[All] Good ltr by Greg M on neonics

[Eleanor Grant]

In Monday's Record:

http://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/5204775-effects-of-neonics-go-well-beyond-bees/

Re: Wynne government reveals its anti-science sentiments — Dec. 11

Peter Shawn Taylor claims the Ontario government is "anti-scientific"
because it is proposing to limit the use of neonicotinoid insecticides,
which have been implicated in the decline of honey bees.

He claims the action is "an effort to play up to vocal lobby groups," and
that banning neonics is "unwarranted by available scientific evidence."

Unfortunately, Taylor has a big problem: he simply hasn't bothered to read
the available scientific evidence. Recent research published in Nature,
probably the most prestigious scientific journal in the world, reveals that
the harmful effects of neonics go far beyond just bees.

Only five per cent of applied neonics is taken up by the crops it is
applied to and the rest ends up as a pervasive contaminant in soil, water,
and non-target vegetation where it rapidly accumulates because it persists
for several years while more and more is being applied annually. Observers
of Dutch insect-eating bird populations report a "tremendous decline" in
such birds correlated with the introduction of the chemical over 10 years
ago. This is not a direct effect from contact between birds and the
neurotoxin, but rather what is called a "knock-on" effect: the insects are
gone and there is simply no food left for them to eat. Canadian birders
report similar alarming decreases in our birds.

There is knee-jerk opposition to the proposed ban, now from the Grain
Farmers of Ontario and CropLife Canada, which represents powerful
agrichemical companies.

Sadly, we've gone through this variety of "enviro death" before.

Here's the last sentence of Rachel Carson's 1962 "Silent Spring" which
revealed the disastrous environmental effects of then-new DDT: "It is our
alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the
most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the
insects it has also turned them against the Earth."

As for the "vocal lobby groups," Stephen Harper's government is attempting
to deal them a massive systemic laryngectomy.

A gentle letter about neonic concerns from Waterloo Region Nature (until a
few weeks ago known as the Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists) to the
federal government resulted in an aggressive investigation by the Canadian
Revenue Agency.

It is interesting that the favourite method used by Russian president Putin
to silence public opposition groups is to drum up phoney tax-evasion
charges and send their leaders to jail. So, in Canada, we now appear to
have Putin-lite.

Greg Michalenko
Assistant professor emeritus
Environment and resource studies
University of Waterloo
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