Prezados amigos e amigas,
Repasso ao amigos, defensores ou não de causas ambientalistas, um comentário sobre um memorando da Agência de Proteção Ambiental Americana/EPA. O memorando trata da morte de abelhas no mundo. É, está cada vez ficando mais complicado viver neste mundo agressivo! Espero que o próximo ano nos traga melhores noticias. Abraço cordial/ Geraldo
Who Is Killing Our Honeybees?
Dear Reader,
Have
you ever heard of the butterfly effect? Essentially, it’s the
understanding that a small change in one place in a complex system can have
large effects elsewhere. For example, a butterfly flapping its wings in Finland
might lead to a flood in Florida.
When I first read years ago about the widespread disappearance of honeybees due
to a mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), I
immediately thought of the butterfly effect. Losing our bees could have a
devastating ripple effect. Honeybees are a vital part of our ecosystem.
They’re responsible for a large part of the pollination of our crops. In
fact, nearly 100 food crops in North America alone depend on the bees for their
pollination. Without a healthy honeybee population, our farming economy and,
indeed, our very food supply is in grave danger.
Over the years, there’s been a lot of speculation about the causes of
CCD—ranging from a virus that interferes with the bee’s abilities
to navigate to cell phones causing bees to literally become lost on their way
back home to the hive. Most researchers agree that it’s a complex problem
and that most likely there’s no single cause.
Now a recently leaked memo could give us some answers and shed some much needed
light on a rather shady story that involves the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the giant agrichemical company Bayer.
According to a recent story on Grist.com, the memo reveals that, in 2003,
despite the serious warnings from its own scientists about the
possible threat to the bee population, the EPA reversed a decision to not allow
Bayer to move forward with selling its pesticide known as clothianidin,
a decision that Bayer is no doubt incredibly grateful for, since it racked up
about $262 million dollars in clothianidin sales in 2009 alone.
Under the "conditional registration," Bayer was allowed to provide
suppliers with seeds that are pretreated with the pesticide, which is
admittedly, toxic to common crop pests but unfortunately, it turns out, is very
likely to be to honeybees as well.
And as if that weren’t bad enough, the study Bayer submitted to the EPA
to prove that its product is not toxic to honeybees and to have the
“conditional” registration dropped is so full of holes that you
could drive a truck right through it. Yet, quietly, in April of this year, the
EPA still granted full registration to clothianidin to be used as seed
treatment for corn and canola.
But wait...there’s more! (I’ve always wanted to have a reason to
write that line.) In a twist worthy of a spy novel, the leaked EPA memo, dated Nov. 2, 2010, and written by
two of EPA’s own scientists, clearly states a concern about the
risks that clothianidin poses to honeybees, directly refuting the
study that the EPA accepted as evidence to give a green light to full
registration for the pesticide.
Other countries, including Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia, have already
recognized the threat that clothianidin poses to honeybees and our entire
ecosystem and have banned this dangerous pesticide. The EPA needs to stop
ignoring its OWN scientists and do the same.
Hoping I never live to see the day when the phrase "busy as a bee"
ceases to have any meaning,
Alice Wessendorf
Fonte: Healthier Talk.com
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