2 Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies

shedweller

New to this forum so i'm not sure if this belongs here. It's a worrying trend and has been brewing for some time now. This pesticide link is obvious i suppose but given the huge (questionable?) reliance on pesticides i wonder if anything meaningful will or can be done?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/science/neocotinoid-pesticides-play-a-role-in-bees-decline-2-studies-find.html?_r=1

Scientists have been alarmed and puzzled by declines in bee populations in the United States and other parts of the world. They have suspected that pesticides are playing a part, but to date their experiments have yielded conflicting, ambiguous results.

In Thursday’s issue of the journal Science, two teams of researchers published studies suggesting that low levels of a common pesticide can have significant effects on bee colonies. One experiment, conducted by French researchers, indicates that the chemicals fog honeybee brains, making it harder for them to find their way home. The other study, by scientists in Britain, suggests that they keep bumblebees from supplying their hives with enough food to produce new queens.
The authors of both studies contend that their results raise serious questions about the use of the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids.
“I personally would like to see them not being used until more research has been done,” said David Goulson, an author of the bumblebee paper who teaches at the University of Stirling, in Scotland. “If it confirms what we’ve found, then they certainly shouldn’t be used when they’re going to be fed on by bees.”

Cork boy 55

I have seen a couple of documentires on this over the years

The last one i saw was a few weeks back cannot recall the name of it
but they raisied a interesting point

Bee populations in Urban and semi-urban areas are fine.
which would suggest pesticide