UPDATE: Bible prophecy, the birds and the bees: science responds

    Written on January 7, 2011 at 6:00 am by Dakota O’Leary      (VIA)goddiscussion.com

The major story this week has been the birds that fell out of the sky in Arkansas, Sweden, Kentucky, and South America. The Internet has been buzzing with rumors about the coming Biblical apocalypse, that dead birds and dead fish are a sure sign of Christ’s imminent return (even though no one could provide supporting Bible verses), and the media has hyped the situation to apocalyptic proportions.

According to National Geographic, the results of preliminary tests done by the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison Wisconsin, show the birds in Arkansas died from blunt force trauma caused by professional grade fireworks that apparently caused the birds to fly lower than normal, at treetop level. The preliminary findings have been supported by similar findings released by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Moreover, orthinologist Karen Rowe of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says that “they collided with cars, trees, buildings and other stationary objects.” The birds also have very poor night vision, which, coupled with the lower than normal flight, caused them to collide with objects. The dead birds in Arkansas are of a variety that normally roost in large groups during the winter. Orthinologist Greg Butcher from the Audubon Society says that “the record I’ve heard is 23 million birds in one roost. In that context, 5,000 birds dying is a fairly small amount.” Birds in Louisiana collided with power lines, and the 50 to 100 jackdaws found in Sweden also died from blunt force trauma according to the Swedish National Veterinary Institute. Weather kills birds too, including lightning, hail, snow, and wind. The moral of the story is, is that for birds, death happens. To biologists, these deaths are normal occurrences, caused by weather, fireworks, and day to day collisions with man made structures such as buildings and power lines.

What’s going on with the bumblebees?

Bumblebees are also dying off in large numbers. What is the cause? According to Gather, a three-year study led by Professor Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois confirmed that bumblebees are indeed diminishing. According to Yahoo News, Cameron stated, “The decline of bumble bees in the US is associated with two things we were able to study: the pathogen Nosema bombi and a decline in genetic diversity. But we are not saying Nosema is the cause. We don’t know.” Further, Gather states that the bumblebee study “will soon be published in the Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences. Concerning the death of bumblebees, Cameron stated, “We need to start to develop other bees for pollination beside honey bees, because they are suffering enormously.” Most people are aware of how important honey bees are, but many of us are not informed on just how relevant and beneficial bumble bees are as well.”

Fear not, Internet friends. It’s not the end of the world. This sort of thing occurs every day in nature—it just took 5,000 birds and the media to make us pay attention to how we affect the natural world. Those who are shouting over their Bibles perhaps could take a lesson about God’s command to “tend and keep” the environment (He created all these species for a reason),and realize that the impact we have on the natural world is substantial, and if unchecked, many species of every kind of animal, bird, insect, reptile, amphibian and fish will suffer for our carelessness.