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?
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Bill Maher on Earth Day
Topic Categories: Conservation • Streaming videos
Posted on: April 22, 2007 8:08 PM, by "GrrlScientist"
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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