Aww, look – The Guardian has a fear-mongering note about how not banning pesticides will kill bees.
It looks like they’re quite pissed off.
The world’s most widely used insecticides, linked to serious harm in bees, will not be banned across Europe. The European commission proposed a two-year suspension after the European Food Safety Authority deemed the use of the neonicotinoids an unacceptable risk, but major nations – including UK and Germany – failed to back the plan in a vote on Friday.
The result leaves environmental campaigners, scientists and some politicians bitterly disappointed. “Britain and Germany have caved in to the industry lobby and refused to ban bee-killing pesticides,” said Iain Keith, at campaign group Avaaz. “Today’s vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food.” He said Avaaz and other groups would now consider a legal challenge.
Well, sorry guys, but that’s just not true:
For despite what both sides of the argument say, the link between bee declines and neonicotinoids is far from clear.
The assertion that a ban on neonicotinoids in Europe will save bees from extinction is absurd. There are bee species around the world in genuine danger of extinction, such as the once-common rusty-patched bumblebee in the United States, which has vanished from 87% of its historic range since the early 1990s. Diseases, rather than pesticides, are suspected of driving that decline. And although there have been dramatic falls in the numbers of managed honey bee Apis mellifera colonies in some countries, it remains a widespread and common bee, not in imminent danger of extinction.
Look, I’m all for the environment, but that means having evidence-based public policy regarding this issue (like with any other issue) .
I don’t like being lied to in the push for an agenda, or the media appealing to my fears. And here’s a funny fact: nicotinoids are allowed in organic farming and they’re are as bad as neonicotinoids.
By the way, maybe we shouldn’t save all species.
