Honestly, what is wrong with you people? This is an item about attempts to investigate the decline of bees worldwide and you all seem more interested in the possibility of a conspiracy theory conjured up by the BBC and the BBKA and that they are are behind some sort of 'fake news' plot. Regardless of who supplies you with the information you seem to imply that you don't believe bees are in decline on a global scale, it's as if you live in a bubble of your own opinions and anyone who says something that doesn't fit in with your niche views is lying; sometimes this forum verges on evangelism.
Bees ARE declining, honey yields are a third of that of 40 years ago, pesticides abound, other pollinators vital to the human food chain are also in serious trouble.
Ten percent of the worlds wilderness has disappeared in the last twenty years and it is generally accepted that nearly half of the worlds wildife has been lost since 1970. Illegal logging in rain forests threatens the worlds' lungs, poaching in Africa kills hundreds of elephants and rhinocerous every year, far more than the birthrate of these species. Our oceans are so choked with plastic that we eat plastic granules in our food every day while marine life slowly dies from human poisoning...
...and yet the bee population according to this forum remains untouched, immutable, and anyone who says otherwise is either lying or a fool.
By pointing out this item on the BBC website my aim was to inform and to stimulate intellectual debate but instead all I hear is curmudgeonly griping, poo-pooing, and general apathy, not only in this thread but increasingly on many threads where a select few constantly put down debate with peurile personal attacks.
I have learned a lot from this forum and I thank people for that but an increasing number of people contribute nothing of note here. It's a shame but I suspect you have put off many new beekeepers from contributing here.
I have no doubt that the very same people I refer to here will now flame me, put me on ignore and/or generally be quite vitriolic in their replies. Well, rock on because I won't be listening to you.
While you you sit there in a few years time looking at your dead hives and blaming everyone but yourselves you can be smug in the knowledge that none of it was your fault because you did nothing -- well done you.
