Scientists say they have found the “missing link” in the debate over the risk of pesticides to bees. French researchers say neonicotinoid pesticides harm individual honeybees, but whole colonies are able to recover in the wild. This accounts for discrepancies between lab and field studies, they report in Royal Society journal Proceedings B. A Europe-wide […]
Tag: pesticides
Petition: Don’t let Bayer overturn the ban on bee-killing pesticides
Wow. Bayer, BASF and Syngenta are suing the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides that are killing millions of bees around the world. A huge public push won this landmark ban — and we can’t sit back and let Big Pesticide overturn it while the bees vanish. Last summer, 37 million bees […]
Banned pesticides pose a greater risk to bees than thought, EU experts warn
Three pesticides banned in Europe for their potential to damage bee populations could pose an even greater threat than was thought, according to a new assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa). Already proscribed for seed treatments and soil applications, the Efsa analysis says that clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam also pose a ‘high risk’ […]
Beloved Storks, Emblems of Fertility, Rebounding in France
The same rule applies walking through the streets of Alsace, France, as it does in the Sistine Chapel: Don’t forget to look up. Nowadays, white storks—harbingers of fertility and good fortune—perch above Alsace (map) in nests that can grow large enough to almost fit a smart car. This wasn’t always true: Rewind to the 1980s, […]
Bees feeding on fungicide-dosed flowers develop health issues, studies say
While the relationship between insecticides and bees has made headlines – and controversy – for years, two recent studies have shown that another class of agricultural chemicals, little-appreciated but used in ever-increasing amounts, may also pose a threat to pollinators. The new studies have raised concerns about fungicides: in one, foraging on fungicide-dosed flowers harmed […]
A third of Europe’s birds under threat, says most comprehensive study yet
One in three European birds is endangered, according to a leaked version of the most comprehensive study of Europe’s wildlife and natural habitats ever produced. The EU State of Nature report, seen by the Guardian, paints a picture of dramatic decline among once common avian species such as the skylark and turtle dove mainly as […]
Poll: Should the mass-killing of starlings with pesticides be allowed?
Land owners surprised to discover tens of thousands of dead birds across the high desert are criticising the federal government over a mass killing of starlings in northern Nevada. The US Department of Agriculture said a pesticide was used to destroy the birds to prevent the spread of disease to dairy cows. Some area residents, […]
Our humble hedgehog is disappearing fast
They’ve been around for 15 million years; hedgehogs roamed Britain with mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers. But in a single lifetime the much-loved mammals have been driven towards extinction, their national population apparently plummeting more than thirtyfold. As Philip Larkin wrote in The Mower – a poem composed after he killed a hedgehog while cutting long […]