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If you were in California this winter, you may have noticed something missing: the monarch butterflies. Two decades ago, more than 1 million would arrive in California every winter, clustering on branches in colorful bunches and lighting up the coastal air with their delicate flights.
Neonicotinoid insecticides are water soluble and used to coat the seeds of most corn, soybeans and canola. However, the toxins affect the insects pollinating plants, kill the birds eating the seeds and get into the groundwater; in addition, the use of genetically engineered seed has increased the need for pesticides in the past 25 years.
You’ve seen the headlines:
America’s Wild Bees Are Dying and Ecosystem Collapse Will Follow, reports Newsweek.
Pesticides Are Harming Bees in Literally Every Possible Way, warns Wired.
The Insect Apocalypse Is Here, says the New York Times.
Here’s your opportunity to do something about it.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that popular pesticides linked to declining bee populations also pose a threat to birds and, in some cases, small mammals and insects.
Two principles guide this government’s approach to the natural world. We want not just to protect but to enhance the environment. And we want our decisions to be informed at all times by rigorous scientific evidence.
Which is why when the science shows that our environment is in increasing danger we have to act. Like many others, I was deeply concerned by a recently published German study into the health of some insect populations. The Guardian covered the report in depth, not least because the statistics were so stark. Data gathered over 25 years appeared to indicate a 75% fall in the numbers of flying insects within those sites.
Research leads environment secretary to overturn government’s previous opposition, making total EU ban much more likely The UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, has revealed.
We just can’t seem to help ourselves from wanting to tidy up the garden at the end of the season – raking, mowing, and blowing away a bit of nature that is essential to the survival of moths, butterflies, snails, spiders, and dozens of arthropods.
The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.
Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.
Despite study after study showing that neonic pesticides are harmful to bees and other pollinators, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to allow products containing these toxic chemicals to enter the market. In its approvals, however, the EPA has failed to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the insecticides’ impact on threatened or endangered species—a clear violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.
Monarch butterfly populations are shrinking. New research makes a strong case that the reasons for this decline go far beyond what's happening on the wintering grounds and addresses a current controversy about the primary causes of the specie's decline.
