Tell our state leaders to declare a moratorium on bee-killing pesticides
Millions of bees are dying off, with alarming consequences for our environment 和 our food supply. We rely on bees to pollinate everything from 杏仁 to strawberries to the alfalfa used to feed dairy cows. What happens if the bees disappear? It’s simple: No bees, no food.
Let's give bees a chance
In recent years, 养蜂人s report they’re losing on average 30 percent of all honeybee colonies each winter—twice the loss considered economically tolerable. Just as worrisome, wild bee populations are also in 下降.
We rely on bees to pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90 percent of most of the world’s food. Imagine no 杏仁, fewer apples 和 strawberries, less alfalfa to feed dairy cows, 和 the list goes on.
图片: Flickr User: Fried Dough - Creative Commons
6,000 times more toxic than DDT
Scientists point to several causes behind the problem, including global warming, habitat loss, parasites 和 a class of bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids (or neonics).
When seeds are treated with neonics, the chemicals work their way into the pollen 和 nectar of the plants—which, 当然, is bad news for bees 和 other pollinators. Worse, for the bees 和 for us, neonics are about 6,000 times more toxic to bees than DDT.
Just one example: After a nearby farm planted corn seeds coated with neonics in 2013, a farmer named Dave Schuit lost 37 million of his bees. “Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” said Schuit.
图片: Waugsberg / Wikimedia Creative Commons
A growing movement to ban bee-killing pesticides
Given the consequences for our farms 和 our food, you’d think we’d be doing all we can to protect bees 和 other pollinators from threats like neonics.
相反, big agrichemical companies like Dow Chemical, Bayer 和 Syngenta are fighting to prevent bans. And Syngenta has asked federal regulators for permission to use even larger quantities of these pesticides—as much as 400倍 more than currently allowed.
Some governments are taking action. Alarmed by the role these chemicals are playing in bee colony collapse disorder, the European Union has 禁止 them; the U.S. Fish 和 Wildlife Service has committed to phasing them out on the public l和s they manage; the 首页 Depot 和 劳氏 are phasing them out; 和 西雅图, Connecticut, Maryl和, 明尼苏达州, New Jersey 和 俄勒冈州 have all agreed to take some form of action against neonics.
The EPA should take action now to restore bee populations to health. But so far, the agency hasn't stepped up.
图片: Justin Leonard / Flickr User-Creative Commons
Together, we can give bees a chance
现在, we’re letting big agrichemical companies use more of the chemicals that are known to kill bees just as we’re in the midst of an unsustainable die-off in bee populations. That has to change. 现在.
加入正规靠谱的彩票app in calling on our state leaders to limit or ban the use of bee-killing pesticides.