Quietly, across the USA, millions of bees are dying, threatening our crops and food. A new bill this week could ban one group of deadly pesticides and save bees from annihilation, but only if Congress feels the sting of public opinion.
Bees in the USA are facing what Avaaz terms “a chemical Armageddon.”
Just last week, 50,000 died in a single car park in Oregon after being exposed to pesticides, and last winter over 50% of all California’s bees died. Leading scientists blame one group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. The evidence is so compelling that the entire European Union has begun banning them, and the Save America’s Pollinators Act could impose a ban on these deadly poisons in the US…. Big Agriculture and powerful chemical companies like Bayer are already lobbying hard to stop the bill, but if we show an overwhelming public support for a ban, we can counter their influence
Please take a moment to sign the petition at the Avaaz site now.
With one in three bites of food reliant on bees and other beneficial species for pollination, the decline of honey bees and other pollinators demands swift action. Mounting scientific evidence, along with unprecedented annual colony losses at 40 to 90 percent this year, demonstrate the impacts that these pesticides are having on these fragile species.