tags: streaming video, Bill Maher, Earth Day, politics
Bill Maher quotes Albert Einstein as saying that humans and other animals have only four years left if all the bees died. Did Einstein really say that?
Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)
Written by an evolutionary biologist/ornithologist who writes about E3 -- Evolution, Ecology and Ethology -- and the subtle relationships between these phenomena, especially in birds.
GrrlScientist Tweets:
GrrlScientist's New Blog:
Search This Blog
Valuable Information
Concisus Vitae
GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist and ornithologist who loves to write about "E3": evolution, ethology and ecology and the subtle relationships between these fields, especially in birds.
GrrlScientist's new blog can be accessed through any one of these five domain names: GrrlScientist.net, grrlscientist.org, grrlscientist.info, grrlscientist.com, or grrlscientist.us (keep in mind that, in the future, these domains may point to different places). GrrlScientist's current blog home is at her NATURE Network blog, Maniraptora.
Online interviews with GrrlScientist: Kolibri Expeditions, ScienceOnline09, Nature Blog Network and ScienceBlogs. More biographical information about GrrlScientist.
Follow GrrlScientist:
GrrlScientist's banner was designed by graphic artist, Jeff Hebert, whose other work can be viewed at his site, Hero Machine.
Recent Posts
- Big News: This Blog Has Migrated to a New Home
- ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
- Mystery Bird: Magnificent Frigatebird, Fregata magnificens
- Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) #35 is Published!
- The Secret Powers of Time
- A Rocket of His Own
- Rosa Blume unter Goldenen Blumen
- SMG/Sb Ethical Lapse Claims Another 'SciBling'
- Mystery Bird: Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens
- Zircons: Time Capsules from the Early Earth
Recent Comments
- Robert on Goodbye: Dusky Seaside Sparrow
- mackerelsaladboy on TEDTalks: Matt Ridley: When Ideas Have Sex
- mackerelsaladboy on ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
- Leon Shernoff on Stinkhorn Mushroom
- Funny about Money on ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
- Daniel Eichenbaum on ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
- Murray on Mystery Bird: Gray Wren-warbler, Calamonastes simplex, and Lesser Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica
- Paul on Update on The Homeless Telegraph Hill Parrots of San Francisco
- Daniel J. Andrews on ScienceBlogs = ZombieBlogs
- Sean on A Rocket of His Own
$upport This Scholar
Worthy Causes to $upport
Meters and Counters
- September 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
|
|
Archives
Deep archives
Rotating Drinking Pals
Rotating Reciprocal Links
Reading/Reviewing
Blog Essay Publications
Book Contributions
Bookmarking/Networking
My Little Radio Station (Music)
News and Talk
Miscellaneous
« Icelandic Businessman Wins Esteemed Environmental Prize for Saving Salmon | Main | Birds in the News 80 (v3n7) »
Bill Maher on Earth Day
Topic Categories: Conservation • Streaming videos
Posted on: April 22, 2007 8:08 PM, by "GrrlScientist"
Comments
Apparently not, though if that quote can be attributed to someone, it sounds more like E.O. Wilson.
Posted by: Jamie | April 22, 2007 9:37 PM
No!
No Einstein did not say this. And I'm so disappointed in Bill Maher. He's usually pretty decent on science.
I don't buy this bees crap. There is no good science on this. It's based on bad, bad studies, and is just environmental hysteria. Further, bees are not the only pollinators of important crops, and there is no correlation between GM crops, cell phones, what have you and this die off.
Posted by: mark | April 22, 2007 9:46 PM
New rule: From now on, Earth Day really must be a year-round thing. Right on. I was afraid he was going to scoff, as the great Carlin often does.
Posted by: Ladarzak | April 23, 2007 3:38 AM
The following discussion thread on Snopes came up empty handed on finding the Einstein reference:
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=127316
Similarly, Mark Turner, on his blog, passes on Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson's doubt:
http://www.markturner.net/?q=node/2195
Posted by: Ex-drone | April 23, 2007 6:52 AM
Fantastic message, but he's just so damn smug!
Posted by: Herb | April 23, 2007 9:37 AM
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp
Status: undetermined
Always good to do the research.
Posted by: john | April 23, 2007 10:11 AM
I don't know if Einstein actually said it, but the conclusion is probably unassailable, and I suspect his contemporary, Alfred North Whitehead, would have agreed. Thanks for sharing Maher's comments; they are well worth circulating. I've referenced your post on my blog at
http://creativeadvance.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Gerald T Floyd | April 23, 2007 11:02 AM
Yesterday I counted 5 dead honeybees on the walkway in front of the Ralphs Supermarket on Huntington Drive in South Pasadena, California. That's got to be statistically anomalous. I'd never seen a dead bee anywhere until a few years ago. Now I'm seeing them everywhere.
Posted by: Roy | April 23, 2007 3:14 PM
Actually animals that feed on cereals/grass would not be immediately affected since grasses, corn, etc. are wind-pollinated. So are some trees; e.g., there would be no shortage of acorns. Ultimately, however, food-web relationships would be disrupted until a new balance was achieved. You could still get a Big Mac.
Posted by: biosparite | April 24, 2007 11:30 AM
There are plenty of other pollinators. However, farmers tend to rely on honey bees because not only are they good pollinators and produce honey, but we have experience keeping them. (Because, of course, people in the past wanted in honey.)
Posted by: Renee | April 26, 2007 10:15 AM