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Birds, bees, mobile phones, and the apocalypse
by Rattle at 5:32 pm EDT, Apr 15, 2007 |
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
I don't find this shocking. There are a few things worth pointing out, as this relates to the bigger picture of the risks and gains posed by technological advance... This could very well be for real, and if so is quite serious. All policy regulating technology is potentially dangers. Many things interrelate in the big picture. If heavy usage of certain areas of the frequency spectrum is killing bees, the correct solutions may be to breed/engineer bees resistant to it. When we discover a type of sonar is killing all the wales, you have to stop until you find a work around that don't start killing things in large numbers. In this case, bees are easier to experiment with, and their breeding is already controlled to a certain degree, so it's highly likely a solution is just going to involve playing god a bit. When regarding the places where public policy could collide with technology, research, and anything backed up with an argument that includes the phrase "playing god", one must remember that some problems can't be ignored, and some solutions like turning off all the cell phones are not reasonable approaches. If one technology is getting us unto a problem, another type of technology will most likely get us out. Unless we just drop the damn ball. I firmly believe that at this point, for the long run of humanity, it might be a good idea to entertain the area of "playing god" for a few decades... We might need to get good at that, in order to solve future problems. Plus, it sounds like fun work. I've found myself wondering before what we would have done if at some point we found out that the Eisenhower Highway System was screwing up migration patterns and killing all the birds.. And what the future equivalent of such a thing might be.. Furthermore, in a continuation of the William Gibson future meme. We already got ADD, now we have CCD.. I can't wait till we get to the point where we have NAS. heh.. |
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RE: Birds, bees, mobile phones, and the apocalypse
by Decius at 5:44 pm EDT, Apr 15, 2007 |
Rattle wrote: It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
I don't find this shocking.
For the record, I think this is bullshit. I googled around this story and there is a lot of dissent about this explanation. Its most likely a virus. |
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RE: Birds, bees, mobile phones, and the apocalypse
by Rattle at 6:15 pm EDT, Apr 15, 2007 |
For the record, I think this is bullshit. I googled around this story and there is a lot of dissent about this explanation. Its most likely a virus.
That wouldn't shock me either. For what it is at this point, it's still a good vehicle to make a point that I've been wanting to make. Regardless of what is killing the bees right now, it needs to be looked into, and it seems it is. I saw another story about a week ago that had more figures on the hive death rates, but I can't seem to find it now.. Resistance to a virus is an issue that fits right into the controlled breeding of the bees anyway. I'm under the (correct?) impression that a very significant chunk of the bee population that is critical in pollinating crops is already in a psudo-controlled environment. Bee hives, kept by keepers, in proximity to crops. If they are getting a 40% die off every year, thought must go into the breeding strategies for the maintained hives. It doesn't effect the larger point I was trying to make. We need to get better at playing god. I like wording it that way too.. "playing god". It's fun to say/write. |
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RE: Birds, bees, mobile phones, and the apocalypse
by HiTekVagabond at 8:51 pm EDT, Apr 20, 2007 |
What is even more shocking is that the Laudau University (Germany) exploration and pilot study was about cordless phones, not cell phones or PCS phones. They embedded DECT cordless phone base stations into only the study group hives and not into the control hives. Personally, I don't know of any bee hives that are purposely deployed on a cell tower or cordless phone base. During the course of their study one half of their bee colonies died out. These were both control hives and hives that were being exposed to RF. Their exploratory study found nothing. Their study did not link their cordless phone experiment with CCD. It appears that The Independent invented the link to CCD and changed the subject of the study from cordless phones to "mobile phones" implying Cell and PCS phones. (See the Wikipedia article about Colony Collapse Disorder, section 2.8 - Electromagnetic Radiation. It's well documented with links to the Univ. Landau studies in English) It looks to me like the need for producing entertaining or shocking stories has outweighed reporting the truth in England too. The Independent story has launched a huge red herring that is keeping people from finding out the true cause of CCD. |
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