Re:What can I do about climate change?
by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @08:59AM
(#18390983)
Really? We have to be sympathetic to mindless insects now? For instance, folks raise millions of crickets in my state for flour and protein - we eat them - but the bees deserve special empathy because they're not free-range or something?
I understand folks like bees, see them in a kindly light. But they're little automatons with maybe a neuron or two total. If we raised them, crushed them and ate them, it'd be no different from how we treat other insects.
I think the GP was not referring to the harm to bees as horrific, but to the harm done to our living environment by harming bees.
Re:What can I do about climate change?
by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @10:13AM
(#18391679)
I wondered, but couldn't make sense of that. How is providing commercial bees in bulk a detriment to the environment? When is another bee a problem?
I have no personal anecdotes to bring in here, but they said:
> Part of the reason wild bee colonies are collapsing is because of the diseases cultivated by commercial colonies.
So if another bee comes at the cost of multiple existing bees, that's a problem.
Re:What can I do about climate change?
by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @12:08PM
(#18392817)
And why is one bee more important than the other? Not sure diseases are 'cultivated' by anyone - they are unfortunate wherever they occur. Again, not sure what the idea is.
Well, the point as I understand it is that it will eventually lead to the extinction of all/most bees - and plenty of other species, perhaps including humans.
The scale is my assumption, but the point appears clear to me.
Everytime I have seen a article or documentary on the subject the primary cause of wild bee colonies collapsing it is pesticides and herbicides, commonly used in for example sugarcane plantations.
Would you say that the average bee farming is causing more harm to wild bees than the average sugarcane farmer?
Thankyou for pointing this out. I say the same about almond milk and other products hyped by vegans that are pollinated by bees. The commercial beekeeping industry is horrific. Part of the reason wild bee colonies are collapsing is because of the diseases cultivated by commercial colonies.
I'm a backyard beekeeper myself and can say with at least some authority that there's nothing at all "vegan" or "moral" or "natural" about the way these commercial operations treat the bees and the environment.