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It's such a bizarre story. Completely vanished. So long and thanks for all the pollen?
If they're on to something with the pesticide-producing crop being hazardous to bees with parasites, it would be a prime example of the law of unintended consequences...

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
by NordicStorm on Thu Mar 29th, 2007 at 04:54:43 AM EST
So long and thanks for all the pollen?
Ha! Exactly what I was just going to write.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Mar 29th, 2007 at 05:52:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
the law of unintended consequences

Oh, come on!

BBC News: Scientists discuss GM threat to butterflies (8 November, 1999)

There has been particular concern about the fate of the familiar insect after Cornell University, US, researchers showed how pollen from corn modified to produce its own insecticide could kill monarch larvae if it landed on milkweed plants, the exclusive food of monarch caterpillars.

Since the Cornell study was published in the science journal Nature last May, environmental lobby groups opposed to GM crops have used the monarch butterfly as a focus for their attacks on the biotech industry.

But at a symposium in Chicago which brought together many scientists working in this area, there appeared to be conflicting evidence as to the true state of play.

The meeting was organised by a consortium of biotechnology and pesticide companies in the US, the Agricultural Biotechnology Stewardship Working Group. It had commissioned a number of studies in response to the Cornell work, some of which reported preliminary findings at the symposium.

This was eight fucking years ago and the industry not only "commissioned" research [link to our previous discussion on the risks of researchers accepting non-charity money from industry] but was allowed to go ahead and release the crops in the wild, massively.

Unintended consequences my ass.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Mar 29th, 2007 at 05:56:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The particular issue has diminished  criticality as for now. That is what they will always say: see, that alarm was false again. So we will keep on gambling.

But strange things are happening already, obviously.

by das monde on Thu Mar 29th, 2007 at 06:19:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I didn't say the agents have to care said consequence occurred.

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde
by NordicStorm on Thu Mar 29th, 2007 at 06:23:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Sick bees tend to avoid leaving their corpses in the hive, for obvious reasons. Whether this explains much in this instance, I don't know.

Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.
by technopolitical on Fri Mar 30th, 2007 at 02:08:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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