Dennis vanEngelsdorp: Where have the bees gone?

[krazykraut]

I'm eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich RIGHT NOW! :D

[influxrift]

Lawns are useless biosystems. Correct.

[dedsetmad]

When I was a little tacker back in the 60's, there were bees everywhere on a nice day...household gardens were swarming beautifully.

Today....zip...,...I have to look to find any bees even on the sunniest of days. My intuitive mind tells me that it has something to do with the chemicals that we spray everywhere

Just remember that without the birds and the bees to pollinate the plants, we're fucked. I think that we had better take this phenomenon seriously if we wish the human race to continue.

[000Winter000]

HAARP and/or Scalar waves are responsible for the odd beehaviour. They are purposely trying to ruin our food supply for mass depopulation. The "useless eaters" must die, and Monsanto must make prophets off of their "suicide plants".

[northhens]

One of einsteins best quote`s if all bees vanish off the face of the planet,humans would only live another 4 years

[del33pi]

everyone! take out 90% of your lawn and xeriscape it or turn into a meadow! and the other 10% do NOT use fertilizer, just get a type of lawngrass that is native to your area.

imagine how quiet weekend mornings would be without lawnmowers...ahhh

[AlanAbbott]

So all our precious honey bees are dying off, and no one can figure out why... Now this is just a theory, but has anyone asked Monsanto Corp.? I mean we don't even know what their GMO veggies are going to do to us yet. Maybe, (keep in mind this is just a theory), that's what's killing the bees. But not to worry folks, they probably already have a whole line of, (patent pending), veggies that are self pollinating... Think about it. Who gains if we loose the bees..? Monsanto's who, (Just a theory)

[meekychuppet]

@AlanAbbott that isn't a theory, it's a guess, and a bad one at that.

[AlanAbbott]

@meekychuppet A big fan of the GMO, I'm guessing... As you can probably tell, I do a lot of that. I guess that's what makes me who I am.

[veganath]

@AlanAbbott Interesting theory, Monsanto vs. The World..... I hope that it's not true, but like u I hv my suspicions. We need to use the best of technologies & embrace a simpler authentic way of life, devoid of NDD.

[MartinHDJ]

Chemtrails killed the bees

[RogueBrit]

Scary stuff be worried people

[uluv2nvme2]

I live in Groveland Fl. this year has been unseasonably cold. As i pulled back the sheets that kept my sago palms protested, 1 little bee was stuck to the sheet. It was dead of course. I couldn't help but to be saddened by the sight of the bee, the pollen he worked so hard for still stuck to his little legs : ( Just yesterday i heard the sound of buzzing and went in search of the hummm. The tree across the street was in full bloom and covered with bees. I stood there amazed....

[CerebalDystrophy]

What a great, facinating & humerous presentation.... I was looking for 'Bees' the band, but this clip had me hooked till the end!

[WellnessMafia]

Absolutely fascinating. Thanks you for this clip.

[whycantibefree]

Einstein was the one that said if te Bees were to die off as a species, humans would be extinct within 45 years. good video def makes you wonder.

[ubctango]

I just started reading Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen. When beekeepers talk about bees disappearing, they don't mean "escaping," that would be the equivalent of swarming, i.e. they would go look for another place to set up shop.

They leave and don't come back; the assumption is that they are afflicted by something that weakens them to the point where they die on the way.

For all you CSI watchers: no body, no autopsy. That's also why it's been so difficult to figure out CCD.

[Sprauge99]

That was by far one of the best videos i've ever watched. :-)

[rockachopa]

Did they just die or did they really cease to exist?! How come people say they dissappear when they are just dying. :P!?!

[vanhellcine888]

humans next.....lol....the bees have ascended 2 the 4th diamension

[diomedes39]

@vanhellcine888 OH GOD ! THEY'RE PERPENDICULAR TO EVERYTHING WE KNOW!

[Cannibalzz]

I took the bees, and you'll never get them back!!!!

[DVAFP]

the problem with disappearing bees i suspect is pesticides or climate change. someone once said and im paraphrasing "when bees disappear humans will surely follow".

[Serpreme]

Didn't he say that some of the most healthy hives were the ones with pesticides?

[psychosemantix]

i was just wondering if bees didnt inhabit north america to begin with why would it be such a crisis if they werent here now. I know they are involved in a majority of our current foods production and i may sound naive for even asking. but this guy just leaves out a lot of facts. It could be evolution killing off certain bees that are succeptible to our modern enviroment and replacing them more adept types. By filtering an replacing queens an splitting colonies could be the problem in the end.

[rootsxrocks]

The increased density of our population has made us dependent on advanced agriculture. at 8:25 he states that 1 in three bites were dependent on pollination. I also wonder why escaped bees could not maintain populations in the wild. How much have we altered domestic bees in the last 2000 years that they are not so wild as we imagine.

[robertmaxwell797]

They're aren't escaping they're dying

[pt112448]

it is chemtrails

[dennisvandenberg]

A lot of words (almost half of the talk) about the beautiful people that beekeepers are, but hardly any scientific explanation of why bee colonies are dying out.

He mentions very briefly that bees are dying because of a virus infection, but what exactly does this have to do with 'Nature Deficit Disorder' and our 'lost connection to nature'?

Don't get me wrong. I sounds like an important topic, but I was expecting a little bit more facts and science.

One of the few disappointing TED talks...

[Newtoon]

I understand your point but disagree on your conclusion.

He could have given (boring) details and figures about all cumulating causes but this Ted Talk is not a peer review presentation but a moving synthesis about one topic.

So, he went regrouping the cause of the disorder to one simple thing : we, humans, lost connection with Nature (symbolised by our love for lawns). Let's love Nature again and bees will come back. No reports needed.

Note : I love sciences (in case you doubt ;-) ).

[pt112448]

chemtrails= microwaves applied to the barium and alum. and the fuguses there spraying is the death of bees and bats is my conclusion

[wanshei]

The meglomaniacs who are spraying our skies with those damn chemtrails in thier diseased mind to reduce the population of the planet or project blue beam. The compounds are atmospheric; barium, trace elements of bromide, aluminum etc. Which in the level of concentration that have been recorded will kill us, how much the more it would kill smaller less self-defensible organisms such as bees. Einstein: "if there were no more bees man would have less than 4 years left to live."

[ChrisSketch]

"The meglomaniacs who are spraying our skies yadda yadda yadda"

How about less conspiracy theory, and more scientific method?

[jophus82]

I know these chemtrail people are mostly nutjobs, but they don't have the means to test.

There is evidence in certain areas that something is being spread. There is always a grain of truth in a rumor, if there wasn't there would not be so many subscribers.

[ChrisSketch]

I don't care. This Wanshei guy's main idea hinges on the existence of some clandestine malicious organization plotting to kill a majority of humans on earth. What about this deserves any credence? Surely there are better sources of information than this self described "guru." This is pure and simple scapegoating based on assumption and paranoia.

And John Lear has plenty of people around him who think his ideas are sound too. Doesn't make him any less of a nut job either.

[jophus82]

Fair enough. I got a different message from it altogether, but I respect your opinion.

I'm not sure, but I actually don't think he is self proclaimed. I think your are selected via committee to present at TED, but I could be wrong.

Even if he is completely wrong, at least he is bringing attention to the subject and people such as you and I together to discuss the issue at hand.

BTW there was an interesting article in the NY Times about the raise of paranoia in the masses, this week.

[ChrisSketch]

no no no, not the TED speaker. wanshei. The Youtube commenter. I'm calling wanshei a nutjob not Dennis from the video. If you look at his Youtube page, he reeks of conspiracy nut.

[jophus82]

No wonder I couldn't relate... lol. I was like where is he getting that from this lecture. I forgot to look at it in the comment context.

I haven't looked at his page, but I know the general stereotype. I am very passive about the subject because it seems harmless to me. If they prove something is wrong, then good for them and us. Otherwise I don't see the harm.

U should check out that article though. It still applies. Fascinating how paranoia is growing.

Lets hope we all have a better 09!

[grimshawr]

I heard it was because of interference from cell phones, was that just a myth?

[Drynae]

I've seen Bee Movie too and really, he sounds just like one.. he could do a voice over for one. Haha.. xD

[Drynae]

van Engelsdrop is quite a Dutch name. It's translated to: from Englishvillage. Just a little pun I guess?

[ddball1]

They have gone to the big beehive in the sky ..

[2snipe1]

I remember bumbles dying in the summer. Just randomly. Never thought it was because of a flu virus.

[markus310773]

I simply think it is great that people like Mr. van Engelsdorp try to tackle such important issues like "Where have the bees gone".

This is a real contrast to the benefits we achieve by having such a huge number of (partially very) bright people working on Wall Street. I might be too idealistic, but the world would be better off if more people did not only concentrate on making money, driving a Porsche and showing people how great they are...

[gusphraba]

Let's be more specific. The world would be better off if these people made more money if they did the right thing. We have to build this environment, they'll do the job just fine. At the moment you make the most money being a drug dealer, wether it's a crook in the street of the founder of the Skull and Bones that brings up our presidents.

[markus310773]

Thx for replying. However, I frankly did not completely understand your response.

[gusphraba]

Sorry, what I meant was, if we wait for the people who are good at making money to do the right thing, we will wait forever and things will keep getting worse because they care about themselves and their families and not about the future of the rest of the world. Which is not their fault, it's what makes them good at it. Instead we have to make it more profitable for them to do good than evil. They will never do good if it means less profit, just like the people in the streets. It's our fault.

[dedsetmad]

@gusphraba ................you idiot

[blaziermissy]

I agree with you in part, but in ALL honesty, MONEY is the problem.

Watch Zeitgeist: Addendum. You'll see exactly how money is the problem. A resource based society would eradicate most of the world's problem and humanity could flourish.

It's a must see.

[1schwererziehbar1]

did he notice that the knodding thing at the beginning was funny, because if all people would nodded at their right neighbour at the same time noone would have had eye contact and that that probably caused a lot of people to wait for the other to look at them but the neighbour didn't turn around because he was also waiting for his neighbour and then things got really chaotic? that probably caused the laughing.

[zpectr]

You can't know for a fact that there's a single factor which influence the drop in numbers.

[Invain01]

chemical castration of males from increasing pesticide use is starting to become a dire situation. Males from all animal species are showing reduced breading capacity if overexposed to pesticides (hello viagra?), I suspect bees have it pretty bad.

[nilbud]

Completely wrong.

[vidiot4u2]

what is? everything or just the flu theory? and why?

[Invain01]

Two main types of pesticides are used on crops, one that is essentially a birth control pill for bugs, and another which attacks the central nervous system. I rise in hermaphrodite animals (crocodiles in Florida and even Polar Bears) and reduced breading ability and desire of males in many different animals. To say this won't affect humans when it affects these large creatures is ignorant and pacifistic. Obviously pesticides are meant to do this to bugs, but its overuse might be something.

[wingnut4427]

Here's an idea of what could be causing the problem or at least 60% of it. Genetically Mortified Food's introduced into the environment recklessly By Monsanto. If you disrupt the bees main source of substanance They can't possibly sustain themselves with faulty pollen they collect from all of the GMO's produced By Man. It's like giving you vegetables to eat with no nutritional value. No matter how much you consume you will wither & die !

[NwZ2]

Cool hypothesis. Got evidence and reasoned arguments to back them up?

[gusphraba]

I think pesticides are the biggest problem. I'm not a fan of genetically modified food but pesticides are the alternative and both are a dangour. But pesticide is defenitely bad, not sure about GMF yet.

[ratholin]

way to listen to the guy who's studying it. He said that some of the healthiest colonies get the most pesticide. They checked it out and crossed it off the list.

[56jmoney]

I was thinking... what if it's the genetically modified food that's causing the problem? Wouldn't that also genetically alter the pollen as well? What if that's what's affecting the bees.

[Shoukaze]

1) The kind of crops you would genetically modify is not a source of pollen for bee's.

2) Even if number one had been wrong, ge crops is not predominant enough to account for one third of bee casualties. Nearly all crops would have to be ge for that.

3) From an ecological point of view. Genetically engineered plants would be an insignificant biohazard to other life, compared to chemical pesticides.

99% of all species that ever lived on earth are gone, its not always our fault.

[gusphraba]

In Germany most butterflies and bees are dying out and we don't have a lot of genetically modified plants. I know a beekeper and scientist who came up with some great inventions but I don't know if he still watches what's going on, he turned old. Gotta ask him some day.

[Waranoa]

Assuming he's Dutch (he's got a bit of an accent) His name is Dennis van Engelsdorp. Just for the record ;)

[vrshowdown]

well we don't have to worry about killer bees

[Josephummel]

"If we did not have bees, its not like we would starve." Except animal feed would have to be from sources that didnt need pollination? NDD is definitely real. How disconnected people are from nature is sad.

[bersaba]

I saw a doco about a bee scientist in New Zealand, and apparently about 1/3 of the entire food of the world is 'touched' by bees (spreading pollen).

[bgny]

Genetically modified crops are destroying the bees immune system. Insect-resistant plants are now used in over 40 percent of cornfields in the United States. The genetic contamination from these GM crops has long ago left the fields where they were grown. Cleaning up a self-replicating contamination will prove to be enormously difficult. The govt will not step in with funding because they receive large tax receipts from these GM crop businesses. There is no mystery, only suppression of truth.

[mikedubya]

You know the topic of possible bee extinction is important when it's an episode of The Simpsons.

[tyrbolo]

aggregation of colonies doesn't help with any problem. The viral generators work on any

organism. Losing the bees will cause an

agriculture collapse.

[rythumrichard]

Sir Edmund Hillary who was first to summit Mt Everest was a bee keeper by trade in his early days, and remained a keen member of the New Zealand bee keeping community throughout his 88 years.

[juggep80]

Fuck the bees. Lets grow honey artificially!

[VivekisV]

don't we do that with bees?

[archaedemos]

awesome point of view!!

[LiptonGuy]

The bees are dying off, because there are more gay-bees; which don't produce offspring.

[wade2bosh]

maybe bees are dying for the same reason the male species across the earth are dying out....environmental problems/chemicals/etc

[PFCAhammed]

its a colossal problem much underreported in the media. approx 33% of the food on our plates are a result of bee pollination. a large part of this bee death according to german studies is GM crops.

[isegoria1]

Maybe when we have nothing to shove in our fat gelatinous faces we will finally understand the importance of the bees.

[hbrent86]

bee

[ChowZeb]

haha theres talks about bees?

[mikezephyr]

vanEngelsdorp's solution to NDD is what anarchists and primitivists describe as 'rewilding'. it's encouraging the untamed, undomesticated to flourish for the health and wellbeing of human and nonhuman communities. sounds pretty decent to me.

[CanadianNinjaMonkey]

Fascinating, I had no idea there were so many species of bees, nor that they were not native to North America.

[De4sher]

Why don't you regenerate dead colonies out of the surviving ones?

The fact that the surviving bees have something in their genes that helped them survive, is a no-brainer. Let nature work out that problem, for if you keep replacing dead colonies from the same source, the "malware" of natural world will kill 70-80% of you bees each and every year, eventually.

Work with evolution, not against it.

[juckis]

it's because Roundup

[stimulater7]

working bees only live for 6 weeks ?

[topstot]

Albert Einstein speculated that "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."

[bluemamie]

topstot, that quote is apocryphal. I mistakenly quoted it myself before it was debunked on Snopes.

[topstot]

yeah thats what i heard, maybe he did nt say it, but i still think its a good mantra for the beekeeping world. work on the same time frame!

[XSeveredManX]

I live in new england. I didn't mow my lawn for 3 years. Over those years a patch of sunflowers came out of no where and A bunch of trees started growing.

[TECHKLEC]

This is a serious problem. How will pollination be done to grow crops?

[kurtilein3]

techklec: use bees, its the only option. or maybe trained humming birds? robotic bees?

one more realistic option would be to try out different species of bees, from different countries. but there seems to be no alternative to bees.

[TECHKLEC]

This quirk of nature has been going on for about three or maybe four years now and has been progressively getting worse. Beekeepers themselves are loosing their entire colonies and nobody has been able to figure out why. I'm not sure about different species of bees or bees from another country because I don't think this problem is restricted to North America. There is a species of bees in the US that were brought over froim Africa that are upsetting the balance of nature and spreading north.

[TECHKLEC]

The name of these African bees escapes me at the moment, but they are very agressive in nature and I don't think they pollinate. At any rate, keep an eye on this situation as it progresses because it may lead to diasterous consequences.

[kurtilein3]

TECHLEK: you are talking about the africanized killer-bees, foxnews and other low-quality media did a lot of reporting about it, before they used terrorism to scare people.

they are not significantly more agressive than any other bees, this was perpetuated as part of the ``we all need to be in fear because killerbees will kill us´´-myth. and they do pollinate, i mean, its bees, what do you think they do? eat dogs?

killer bees are not your problem, but could be part of the solution.

[TECHKLEC]

Yes kurt, that's what I was referring to and Fox was not the only media outlet reporting their migration. And no, I'm sure they don't eat dogs but from what I recall, there have been some very serious attacks on people. I'd just like to know what is the cause of the crisis outlined in this particular clip.

[kurtilein3]

techklec:

they are migrating, its true, but they are bees. doing what bees do, nothing else. they impollinate for a living. they might be slightly more agressive, but even if this is the case, it will be nothing compared to the alligator-problem in florida, and that one got solved quite well without needing to exterminate the gators.

if the "killer bees" would be spreading, this would be good news, not bad news. but i guess right now they perish, just like all other bee species.

[TECHKLEC]

Sorry, but there is no 'good news' here.

[oahiska]

google "no organic bee losses"

[TECHKLEC]

I just did and breify scanned over some of the sites. I'm quite sure there are others. Thanks.

[Linda98002]

@TECHKLEC

Mason bees are really a type of awesome pollinating fly with hairy legs---a man who is raising these pollinators talked to the SCARAB club at the Burke Museum, Seattle last winter about them. Really good news! They are something like 300 times more effective at moving the pollen around!! (And they don't bite --or sting like bees can--they are gentle and easier for people to work around.)

[comp7878]

What does the speaker mean by "meadow"? He later shows a picture of flowers. When I hear "meadow" I think of an open field. But open fields are full of overgrown weeds and tend to breed mosquitoes and other pests.

Does he mean "plant flowers and stuff"?

Can anyone clarify?

[marsCubed]

comp7878, It is hard to know whether you are being serious, but here goes anyway. If you let a field go fallow, it will generally fill with wild flowers and other plants. You may have heard the expression 'going to clover'. Food crops pull nutrients out of the ground, but they also put their waste there, This is food for flowering plants and fungi etc. Letting nature recover naturally allows for rich diversity, this can provide a balance to the pathogens which emerge within monocultures.

[sheepwshotguns]

if i grew a meadow instead of a lawn, how many bugs would i be inviting into my house =/

[onehandraisinbransam]

That's some hardcore Biophilia.

[GuitarHero1222222222]

It could be Global Warming causing this whole Bee thing. I don't think it ever happened before in history so it must be Global Warming. Well I haven't watched the whole video~ O_o

[ViolaeGM]

I think yopu are massively uninformed, Global warming has been worse,and has occured many more times than you think since human life began.

[p0ison1vy]

i never understood why people mow their lawns.

[jailarson]

I dont understand why people have lawns in the first place. Gardens with edible flowers and vegetables/fruits are a better idea anyway.

[p0ison1vy]

oh indeed!

[drchaffee]

LOL You've never seen the look of disapproval from the old lady next door!

[p0ison1vy]

fuck the old lady next door

[drchaffee]

Goodness, that's an image I didn't need. Perhaps with a big fuckin' meadow I won't be able to see her.

[jailarson]

Ummmm. Personally, I think I will pass. She might get the wrong idea. Unless the old lady next door is Sophia Loren. :P

[5998b]

Another great Vid

[stevenaudet]

Bees + Disease + Israeli = Jews kill bees! OMG!

(I know this is stupid)

[sockpuppetsfromhell]

We raise these colonies of bees on their equivalent of an all junk food diet. They eat the same crap constantly and it's always covered in poison. We have wild bees where I'm at (in the woods) and, if anything, their populations are growing.

[fireflyuphigh]

He failed to stress the importance of bees to human survival.

[boardsnow44]

the happening?

[stormkiller22]

Why are they laughing?

[Doomsetter]

smart people have emotions too

[Jonase123]

thanks ted

[OpakeArawra2]

what was that? grow a meadow of pot? alright. it won't be easy, but i think i'm the man for the job. *puts on sunglasses* yeahhhhh..

[intrepgun]

hahaha

[neotoy]

Bees interact with quantum fields, that may be a clue.

[sosolid2kk]

36% 0.0

[sausage4mash]

wow never thought of insects catching a virus ,do bees havea imune system ?

[Kloxboy]

Certainly interesting and informative.

This channel is awesome, it's so unique.

[747dog]

...Great info.. need to teach in grade schools...

[MCG3141]

Grow a meadow.

[newportlights]

Great speech. I read somewhere that the disappearance or death of the Bee's is primarily related to reactions the bee's are having to chemicals used in farming, pest control, & landscaping. If the cause isn't man made this really is pretty weird especially for a super organism.

[baronmorris]

also, cell phones. for real, tho.  ;-)

[robotaholic]

Bees, frogs, tigers- everything cool is dying-

[mikezephyr]

rather, being killed.