Planet Earth

Study Shows Growing Hemp is a Powerful Tool to Fight Bee Population Decline

As the world population of honeybees continues to decline at a dangerous rate, a new study from Colorado State University purports to have found the answer to quell the decline—hemp. The reason hemp is such a boon to the bee population is simple, it is a great source of pollen.

Because the hemp plant provides such a massive amount of pollen, it will provide them with the resources they need to sustain and grow their populations.

As Forbes points out:

According to researchers, most hemp crops flower between July and September, coinciding with a lack of pollen production from other farm crops.
Over 2,000 bees (and 23 different types of bee, including the European honeybee) were collected during the study. The 23 bee types represent 80% of all types in the region.
This discovery points to hemp as a new pollen source for bees and could help sustain their populations.
Bee colonies have been declining in the U.S. due to stressors such as pests, pesticide exposure and poor nutrition from a lack of pollen, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Researchers noted that although “hemp does not produce any nectar, the pollen rich nature of the flowers can make hemp an ecologically valuable crop.” However, they also noted that as “cultivation of hemp continues to expand, we expect insect pests on hemp to also become prevalent. Our results documenting bee diversity in flowering hemp provides the impetus for the development of integrated pest management plans that protect pollinators while controlling pests.”

As TFTP reported last year, another study showed that mushrooms could have a powerful effect on bees by helping them combat the viruses that have been killing their colonies.

According to the results of this study, which was titled “Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduces Viruses in Honey Bees,” researchers were looking for a way to combat the highly infectious viruses that were wiping out global honey bee populations, and they started looking at mushrooms when they noticed bees were seeking out the fungus:

“BEES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING ON MUSHROOM MYCELIUM, SUGGESTING THAT THEY MAY BE DERIVING MEDICINAL OR NUTRITIONAL VALUE FROM FUNGI. FUNGI ARE KNOWN TO PRODUCE A WIDE ARRAY OF CHEMICALS WITH ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY, INCLUDING COMPOUNDS ACTIVE AGAINST BACTERIA, OTHER FUNGI, OR VIRUSES. WE TESTED EXTRACTS FROM THE MYCELIUM OF MULTIPLE POLYPORE FUNGAL SPECIES KNOWN TO HAVE ANTIVIRAL PROPERTIES.”

The study found that extracts from amadou and reishi fungi reduced the levels of honey bee Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and Lake Sinai Virus (LSV) with colonies that were fed Ganoderma resinaceum extract showing “a 79-fold reduction in DWV and a 45,000-fold reduction in LSV compared to control colonies,” which brought researchers to the conclusion that “honey bees may gain health benefits from fungi and their antimicrobial compounds.”

Paul Stamets, lead author of the study and founder of Fungi Perfecti, a business focused on promoting the cultivation of mushrooms, told ABC News that he worked with researchers from Washington State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the study.

“This is a natural product and [it’s showing] tremendous results in reducing the viruses of bees,” Stamets said, noting that the mushrooms are “the first antivirals to reduce viruses in bees.”

Published by Nature Scientific Reports, the results of the study noted that over the last decade, while the demand for honey bees has increased, the annual colony losses have continued to increase, usually by more than 30 percent each year.

Researchers began paying attention to the natural habits of the bees, which led them to study why the bees were foraging directly on mushrooms. According to the study:

“HONEY BEES HAVE BEEN OBSERVED FORAGING DIRECTLY ON MYCELIUM GROWING IN OUTDOOR BEDS, LEADING TO SPECULATION THAT THEY MAY BE PROCURING A NUTRITIONAL OR MEDICINAL GAIN. THIS BEHAVIOR MAY REPRESENT A NOVEL FACET OF SOCIAL IMMUNITY, GIVEN THAT A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT HONEY BEES SELF-MEDICATE USING PLANT-DERIVED SUBSTANCES. IN THIS STUDY, WE EVALUATED EXTRACTS DERIVED FROM THE MYCELIA OF SEVERAL POLYPORE MUSHROOM SPECIES FOR ACTIVITY AGAINST TWO MAJOR HONEY BEE VIRUSES IN VIVO IN BOTH LABORATORY AND FIELD STUDIES. IN BOTH CASES, REDUCTIONS IN DWV AND LSV TITERS OCCURRED IN BEES THAT WERE FED MYCELIAL EXTRACTS IN SUCROSE SYRUP.”

Stamets also told ABC News that he was initially invited to submit his mushroom extract samples to the Department of Defense’s “Project BioShield” following the 9/11 attacks when the government warned of a possible “biological attack” and the extracts he provided were found to be “extraordinarily active.”

The power of mushrooms is now having the same effect on fragile honey bees, and the study found that the extracts could almost double the lifespan of caged bees while simultaneously working to reduces their viral count.

One of the most incredible things about this study is that the researchers took the time to pay attention to the elements in nature that honey bees were attracted to, and they found that the bees were instinctively foraging for a substance that helped to protect them.

The study is also yet another “win” for magic mushrooms, and as The Free Thought Project has reported over the years, there is no shortage of wonders that come from mushrooms, which include treatment for depression, opioid addiction, PTSD, and mental illness—just to name a few.

About the Author

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.

**This article (Study Shows Growing Hemp is a Powerful Tool to Fight Bee Population Decline) was originally featured at The Free Thought Project and is re-posted here with permission.**

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Planet Earth

Dazzling space view of earth’s aurora: lights and stars competing for glory

The International Space Station shared beautiful photos of the aurora on the surface provided by NASA.

People may already be in awe when watching the gorgeous aurora from the ground, but the International Space Station (International Space Station) recently shared photos of the aurora taken from space. It is even more more beautiful. A dazzling green light is seen above the vast surface of the ground, which complemented the golden light on the ground and the stars in the distance, like a super large light show.

The International Space Station shared 4 beautiful pictures of aurora over the surface on Twitter on January 24 . These photos are from the web photo album opened by NASA on Flickr.

The station's orbit takes it as high 51.6° above the equator offering awe-inspiring views of the Earth's aurora in between the city lights and the twinkling stars. https://t.co/gzNPCS8UMl pic.twitter.com/JEAwJI0LEX
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 23, 2021

As you can see from these photos, a very conspicuous green aurora appears between the city lights and the twinkling stars. Among them, the aurora and lights in the upper right photo are the brightest.

That photo was taken when the International Space Station was moving over Romania. The lights in the photo are from cities in Sweden and Finland, and the black area between these two Nordic countries is the Baltic Sea.

Aurora usually appears close to the North and South Pole. Those that appear near the North Pole are called the Northern Lights, and those that appear near the South Pole are called Southern Lights. Aurora can be seen more clearly at night, but they are actually caused by the sun.

NASA explained that when a solar storm comes towards the earth, some energy and tiny particles will drop below the magnetic field lines of the earth’s magnetic field at the north or south pole and enter the earth’s atmosphere.

These particles interact with gas molecules in the upper atmosphere, causing the gas molecules to release photons, which in turn produces beautiful aurora. If these particles touch oxygen, they will emit green and red aurora. If the interaction is nitrogen, the aurora will appear blue and purple.

Planet Earth

Scientists – It is much colder today than in the last 8,000 years

Ted Scambos / NSIDC

Undisputed temperature reconstructions from around the world show that for much of the Holocene (last 10,000 years), the planet was much warmer than it is today.

Kenneth recently wrote how many new studies of glacier and sea ice sizes show that Iceland is 2-4 ° C colder today than it has been in the past 8,000 years. Only the late 19th century was a little colder.

This post was posted on WUWT and the author provided additional graphics there from other parts of the world showing that the early Holocene was warmer around the world.

First, South America, which shows 100 years ago that it was much warmer from the 1930s to the 1950s than it is today:

Scientists - It is much colder today than in the last 8,000 years 101

Next, we have a 7000-year reconstruction of the Canadian Arctic temperature:

Scientists - It is much colder today than in the last 8,000 years 102

Note that, as many of us already know, the Arctic was much warmer in the early Holocene than it is today.

Finally, let’s take a look at the Swiss Alps, which are 9,000 years old:

Scientists - It is much colder today than in the last 8,000 years 103

Here we see that today it is very cold in the Alps compared to the early Holocene. Old tree trunks found under the glaciers confirm this.

A WUWT reader added that he has “a lot more of this type of graphs, which show very clearly that the whole wolrld has been much warmer for much of the last 10,000 years than it is now.”

And there are really a lot of them!

Medieval warm period, confirmed by hundreds of works

Sebastian Lüning’s remarkable and outstanding Medieval Warm Period reference map, shows hundreds of climatic reconstructions from this period. There we find a lot of research that shows that there is nothing unusual about today’s climate compared to what it was 1000 years ago.

Here are 80 charts from 58 peer-reviewed articles showing the same.

Source

Planet Earth

Polar vortex: “wild” winter is coming in the US, Northern Europe and East Asia after the 16th of January

In the upper atmosphere above the North Pole, experts saw a rapidly swirling vortex of cold air that could bring severe frosts to the United States, Northern Europe and East Asia. Serious cold snap and snowy weather are expected after January the 16th.

Snowfalls and a cold snap hit South Korea since the start of 2021, hitting historic snow maximums and temperatures. In the country, for the first time since 1964, television and newer communications are sending people cold snap warnings:

winter in South Korea. very cold my friend. enjoy the snow while drinking hot bitter coffee. pic.twitter.com/WcycIEpf2y
— Dhard (@Dhardyant1) January 6, 2021

https://twitter.com/sonyeoljin/status/1346841272347082752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The situation is similar in Japan, where a new snow storm hit historic highs:

On January 7, the thermometer In Beijing dropped to -20 degrees Celsius, breaking the 1966 record. In other regions of China, the temperature is also not sugar, and you can only move around in special uniforms:

The cold even reached Taiwan, where the temperature in some areas dropped below freezing point, snow poured down and people realized that rice terraces can be used as a ski jump:

Even more snow went to Spain, where on January 6, 2021, a temperature of -34.1 ° C was recorded – the lowest on record. After that, a snow storm hit the country, which has not been seen for 80 years:

https://youtu.be/pHU533Krs5M

The same thing happens in Canada and in the northern states of the United States:

I’m not too sure. But this is the current situation out there. Has not stopped blowing in over 24 hours!! pic.twitter.com/J69zeiHW01
— Amy Montague (@AmyMontague4) January 8, 2021

It seems that after a stratospheric warming, the subpolar vortex began to split:

I wrote in the December 21, 2020 blog our #PolarVortex (PV) model is predicting a major sudden stratospheric warming in early January and then again third week of January. Based on latest model forecasts there really does seem to be two distinct polar warming events in January. pic.twitter.com/vcMCPztoAh
— Judah Cohen (@judah47) January 8, 2021

The vortex itself is a standard phenomenon. However, this time experts were surprised at his movement. It is possible that in the near future it will be divided into two parts.

Scientists associate the strange behavior with the changed climate in the Arctic, which has become warmer. From September to December, the amount of ice cover decreased significantly.

The polar vortex is a low-pressure region located in the stratosphere and filled with cold air. When the jet stream of air that holds the vortex weakens, the low pressure area moves south.

As the ice shrinks, more moisture will move inland. It will turn to snow, so snowfalls are expected. Snow, in turn, reflects heat, leading to a cold snap.