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Right now for saviour’s sake, billions of bees are dying. We are already at the point where, there are nowhere near enough honeybees in Europe to pollinate the crops, and across the Atlantic on far side USA in California - the biggest food producer state in the US - beekeepers are losing 40% of their bees each year.

So here we are stuck in the dead centre, if you’ll forgive the inopportune word play, of an environmental holocaust that threatens us all, because without pollination by bees, our whole food chain is under severe threat!

Scientists are consistently sounding the alarm on pesticides toxic to bees, as well as reporting that we’re using far more pesticides on 'our' crops than could ever be necessary; we are humankind after all ergo shared ownership of natural resources is a birthright. Yet raw offensive capitalism prevails, as with oil companies and climate change, major chemical companies that foist pesticides on humanity are fighting back with bottomless-pocket corporate-funded junk science that groudlessly questions the evidence, providing politicians with an excuse to delay.

This year we could finally see a crackdown on these toxins in Europe, Canada, and the United States, if the pesticide scientists are turned into whistleblowers to testify to officials and Ministers. Plus urgent studies are conducted to show irrefutably how crops will flourish without these poisons and thus gain some political champions.

Still, 'A picture is worth ten thousand words,' as small-ads-master Fred R. Barnard, of Printers' Ink, wrote on 10 March 1927.



Scientists reported in January 2014 that the deficit across Europe now amounts to 13.4 million colonies or around seven billion honeybees.

Their research suggests that much of the work is now being done by wild pollinators including bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies, themselves under threat. 'Wild pollinators need greater protection. 'They are the unsung heroes of the countryside, providing a critical link in the food chain for humans [also under chemical siege]. 'We face a catastrophe in future years unless we act now,' said Prof Simon Potts, from the University of Reading in an interview in late 2013. We are now four years further on in the battle with chemical giants!

The terrifying results of new study show that the exact same pesticides currently turning the globe into gigantic a bee mortuary are now killing birds as well.

The global bee massacre has been happening so rapidly that scientists are still scrambling to detect all the main impacts. And now, this new study also finds that neonic pesticides are killing warblers, swallows, starlings and thrushes almost as fast as the bees -- at current rates, 35 per cent of the bird population will be obliterated in just 10 years in those areas that figured in the study. This is yet another capitalism induced caatastrophe.

In terms of those of us fighting back our efforts are gaining traction. In Europe, there’s a partial ban on bee and bird-killing neonics. Ontario, Canada's largest province, is the first major territory in North America to restrict the use of neonics by a massive 80 percent.

Nevertheless one of the biggest producers of these toxic pesticides, the worst kind of capitalist, has an army of lawyers and million-dollar lobbyists at its disposal suing to overturn Europe's ban and undermine Ontario’s historic move. It is time to rally to the flag with as much intellectual intensity and rebellion as you can muster my friends.

Amid all the buzz.

It seems like a perfect opportunity for technology to step in and solve problems in the natural world - using tiny
helicopter drones to pollinate crops as the number of bees plummets.

But amid all the buzz, could this plan for 'robot bees' have a sting in the tail?



One scientist has suggested the 'robobees' could be taken over by hackers - and turned into killer machines.

The robots are under development in the US and Japan, and it is hoped they could be ready for use within a decade.

Under the plans, the drones would wear fuzzy 'jackets' that pollen would then stick to, allowing them to pollinate
flowers.

In some parts of the US, up to 44 per cent of bees have died, meaning the robots could be needed sooner than later.

But the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference in Austin, Texas, Professor Shekhar, of the University of Minnesota, warned that security was a key concern for the technology. He said, "Hacking is a security issue so if the bees " own controls are hacked they can be put to a damaging purpose.'

He told a audience about a chilling episode of the Netflix series Black Mirror in which robot bees are put to
'nefarious purposes'.

The storyline involves a rogue hacker who is able to control countless numbers of the drones to attack and kill
hundreds of thousands of people.

Prof Shekhar said "They send bees to attack. They use killer bees. With bees all you need is a sting and that sting
can deliver a chemical.'

On a more serious note, the academic said that the projects still had issues to iron out before the robot bees could be used - including how they will manage to find their own way around!

He said the US developers - at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts - were still not using fully autonomous drones.

By Colin Fernandez, Daily Mail 20th Feb, 2018

Well that's an interesting solution Hope and thank you for bringing it to our attention, nevertheless it doesn't exactly raise expectations regarding survival of the natural world. While I'm all for technology solutions to assist in sustaining the essential elements of nature, it would be horrific if they were to replace them entirely. Anyway, here is the latest update on the topic, at least in a European context.

Most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees, according to assessments published on the 28th February 2018 by the European Food Safety Authority. This is a critical moment in the battle to save the bees.

Campaigners are closer than ever to a game-changing neonics ban that would help keep Europe’s bees safe from these dangerous pesticides.

Earlier this year, the European Commission issued a proposal to EU national governments that could determine the future of three neonics in Europe -- three widely used pesticides that are toxic to bees. The leaked proposal confirms that an almost complete ban could be in place as early as this year, assuming approval by a majority of EU member states.

All of us depend on the countless food crops bees pollinate. With bee colonies across the world collapsing, a neonics ban is headline news!

But as ever the pesticide lobby is already gearing up to prevent the groundbreaking ban. What it needs is a massive, gathering of universal mind in a people-powered push to ensure EU member states side with the bees and humankind over the corporate giants of capitalism.

The EU proposal is a crucial follow up to the partial ban on the use of three widespread neonicotinoids on certain crops which was adopted in 2013. Four years on, it is even more difficult to ignore the scientific consensus that neonics used on crops are harming the bees that pollinate them. And the European Food Safety Authority has acknowledged that fact too.

While the latest proposal far from being perfect, it still permits the use of banned neonics in greenhouses, it is nevertheless a huge step towards a future free of bee-killing pesticides.

We did it! Humankind has finally pushed a collection of governments into a major change for the good of the planet and the longevity of our life-on-earth creature pollinator friends. Read the headline brothers and sisters, ‘EU member states support near-total neonicotinoids ban’

Member states have voted in favour of an almost complete ban on the use of neonicotinoid insecticides across the EU.

Scientific studies have linked their use to the decline of honeybees, wild bees and other pollinators over a lengthy period.

The vote represents a major extension to existing restrictions, which have been in place since 2013.
Nevertheless, manufacturers and some farming groups have opposed the move, maintaining that the science is far from absolute.

Neonicotinoids are the most widely applied class of insecticides in the world, but concerns about their impact on bees have been substantially reinforced by multiple trial results, including some referred to as ‘real world’ published last year.

An Informed Change of heart

Back in 2013 the European Union opted for a partial ban on the use of the three chemicals in the Neonicotinoid class: Clothianidin, Imidacloprid, and Thiamethoxam.

These restrictions specifically applied to crops including maize, wheat, barley, oats and oil seed rape. However, the latest agreed Commission regulation goes much further, meaning that virtually all outdoor usage of the chemicals will be banned.

A vote on the proposal had been postponed a number of times with countries split on the arguments for and against the move. However, this Friday's meeting saw a properly qualified majority vote in favour of the ban.



The action has been driven by a recent report produced by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), which found that neonicotinoids posed a threat to many species of bees, no matter where or how they are used in the outdoor environment.

‘The Commission had proposed these measures months ago, on the basis of the scientific advice from the European Food Safety Authority,’ commented Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
‘Bee health remains of paramount importance for me since it concerns biodiversity, food production and the environment,’ Andriukaitis went on to say.

Another key element that helped push the vote through was the UK's change of heart on the use of these insecticides. Environment Secretary Michael Gove announced in November 2017 that Britain would now support further restrictions.

"I think it has helped the dynamic," Franziska Achterberg from Greenpeace told media.
‘It has helped sway Ireland definitely, and then lately, the Germans, the Austrians and the Dutch. I think the fact the UK had come around was a good signal for them as well, that they could not stay behind,’ Achterberg continued.



Growers across the EU will only be free to use neonicotinoids in greenhouses and that is despite some environmental groups having reservations about the chemicals leaching into water supplies. On the other hand, neonicotinoids, including thiacloprid and sulfoxaflor, will continue to be exempt from the ban.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the ban. Some five million people around the world had signed petitions calling for an extension of restrictions.

"Banning these toxic pesticides is a beacon of hope for bees," proclaimed Antonia Staats, from Avaaz the force behind the petitions.

‘Finally, our governments are listening to their citizens, the scientific evidence and farmers who know that bees can't live with these chemicals and we can't live without bees,’ she concluded.

Wonderful news Redbeck, thank you for posting this fantastic update to the "save the bees" situation.

Dear Koguntetsu, yes indeed a significant step forward for humankind on the back of our friends the bees and other cross pollinators, magnificent news, thank you for your congratulations. Kind Regards Redbeck.

Hello my friends. I keep the bee and the magic that the humble Apis has shown me is truly wonderful. The small ones have a magnificent capacity for learning and empathy and what wonderous workers they are!


as above so below. c:

Dear Ghastly, welcome, wilkommen and bienvenu, bene venutus to the Oracle Forum community and thank you for your kind comment, you are indeed aa friend of all that is natural and therefore essential to our world.

The number of petals in a flower consistently follows the Fibonacci sequence. Famous examples include the lily, which has three petals, buttercups, which have five (pictured below), the chicory's 21, the daisy's 34, and so on. Phi appears in petals due to the ideal packing arrangement as selected by Darwinian processes; each petal is placed at 0.618034 per turn (out of a 360° circle) allowing for the best possible exposure to sunlight and other factors.




The head of a flower is also subject to Fibonaccian processes. Typically, seeds are produced at the centre, and then migrate towards the outer ring to fill all the space. Sunflowers provide an excellent example of these spiralling patterns. I imagine Bees as also being totally at ease with Fibonacci in their lives, as well as his ideal expansion pairs of rabbits over the course of one year. However, I talk too much and digress, in fact to talk too much in British English slang, is to rabbit on about someone or something and a talkative person is seen to have plenty of bunny as in bunny rabbit!



In a number of cases, the seed heads are so tightly packed that the total number can become relatively high — as many as 144 or more. And when counting these spirals, the total tends to match a Fibonacci number. Interestingly, a highly irrational number is required to optimise this filling (usually one that will not be easily or indeed best represented by a fraction). Phi therefore fits the bill rather neatly.

Really Intersting Redbeck and brilliant images..

Thank you for the kind words Redbeck! Very informative!

Good Luck!