permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        [SANET-MG] CCD - "blaming it all on cell phones"
Date:   Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:50:02 -0700
From:   Matthew Shepherd (Xerces Society) <mdshepherd@XERCES.ORG>
Reply-To:       mdshepherd@xerces.org
To:     SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hi Joe,

I agree with you that there are still many issues that need to be
investigated. I don't want to be excluding any avenues of research.
Indeed, I would be flattered if my comments held such sway over those
who hold the purse strings!

My comment citing cell phones was in the context of bad information
being spread by the media. I apologize if I wasn't clear in my hastily
typed email. In the case of cell phones being linked with CCD, the
initial media story seems to have come from /The Independent/, a British
newspaper, which picked up on a preliminary study done in Germany that
looked at the effect of the base units of domestic cordless phones when
placed near honey bee hives. This was transformed into cell phones are
causing CCD by the initial reporting and rapidly picked-up by other
media outlets. Within two weeks the cell phone story had spanned the
globe, and people were looking suspiciously at transmission towers!
While this was going on, so far as I understand, the scientists
investigating CCD didn't seem to find any relationship between bee yards
with missing hives and cell phones. (There were yards with missing bees
at which the field staff had no cell phone reception, for instance.)
Hence my comment about poor information and reporting.

As for funding for CCD research, there's definitely not enough money.
We've been working to get legislation introduced into both houses of
Congress which, if they pass, will release tens of millions of dollars
of funding for research into CCD and honey bee health, as well as native
bees. Sen Boxer introduced her pollinator research bill in early June
and Rep Blumenauer introduced similar legislation into the House at the
end of the month. This is just the first step. Both bills need to
survive debate and committees. We'll keep working on them but we'll also
have to wait and see whether and how much they change.

Best wishes,
    Matthew

______________________________________________________
*The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation*
The Xerces Society is an international nonprofit organization that
protects the diversity of life through invertebrate conservation. To
join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work,
please visit www.xerces.org <http://www.xerces.org/>.

Matthew Shepherd
Senior Conservation Associate
4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: 503-232 6639 Cell: 503-807 1577 Fax: 503-233 6794
Email: mdshepherd@xerces.org <mailto:mdshepherd@xerces.org>
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