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US Puts Bumblebee On the Endangered Species List For First Time (npr.org)
For the first time for a bumblebee and a bee species in the U.S., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated the bumblebee an endangered species. The protected status goes into effect on February 10, and includes requirements for federal protections and the development of a recovery plan. NPR reports: "Today's Endangered Species listing is the best -- and probably last -- hope for the recovery of the rusty patched bumble bee," NRDC Senior Attorney Rebecca Riley said in a statement from the Xerces Society, which advocates for invertebrates. "Bumble bees are dying off, vanishing from our farms, gardens, and parks, where they were once found in great numbers." Large parts of the Eastern and Midwestern United States were once crawling with these bees, Bombus affinis, but the bees have suffered a dramatic decline in the last two decades due to habitat loss and degradation, along with pathogens and pesticides. Indeed, the bee was found in 31 states and Canadian provinces before the mid- to late-1990s, according to the final rule published in the Federal Register. But since 2000, it has been reported in only 13 states and Ontario, Canada. It has seen an 88 percent decline in the number of populations and an 87 percent loss in the amount of territory it inhabits. This means the species is vulnerable to extinction, the rule says, even without further habitat loss or insecticide exposure. Canada designated the species as endangered in 2012.
Meanwhile my Dad is outside with his roundup backpack, spraying a big circle around the house...Chemical warfare against nature just isn't working out how we thought it might!
Any bets on whether the endangeredness of species is just a lie invented by the chinese to ruin the US economy?
Things like "noxious weed acts" which destroy plants that support bumblebee populations. Pushed by environmentalists in big cities to get rid of flowering plants which cause allergies. That in turn allowed herbicide spraying to kill or keep them under control. That leads to widespread destruction of flowering areas for the sake of green grass/reduce air allergens. Need another example? Monarch butterflies. Mass population decline, what's the strong correlation? Same noxious weed acts which banned/required destruction of milkweed. Most places have rescinded that. But it wasn't more then a year or two ago in most of north america you could be fined for having it growing on your property because it was considered a weed..
WTF have you been smoking? Envrionmentalists don't push noxious weed acts or anything that sacrifices plants for reduced air allergens. Most of North America you could be fined for having milkweed growing on your property? I've lived in four states and 9 houses in my time, and I've never lived in one of your alleged exclusion zones.
.So the solution to the problem would be to put neonics on the endangered-species list, and hope they fade out of the environment before the bees do.
Then the pesticide industry will lobby the Republicans saying how it'll hurt business and jobs and profits. Eventually, there will be some sort of phase out agreed to that will take ten years for the pesticides to be stopped.
In the meantime, there will be this PR blitz stating that the science isn't in and that the scientists who study it are saying the pesticides are killing bees because that's the only way they can get grants.
Eventually, as our bees get destroyed and the skyrocketing of food prices, the EPA will be blamed for all the unnecessary regulations that caused the problem in the first place.
Cigarette smoking, Air conditioning refrigerant, lead in gasoline are just a couple of instances off of the top of my head where business has put profits above human health. What a warped society we have where it's considered a valid argument to put corporate profits above human health.