Dear friends,
Right
now,
billions of bees are dying. Already, there are
nowhere near enough honeybees in Europe to pollinate the
crops, and in California -- the biggest food producer in the
US -- beekeepers are losing 40% of their bees each year.
We're in the middle of an environmental holocaust
that threatens all of us, because without pollination by
bees, our whole food chain is under threat!
Scientists
are sounding the alarm about pesticides that are toxic to
bees, and say we’re using way, way more pesticides on our
crops than we need. And as with oil companies and climate
change, big chemical companies that sell pesticides are
fighting back with corporate-funded junk science that
questions the evidence, giving politicians an excuse to delay.
But
this year we could finally see a crackdown on
these toxins in Europe, Canada, and the United States! --
and Avaaz has mapped a plan to make it happen:
- Turn the pesticide scientists into whistleblowers
to testify to officials and Ministers;
- Run urgent studies to show how crops will
flourish without these poisons;
- Launch massive public campaigns with political
champions to win the bans.
Scientific studies and
global public campaigns are expensive. Avaaz may be the only
crowdsourced funding model in the world able to raise enough,
fast enough to fund the
world's first global scale,
grassroots supported study into how we farm without these
poisons, to decisively challenge the junk science of big
pharma. The need is urgent, and if we can't do this, it's not
clear who can.
Let’s stop this bee-pocalypse -- chip in
what you can:
We’ve
funded key scientific studies already. We have the world’s
largest petition for bees -- 4.4 million strong. And our
global campaign helped win a moratorium in Europe and turn
blockers like Britain to support the ban. But it still isn’t
enough.
Chemical companies fund political campaigns,
lean on officials, and muddy reporting on the science. In
the US, the Environmental Protection Agency is being gutted by
Trump’s new administrator. And in Europe the German
Agriculture Minister, renowned for his close ties with Bayer
and Syngenta, just delayed the vote.
Bees are vital
to life on earth -- they pollinate one in three of our
bites to eat! And even studies run by pesticide companies
confirm the scale of the crisis! It’s crazy that we need to
pull out all the stops to fight to get these toxins banned.
But this is exactly the kind of battle our movement was made
for.
Chip in whatever you can now so we can all get to
work:
The
real experts -- the beekeepers and scientists -- want these
deadly pesticides banned. If we all chip in we will amplify
their voices, show massive public support for a ban, and stop
the poison profiteers killing off this beautiful species we
depend on to survive.
With hope,
Alice, Danny,
Marigona, Allison, Mia, Spyro and the rest of the Avaaz
team
More information:
Europe poised for total
ban on bee-harming pesticides (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/23/europe-poised-for-total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides
Strongest evidence yet that neonicotinoids are killing
bees (New Scientist)
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2139197-strongest-evidence-yet-that-neonicotinoids-are-killing-bees/
Would we starve without bees? (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg4dwmn
Attack of the bee killers: Documents show Bayer and
Syngenta teamed up with farmers to get around bee-friendly
regulation (Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-lost-colonies-bees-neonicotinoids/
Farms could slash pesticide use without losses (The
Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/farms-could-slash-pesticide-use-without-losses-research-reveals
Pesticide Lobby Spends Millions To Defend Chemicals
Tied To Bee Deaths (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/pesticide-lobby-bees_n_2980870.html