system, could fail.

  • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio
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    24 days ago

    I definitely don’t want to downplay a crisis, but I feel like I’ve been seeing headlines saying “all the bees are dying and we don’t know why” every year for nearly 20 years now.

    I’m no bee expert. Just seems to me, based on the headlines, bees would’ve been extinct 10 years ago.

    Some cursory searching led me to Colony Collapse Disorder which seems to have no agreed-upon cause. It appears devastating losses to honey bee colonies started being reported around 1900. But it also mentions:

    In 2024, the United States Census of Agriculture reported an all-time high in commercial honey bee hives (mostly in Texas), making them the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country.[38]

    Link to the source cited there: https://archive.is/nfeb2

    Apparently last year saw the largest honey bee populations in US history. Though they write that huge boom in honey bee population is a threat to other native pollinators, so I guess that presents its own unique problems.

    • Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Usually, when people talk about bees dying, they mean wild bees. Unlike honey bees they aren’t cultivated by us. They also tend to be better pollinators than honey bees, adapted to local plants that honey bees can’t handle well.

    • safesyrup@feddit.org
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      24 days ago

      The issue is OP is spreading misinformation. You‘re right, we haven‘t lost 80% of the bee population, because this was a hypothetical statement in the article saying it would have consequences if it happened.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    That’s $15 billion worth of crops.

    They just can’t break out of that frame, even when the topic is EVERY LIVING THING FUCKING STARVING TO DEATH.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        The people need their ads (or whatever the reasoning is), show some compassion, in a few decades they’ll only be seeing the same Nuka Cola ad everywhere.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          24 days ago

          I have a decently locked down browser and adblocker. The real page loads faster for me, takes no archive resources, and other have pointed out other benefits of preserving the canonical link as well.

  • Communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz
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    24 days ago

    honeybees are an invasive species, fun fact

    unfortunately they outcompeted a lot of the native pollinators so we’re fucked without them though

  • Glifted@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Honey bees are dying but you can help native bees in your area. Find out what they like and plant that shit. Also just letting weeds grow helps a lot of species.

    I get leafcutter bees at my place as well as a few other solitary species

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Making bee hotels for solitary bees is child’s play. Take a chunk of wood, drill holes, hang in a tree.

      Technical aspects:

      • Don’t use pressure treated lumber, anything else is fine.
      • Look up “solitary bee hotel” for your area to see what size holes to make for the locals. In any case, it’s going to be a variety of different sizes to cover all your bases. Doesn’t have to bee (heh) perfect.
      • Make the holes, especially the edges, nice and smooth. They’re not dumb enough to nest their if the hole is raggedy and might jack up their wings.

      That’s mostly it. You can research easily enough in an hour or less There’s a woman on YouTube that sells bee hotels and has solid advice for making your own. Wish I remembered her name. Anyone?

      Damned satisfying when you find the holes plugged with wax! You have new tenants! Stupid easy and basically free.

      CAVEAT: These things are single use. Chunk 'em out every season, or better, burn them. Keeps the mites out. Make another for free.

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    24 days ago

    Bees live less than two months, so if only 80% of bees died in the last 8 months that would suggest a sharp recent population increase. And even if you take it as read that it means bees dying and not being replaced, 8 months is still a terrible timeframe to use because it’s literally saying “there are 80% fewer bees now, at the tail end of winter, than there were at the height of bee season”.

    I’m not saying there isn’t a bee crisis, just that this factoid is very badly worded.

    • Akrenion@slrpnk.net
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      24 days ago

      Without looking at data it could also mean “beginning 8 months ago we noticed a downwards trend of bees compared to the prior year(s) that culminates to an 80% decline at the time of writing.”

  • The2b@lemmy.vg
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    24 days ago

    Remember that honey-producing bees are terrible pollenators compared to the specific pollenators who don’t produce honey. The honey producing bees being kept by everyone are artifically outcompeting the specific pollenators, which are what we really need to be supporting.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Okay, but how do I personally monetize non-honey making bees? Sure, the general ecology needs this, but what’s in it for me, right this instant?

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        All you can do is add to pollen I guess. Plant seeds of native plants that bees love. Indiscriminately in random places.

        Maybe someone else has some better ideas.

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          24 days ago

          Tear out the lawn and re-wild the yard? Wild flowers, clover, etc. Less watering and mowing, and not just bees will love it - all kinds of insects and wildlife from birds to deer.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            I meant around town and such, but yeah, wild yards are cool too. Easier to maintain flowers and clover and stuff.

      • hedge_lord@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        A bee petting zoo! Bumblebees are very cute and very fluffy. Having a petting zoo would help people get I touch with nature, and if the guests are too belligerent about it then the bees will just sting them. I think that bumblebees might also not die after stinging, and if so they’d learn how to fight humans. When the time is right you can unleash a swarm of cute fluffy bees trained in anti-human warfare. You could use them to crush any competition. If you still want more money you can become a bee-based supervillain and rob banks or something.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      I was watching some of my native plants and noticed a fair amount of house flies crawling on them. So, I looked it up. It turns out that flies as a group are the second most important pollinator behind bees as a group.

  • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    The running thought is these non-native European honeybees couldn’t find forage at the right times due to climate change and these massive commercial hives died of malnutrition. That’s why introduced species and monoculture agriculture don’t work out so well.

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      Okay, but European honeybees in the US aren’t exactly new afaik. That would be like if all of the sudden, 80% of wild horses up and die and the answer is “well, they’re an introduced species, so it only makes sense”.

  • F_OFF_Reddit@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Imma go out on a limb here and blame late stage Capitalism and some sort of pesticide or whatever that could solve the problem if it costed 5 cents more but the solution is to save that money and let the bees die.

    Imma take my chances on that.

    • Phil Ociraptor@slrpnk.net
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      23 days ago

      there’s a crazy scene in the documentary More Than Honey where they compare beekeepers with US Almond Farm pollenators. It’s all about money and it’s sickening.

      • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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        23 days ago

        I was gonna quote the documentary too. My favourite scene was when they pollinated by hand and said: who’s better at pollinating? Humans or bees? It’s definitely not humans.