After condemning Home Depot, Lowe’s is the latest target of the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth. The group’s gripe is that the company is selling pesticides that affect bee populations. Consequently, the environmentalist group is up in arms to the point where they are conducting protests at Lowe’s locations this week hoping the home improvement store chain will see the err of it’s ways and stop selling neonicotinoid pesticides.
Friends of the Earth claims that pesticides harm and even kill bee populations which they allege have been dying recently. However, a review of the actual evidence surrounding bee population decline does not line up with what the eco-group alleges. It has been reported, for example, that California’s drought (if not droughts in general) affect bee populations since they affect crop production which means less food for bees to pollinate.
Back in May, the news and opinion website Vox published an excellent article detailing many explanations for bee population reductions. Among the reasons given are a species of mite which has recently been attacking honey bee hives in the U.S. Furthermore, Colony Collapse Disorder (aka CCD) is cited where bee hives have little to no adults among them to keep younger bees in line despite having a queen present.
According to Forbes, even the USDA that has the ability to regulate pesticide use in agricultural production in a joint study with the EPA says the risk neonic pesticides pose to bee populations is low. Will any of these facts matter to groups like Friends of the Earth? Probably not. And despite the facts it won’t stop them from conducting campaigns like this since, by the organization’s own admission via their name, they wholeheartedly embrace the primitive savagery of nature over human civilization.
Green Jihad 
The European Union has banned the insecticides clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam because of a mounting body of scientific evidence. It has been shown that It is not just bees that are in danger but other insects and birds. It may not seem important that birds and insects die but they are monitors of pollution and the health of our ecosystem. Amelia
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I question the validity of the science behind those laws. The EU banned GMO’s based on a retracted study later found to have been fraudulent alleging GMO corn caused cancer in rats. Insecticides and pesticides are designed to protect humans as well as crops from insect attacks. Reduce the arsenal of them and our food supply shrinks.
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Fraudulent studies exist but are rare. Scientific papers are subject to searing examination by their peers and false claims will be outed. I follow the opinions of well qualified scientific experts in the field – not politicians or activists – like Dave Goulson, Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex.
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Remember they are opinions and not facts unless you prefer sources that confirm your bias. If you want the facts about what is contributing to bee populations shrinking this article goes into that.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/02/05/bee-deaths-reversal-as-evidence-points-away-from-neonics-as-driver-pressure-builds-to-rethink-ban/
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I agree a lot is left to interpretation please read Dave Gouson’s review https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=goulson-2013-jae.pdf&site=411
I also find that “scientific” journalists tend to yo-yo between facts. At one point they discuss bees (there are about 25,000 bee species) and pollinators and then continue to talk about commercially reared honey bees. Commercial bee keeping has its own special problems.
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“In the past few weeks, however, a number of news outlets have suggested that a newer class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids are, in fact, the main reason why US honeybees are dying. These outlets have been trumpeting a recent study by Harvard researcher Chensheng Lu — a study that, it turns out, has been heavily criticized by other entomologists and beekeepers.
It would be great if the honeybee mystery was solved once and for all. But the latest much-hyped study on pesticides and bees doesn’t seem to do that. So here’s a rundown of the controversy — and what we know about pesticides and honeybee deaths.”
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/23/5742398/are-pesticides-killing-the-honeybees-its-complicated
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I have friends that are bee keepers and I have been very interested in the diseases that afflict them. The varroa mite was first noticed in the U.K. in 1992 but is now endemic and spreading worldwide. Untreated a hive will die in 2-3 years, probably the mite is a vector transmitting viral disease but there is no cure so far, just control. It is not the only honeybee disease. The Colony Collapse Disorder seems to be something affecting commercial migratory bee keepers in the U.S.A rather than the small bee keeper in Europe and so far the complexities of the problem have kept a solution from being found.
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Also, similar arguments were made by Rachel Carson about DDT in which she was later found to have been wrong.
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On the contrary, I think she was proved correct and no-one now wants chemicals poured into the environment before we understand fully the consequences. Check this out http://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-wildlife-fund-wwf-half-the-worlds-biodiversity-gone-over-last-40-years/. The World Wildlife Fund is a responsible, respectable organisation.
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She was not. In fact someone has already gone over her book and refuted much of the claims she made in it (link below). Green philosophy is a form of religion that demands sacrifice of it’s followers and reveres nature over the needs of mankind.
Human beings are a part of the environment and it is our right as a species to bend nature in order for us to survive. In terms of the species cited in this “study”, according to environmentalism there is nothing mankind can ever do that is right and moral. We are sinners just because we exist and dare to bend nature in order for it to do our bidding.
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ02/Carson.html
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Thank you for the link, although I found he too seems to have taken extreme views, such as that DDT cannot be stored in the human body which is not in line with mainstream scientific opinion.
I think the point is that for mankind to survive in the future he must not destroy the natural world but live in harmony with it and enjoy its blessings.
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