Global warming 'underestimated'

[alan refail]

Something to think about now the cold weather seems to be on its way out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7890988.stm

[oldherbaceous]

I think the most worrying thing about this whole subject is, at the end of the day, even the so called experts don't really know what is going to happen and how quick.

Fear of the unknown has and will always be the bigget fear in ones life.

Hows that for a Sunday morning sermon.

[Gerry]

I often wonder if ,as the ice flows were carving out our valleys, there were concerns about Global warming.

[richard p]

i have vague memories of o level geography in the early seventies dealing with the cycles of climate , mini ice ages etc.... in the late seventies the hole in the ozone layer was reported in the press with forcasts of doom and gloom. when the thames barrier was built in the eighties there was debate about rising sea levels flooding city centres and inundating low level coastal areas. we are now told that global warming has melted vast quantities of polar and glacier ice, but where has the water gone? sea levels dont appear to have risen..... the scientists that are peddling global warming still cant manage an accurate 10 day weather forcast...
our government appears to think the solution to the problem is to tax our use of energy totally igroring natural changes caused by things such as volcanoes and variations in the sun's activity...
on the bright side i guess sticking my head in sand means i wont need a tin hat.


by the way what happened to the bird flue that was supposed to decimate us ... it just seemed to dissapeer after the yanks decided to spend millions of tax dollars buying and stockpilling vaccine

cant really compare it with the doom and gloom that said aids was going to decimate the human population funny how that has been stopped from speading out of control.. without anyone actually claiming that they now know how to cure it in an individual.

if i was cynical i would think we are all being conned by one scare after another, all designed to pullin research funding for the "scientists" doing the shouting

[Geoff]

Hundreds attend Global Warming protest.

[Primrose]

I'm obviously concerned about global warming, but to be honest, I'm far more concerned about the rapid disappearance of our bee population. With a three year "disaster" forecast if bees completely disappear and can't pollinate our fruit and veg, I think this is a far more imminently threatening disaster. Despite a possible disaster barely over the horizon nobody at government level, as far as I can see, seems to be giving this threat the widespread publicity that it needs, and taking steps to get the general public to take steps to combat the problem.

[Monika]

Primrose, DEFRA has recently announced an extra £4.3 million for research into bee health. Probably not nearly enough, but a step in the right direction.
I agree with you, the loss of honey and bumble bees would be catastrophic and very noticeable even in the short term, so anything which can avert this problem should be supported.

[bunuel]

you might be interested that the co-op has released a bee plan today:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02 ... rative.php

sounds like a step in the right direction, especially if the major supermarkets can be pressured into following suit.

[richard p]

up until 3 years ago we had honey bees in the orchard next to the garden, it varied over the years between 2 and maybe 10 hives, anyway they all died 3 years ago and the beekeeper retired, weve not seen a honey bee on the place since but honestly have noticed no lack of pollination on anything in the garden. the plums in the orchard were a bit sparse last year but that happens and is normally due to the weather. the apples still seem to get pollinated.

[Johnboy]

If you begin anything with a false premise, it matters not whatever it is, the answer is always going to be incorrect.
With global warming we have a number of educated people, who quite frankly should know better, who are using unproven theories as their premise and unsurprisingly become totally alarmed at their findings. These reports are only media worthy when they can out-gloom the previous load of doom and gloom codswallop.
Certainly the world is warming up but those who at present are trying to combat it are not really making a very good job of it.
Certainly those in horticulture are doing a sterling job with their feet firmly on the ground but they are not media worthy because they are not given to making outlandish pronouncements.
Horticultural research is based in science whereas most of the doom and gloom predictions are based on the fertile mind of people who quite frankly do not count when it comes down to the nitty-gritty practicalities of the problem.
JB.

[Colin Miles]

As I was eating my New Zealand honey this morning, I remembered that honey bees were imported to that country from England. Doing a Google I find that this was in 1839 and Bumble Bees weren't established until 1885. So obviously pollination wasn't a problem before 1839. Maybe we underestimate the efforts of other insects.

[Westi]

Hi Colin

That stat surprised me. I thought New Zealand would have had a wild
bee like in Australia. Not that either country could probably make a
commercial crop out of the wild ones, which might be why they were sent
to NZ in the first place. Wonder if there is a wild bee that was pollinating before as well as native insects.

Westi

[alan refail]

Westi

GH
Good point!

There are, of course native bees in New Zealand and presumably plenty of other pollinators.

See here.

[Colin Miles]

Yes - if I had Googled a bit more I would have realised that! See below.

But apparently the honey bee visits more flowers than any other.

Native bees

Like wasps, bees may be solitary or social. They feed on nectar and pollen, and play an important role in the pollination and survival of many flowering plants. New Zealand has 28 native and 13 introduced species of bee.

Native bees
At least three native bee species have a basic social structure, a bit like the introduced honeybee and bumblebee. The rest are solitary, although they may make nests close together.

Native bees pollinate many native plants. They are also widespread in kiwifruit and apple orchards and some vegetable crops, and may be important pollinators in horticulture.

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
Remember that we also imported plants strange to New Zealand. It is possible that the native bees were not doing the business on these strange plants or there were insufficient wild bees to cope with the overload.
JB.