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PESTICIDES

PROBABLY MORE DEADLY THAN A LICHENSTEIN ....

The 2018 IPBES report on Biodiversity and Ecosystems says ‘More than 75 per cent of global food crops including fruits and vegetables and some of the most important cash crops, such as coffee, cocoa and almonds, rely on pollination.’ An important factor when we discover that.... ‘Since 1970 half of our insects may have been lost .... 23 bee and wasp species in the UK have become extinct in the last century, whilst the number of pesticide applications has approximately doubled in the past 25 years’ so says Professor Dave Goulson from Sussex University, ‘Insects are essential for all ecosystems as pollinators, food for other creatures and recyclers of nutrients,’ he adds. .

Unfortunately this is not primarily a UK phenomenon. Collapses in insect numbers have been reported as far afield as Germany and Porto Rico. The first global scientific review said that ‘widespread declines threatened a catastrophic collapse of natural eco systems.

In response, some UK councils have declared themselves ‘pesticides free’ which alongside ‘wilding’ of parts of parks and domestic gardens could help.

However, 70% of Britain is classified as farmland which ‘remains largely hostile to life’. To counter this a 2017 study showed that ‘chemical treatments could be cut without affecting farm profits for 3/4  of farms’. A tax on chemicals such as the one that has operated in Sweden since 1984 might also help to concentrate minds.

Other Scientist studies have identified light pollution as an overlooked cause, “luring insects to predators, affecting the development of juveniles and disrupting light dark cycles”

From articles by Damian Charrington and  Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian

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