Over at The Daily Kos Devilstower has produced an entertaining and (I think) fair and honest appraisal of the hypotheses swirling around colony collapse disorder. What I found most interesting about the summary is that Devilstower gives his/her own estimates of each one being right or wrong and then offers a poll where readers can give their own estimates. When I voted, the results were:
- The way commercial hives are handled 10% 785 votes
- Infection & Infestation 22% 1731 votes
- Pesticides 19% 1487 votes
- GM Foods 9% 741 votes
- Drought & Bad Weather 4% 324 votes
- Global Warming 12% 946 votes
- Electromagnetic pollution 14% 1134 votes
- Other 6% 499 votes
That strikes me as eminently sensible (because it fits with my own prejudices, obviously). But what would have been really neat — though perhaps impossible to do on Daily Kos — would have been a before and after poll. Give and estimate before reading the piece, then after reading the piece, and see whether all that fine work by Devilstower had any impact. I would hope it did, but a skeptical voice deep within whispers “no”.