@thewumbles Sorry, global warming is very very much real.

But the scare on bees was entierly legitimate. Colony Collapse Disorder is and was very real. The scare hit its absolute worst in 2006, which you can see in the graphs as the low point. The threat at the time was real and legitimate.

With that said the part that is so often left off is that for the past 12 years we have seen amazing numbers in terms of recovery. But people I think are so scared that people will stop caring about bees they continue to try to perpetuate the fear rather than focus on the good.

@freemo so what you’re saying is you’ll get back to me on the global warming thing in 12 years? ;)

Thanks for the post. I’m glad our little friends are doing well. Hoping the same is true about the atmosphere.

@danriggins Well, yes and no. After we recovered from CCD the species least susceptible to the disease grew in numbers at greater rates than those with more susceptibility. Since these bees mostly share the same niche a very natural process of shifting populations have occurred. Some species that were relatively rare are now abundant and some that were abundant (like bombis Affinis) are now relatively rare.

With that in mind it is entirely reasonable to continue to monitor and do science on what is going on.

But the important part is, 1) the populations are at an all time high 2) the shift in what species were dominate came about by almost entirely natural causes 3) these sorts of shifts in species populations are entirely normal in a healthy eco system. 4) relatively few species are even on the endangered list though. Throughout the continental USA only one bumble bee species became endangered as a result, all others are unlisted. This is Affinis and it is mostly due to extreme vulnerability to the pathogen that causes CCD.

@arteteco I dont have it anymore, though a reverse image source might find it. Its a topic I've read up on from dozens of sources over the years. The number of papers that detail the thriving bee community (as well as the challenges that still need addressing) arent hard to find, though I dont have a specific source off hand for you. Luckily virtually any source you can find agrees with this data, it isnt a particularly controversial subject among scientists, just one of those things you hear from the dooms day'ers who arent as informed.

@yahananxie I wasnt refering to any specific article, there were several. This is one of them yes, and I had read it before making my post. My point still stands.

@mneme Well I'm not sure thats a bad thing. "farmed" bees are still effectively wild. They go where they please, they can swarm and create new hives off the farm, generally provide all the same advantages to biodiversity.

Also the cause of CCD was pretty much jsut as easily effecting wild bees as farmed bees. So generally the recovery is just as positive regardless of whether your assertion is true or not.

@freemo Of course. I'm not really saying that it's bad that there are farmed bees. I'm saying that I'm not convinced that the abundance of human managed bees contradicts the narrative that bees are in trouble (especially given the evidence that non-human managed bees are in sharp decline). If an ecosystem is only working because humans are propping it up, we should be worried.

@mneme Can you actually back up the claim that the increase in numbers were due to an increase in human farmed bees vs natural bees?

The numbers I presented were calculated by setting up bee traps in various random locations and then counting the species of bees noticed. It makes no distinction on where their hive is, it simply is a measure of how many bees one would encounter inthe wild.

You seem to have a premise without any peer-reviewed source to back it up, most of what I read just state that the bee populations are booming and I have yet to find a paper to suggest otherwise(though there are some that suggest specific species need our help)

@freemo When I was surprised by your initial claim I searched on Google Scholar to see if published literature agreed. Eg Search for "bumblebee population": Of 10 results 4 mention decline, none say steady or increasing. Of particular note: "Patterns of widespread decline in North American bumble bees" published in PNAS: "We show that the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23–87%, some within the last 20 y"

@freemo (Part 2/2) I've not done much research beyond varations on such searches, so I do apologise if I'm somehow missing widespread agreement amongst biologists that bee populations are fine. I'm just arguing on the basis that, your toot seemed to contradict both commonly held knowledge and my extremely rudimentary literature survey! :)