Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Silent Spring & Corporate World

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Steve Hart <stevenlawrencehart@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Silent Spring & Corporate World
  • Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 07:48:04 +0200

LL...its an interesting subject which often makes my blood boil. I'd love
to meet these guys and have a long lunch with them to figure out how they
tick. I have already met several similar. Most are obviously well paid, but
all have been totally brainwashed and severely conditioned, or more to the
point have allowed themselves to be. They actually think they are doing the
right thing, believe it or not.

I also entertain the argument about less starving 3rd world. One view is
that the 3rd world is maintained in order to not overpopulate the planet,
have a major slave force and keep the arms industry and the imperialism
industry alive and running. Another view is, just imagine if all of the 3rd
world were well fed and all had good jobs. Wow, VW would be setting up more
factories to supply more cars running on expensive petrol rather than,free
water, fueled cars.

If one searches You Tube on similar threads we hear of the intended mass
global genocide planned by the wealthy 2%

Interesting though to observe now that many German factories are now hiring
very cheap Greek and Spanish young labour forces. Well designed economic
collapses IMO. I do look forward to developing a Permaculture Advanced
Course in Invisible Structures (IS) to discuss all these elements of how
the world actually ticks in the domains of economics and the laws, or more
correctly legal systems, are constructed to support it, then obviously our
options as the appropriate journey beyond this conditioning that many of us
are locked into on that great ferris wheel called society. I'd love to be
able to get to NAPC to chat with several who are actually doing stuff at
the grass roots level in IS....Steve Hart


On 14 July 2014 03:59, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:

> Steve, John and Darren will be interested in this.
> [You will love this classic propaganda from a criminal lying industry
> sycophant-slave-prostitute in a comment after the NG article: "
> Philip Germann <https://members.nationalgeographic.com/342143019554/> 4
> days ago "We have to remember there is the world to feed as well. If we
> stop using the neonics totally, how many additional children in third world
> countries would starve due to higher crop prices? There are many direct,
> provable links with this as well. Would a 1-3% increased starvation rate
> be worth saving the birds we are losing now? To me, a bird population
> decline of 3-4% is alarming, but no reason to have a knee jerk reaction.
> It actually sounds manageable if it does not accelerate. There will be
> blowback with anything we do. It sounds like we just need to be more
> careful in the use of these pesticides to make sure the problem does
> not accelerate." And there's more: "I don't have any answers for that
> question. It is a fundamental problem any way you look at it. I
> agree-lower population would be better, but is there any way to control the
> world population outside of the unconceivable eugenics programs? Do we let
> children starve to death because the population is too high? Who chooses.
> If it was your children starving, you would not feel so sorry for the bird
> loss... According to some theorists, the dinosaurs exceeded their carrying
> capacity and pushed themselves into extinction..."]
>
> <>
>
> Second Silent Spring? Bird Declines Linked to Popular Pesticides
>
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140709-birds-insects-pesticides-insecticides-neonicotinoids-silent-spring/
>
> Second Silent Spring? Bird Declines Linked to Popular Pesticides
> Neonicotinoids are aimed at insects, but they're affecting other animals
> too, study says.
>
> Pesticides don't just kill pests. New research out of the Netherlands
> provides compelling evidence linking a widely used class of insecticides to
> population declines across 14 species of birds.
>
> Those insecticides, called neonicotinoids, have been in the news lately due
> to the way they hurt bees and other pollinators. (Related: "The Plight of
> the Honeybee."
> <
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130510-honeybee-bee-science-european-union-pesticides-colony-collapse-epa-science/
> >
> )
>
> This new paper, published online Wednesday in *Nature*
> <
> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13531.html#ref-link-43
> >,
> gets at another angle of the story—the way these chemicals can indirectly
> affect other creatures in the ecosystem.
>
> Scientists from Radboud University <http://www.ru.nl/english/> in Nijmegen
> and the Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology and Birdlife Netherlands (SOVON)
> <https://www.sovon.nl/en> compared long-term data sets for both farmland
> bird populations and chemical concentrations in surface water. They found
> that in areas where water contained high concentrations of imidacloprid—a
> common neonicotinoid pesticide—bird populations tended to decline by an
> average of 3.5 percent annually.
>
> "I think we are the first to show that this insecticide may have
> wide-scale, significant effects on our environment," said Hans de Kroon
> <http://www.ru.nl/plantecology/people/de_kroon/>, an expert on population
> dynamics at Radboud University and one of the authors of the paper.
>
> *Second Silent Spring?*
>
> Pesticides and birds: If this story sounds familiar, it's probably
> because Rachel
> Carson <http://www.rachelcarson.org/> wrote about it back in 1962.
> Carson's
> seminal *Silent Spring* was the first popular attempt to warn the world
> that pesticides were contributing to the "sudden silencing of the song of
> birds."
>
> "I think there is a parallel, of course," said Ruud Foppen
> <https://www.sovon.nl/nl/content/ruud-foppen>, an ornithologist at SOVON
> and co-author of the *Nature* paper.
>
> Foppen says that while Carson battled against a totally different kind of
> chemicals—organophosphates like DDT—the effects he's seeing in the field
> are very much the same. Plainly stated, neonicotinoids are harming
> biodiversity.
>
> "In this way, we can compare it to what happened decades ago," he said.
> "And if you look at it from that side, we didn't learn our lessons."
>
> *How Neonicotinoids Work*
>
> In the past 20 years, neonicotinoids (pronounced nee-oh-NIK-uh-tin-oyds)
> have become the fastest growing class of pesticides. They're extremely
> popular among farmers because they're effective at killing pests and easy
> to apply.
>
> Instead of loading gallons and gallons of insecticide into a crop duster
> and spraying it over hundreds of acres, farmers can buy seeds that come
> preloaded with neonicotinoid coatings. Scientists refer to neonicotinoids
> as "systemic" pesticides because they affect the whole plant rather than a
> single part. As the pretreated seed grows, it incorporates the insecticide
> into every bud and branch, effectively turning the plant itself into a
> pest-killing machine.
>
> This lock, stock, and barrel approach to crop protection means that no
> matter where a locust or rootworm likes to nibble—the root, the stem, the
> flower—the invader winds up with a bellyful of neurotoxins.
>
> "The plants become poison not only for the insects that farmers are
> targeting, but also for beneficial insects like bees," said Jennifer Sass,
> a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council
> <http://www.nrdc.org> (NRDC) who's been building a case against the
> widespread use of neonicotinoids. The pesticide's top-to-bottom coverage
> means the plants' flowers, pollen, and nectar are all poisonous too.
>
> Worse still, Sass says, neonicotinoids can persist in the soil for years.
> This gives other growing things a chance to come into contact with and
> absorb the chemicals.
>
> "So they actually end up in plants that grow on the sides of fields and
> that were never meant to be targeted," she said.
>
> *Bye Bye Birdie*
>
> The new *Nature* paper shows strong evidence that neonicotinoids are
> dangerous even if not ingested.
>
> The study looked at population statistics for over a dozen species of birds
> common to farmlands in the Netherlands. Most of these species are dependent
> on insects for all or part of their diet, though some also munch on seeds
> and grains. This means that there are two ways neonicotinoids could be
> harming the Netherlands' birds.
>
> The first is ingestion. Studies have shown that while neonicotinoids are
> commonly considered to be safer for mammals and birds than for insects,
> they
> can still be lethal
> <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11356-014-3180-5>in high
> enough doses. And the best way to get a concentrated dose of neonicotinoids
> is to eat seeds coated with them. A 1992 study
> <
> http://www.pesticide.org/get-the-facts/pesticide-factsheets/factsheets/imidacloprid
> >
> by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that sparrows have
> difficulty flying after consuming a tiny amount of imidacloprid, and become
> immobile at higher doses.
>
> The second way neonicotinoids can affect birds is by eliminating their food
> sources. Since these pesticides kill target and nontarget species alike,
> there are fewer flies, grasshoppers, stinkbugs, and caterpillars for the
> birds to feast on.
>
> *Causation vs. Correlation*
>
> While the new paper shows a *correlation* between high concentrations of
> neonicotinoids and declining bird populations, it doesn't claim the
> pesticides are a direct *cause* of the decrease.
>
> To make sure the correlation wasn't some sort of coincidence, the team
> analyzed a number of alternative explanations.
>
> Caspar A. Hallmann <http://www.ru.nl/plantecology/people/hallmann/> is an
> ornithologist and population ecologist at SOVON and Radboud University. As
> the lead author of the *Nature* paper, he explained that there are numerous
> causes for population declines in birds, from changes in the kinds of crops
> planted in any given year and the amount of fertilizer used to the
> urbanization of former farmland. But when the team looked at the data, none
> of these explanations held up.
>
> Hallmann said that, as with any correlative study, caution is a watchword.
> "But still," he says, "we think we have a line of evidence that is building
> up."
>
> *Pesticide Maker Disagrees*
>
> Bayer CropScience <http://www.cropscience.bayer.com>, the primary
> manufacturer of imidacloprid, defends the use of neonicotinoids. In a
> statement responding to Hallmann and his colleagues, the company writes
> <
> http://www.bayercropscience.us/news/press-releases/2014/0709-bee-statement---response-nature-magazine
> >:
> "Neonicotinoids have gone through an extensive risk assessment which has
> shown that they are safe to the environment when used responsibly according
> to the label instructions."
>
> The statement concludes by saying that the *Nature* paper fails to
> establish a causal link, and therefore "provides no substantiated evidence
> of the alleged indirect effects of imidacloprid on insectivorous birds."
>
> "Indeed, we showed a negative correlation, which is already very alarming,"
> the Dutch scientists said in response to Bayer CropScience's critique.
> "Showing causal links at the ecosystem scale would require landscape-scale
> experiments," which would be "difficult and probably very unethical."
>
> *A Third View*
>
> The Dutch scientists say neonicotinoids are negatively affecting bird
> populations. Bayer CropScience says neonicotinoids are safe when used
> correctly. Whom do we trust?
>
> Maybe an independent group that just completed a review of over 800
> scientific studies on the effects of neonicotinoids on wildlife. The Task
> Force on Systemic Pesticides <http://tfsp.hifrontier.com/>, composed of 29
> multidisciplinary scientists, recently released its landmark report
> titled *Worldwide
> Integrated Assessment of the Impact of Systemic Pesticides on Biodiversity
> and Ecosystems* <http://www.tfsp.info/worldwide-integrated-assessment/>.
>
> Overall, the scientists concluded that even when neonicotinoids were used
> according to the guidelines on their labels and applied as intended, the
> chemicals' levels in the environment still frequently exceeded the lowest
> levels known to be dangerous for a wide range of species—and were "thus
> likely to have a wide range of negative biological and ecological impacts."
>
> *Not Just Bees Anymore*
>
> David Gibbons, a member of the task force and head of the RSPB Centre For
> Conservation Science <http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/science/>, the
> largest
> nature-conservation charity in Europe, explained that many European
> countries have already restricted three types of neonicotinoids
> <http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/intheworks/ccd-european-ban.html
> >—including
> imidacloprid—because of the mounting evidence that they harm bees.
>
> (As of yet, similar protections do not exist in the U.S. Though not for
> lack of trying—the NRDC filed a legal petition just this week asking the
> EPA to withdraw its approval of neonicotinoid pesticides
> <http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jsass/nrdc_recently_filed_a_legal.html
> >.)
>
> "Over the last decade, there have been a number of mass die-offs of bees in
> several European countries," said Gibbons.
>
> The process of planting corn can actually dislodge the neonicotinoid
> coating, which tractors then kick up into the air with the dust from
> fields.
>
> "These clouds of dust contain very high concentrations of neonicotinoids,"
> says Gibbons, "and are instantly lethal to bees."
>
> But part of the goal of the *Worldwide Integrated Assessment* report is to
> show that bees aren't the only animals affected. The task force presents
> evidence that earthworms, aquatic invertebrates, lizards, fish, and many
> other animals are suffering ill effects as a result (either direct or
> indirect) of systemic pesticides.
>
> Gibbons says it's hard to say whether we've entered a second "silent
> spring."
>
> "However," he adds, "[neonicotinoid] use is now so widespread—nearly 40
> percent of the global insecticide market—that there are valid reasons to be
> worried."
>
> <>
>
> Comments from Redditors:
>
> Silent spring is right. Ten years ago the wetland behind my home was loaded
> with insect and bird life. Now there is silence. After a rain the ground
> would be be covered by hundreds of worms of all sizes. I haven't seen a
> worm this year. About seven years ago honey bees began to die. They were
> the canary in the coal mine we ignored. Now many animals are dieing. Two
> weeks ago I drove by a farmer spraying insecticides. Long before I saw him
> I smelled the poison. He was spraying about 30 acres but the poison mist
> covered several hundred acres.
>
> We used to drive long distance and had to frequently stop to clear the bugs
> of the windshield and hose the bugs off the radiator. Not anymore. When did
> we collectively agree to exterminate life on the planet? And where is the
> reaction and shock to this? Have we completely forgotten about our place in
> the world?
>
> Because the multinational biotech corporations have enough money to buy
> local and national politicians, change laws, subvert regulatory processes
> and hire an army of PR shills to turn science into a "debate" (even right
> here on Reddit) just enough to delay any action.Meanwhile, biotech is
> developing robot pollinators because they're just too greedy to stop the
> beepocalypse their Neonic pesticides are causing.
>
> It's funny you use the word "shill", I've been saying the same thing here
> on reddit about these people posing and their purpose is to distract us
> from the truth and moving towards real change. What hubris these uber-rich
> have. And what a bunch if dumbed down sheeple we've become. I just can't
> sit and watch. I have to do something about it.
> Comments from readers of the NG article:
>
> Big corporate power has negatively affected every crucial institution
> whether it is public education or scientific research, helping to make this
> environmentally destructive trend feasible on a large scale (because the
> profit motive won't get "challenged" as Carson had said) without notable
> repercussions for the big polluters and destroyers. In fact, many people
> cheer them on, or view them as "saviors." It's the power of propaganda at
> work. A fitting example is the so-called "war on cancer" led by the highly
> lucrative cancer industry that also flourished with the re-structuring of
> the American Cancer Society into a marketing tool for this industry,
> whereas this charity continues to obfuscate the known causes of cancer,
> such as toxicants (read the afterword of this:
> http://www.supplements-and-health.com/mammogram.html ). With big corporate
> power come big abusive practices and big propaganda.
> According to these extensive studies, Bayer's claim for
> imidacloprid/neonicotinoids as 'safe' for birds (and mammals?) appears to
> be a lie. The article states various vectors beyond the eating of affected
> insects that would compromise those poor and often non-citizen/unprotected
> human farm workers who actually tend the fields along with all of us who
> eat this treated produce.Imidacloprid is also difficult to avoid for both
> home gardeners and pet guardians. Plants and seed for the general public
> are automatically treated, but still unlabelled with this poison if not
> organic or rarely, marked "un-treated", (so not applying
> pesticides prevents nothing.) Bees, ladybugs, butterflies, earthworms,
> spiders, hummingbirds or other delightful/dependable wildlife species are
> decimated,And veterinarians recommend it as a monthly flea killing drop on
> our dogs, cats, (ferrets & rats?) Who knows how close pet contact,
> guardening or even regular small-dose eating of treated (most non-organic)
> produce affects us directly as a neurotoxin or indirectly through our most
> critical gut biomes?
>
> We have also noticed that more birds are living around our home/farm/forest
> because we, as beekeepers, do not use chemicals or kill living
> things--i.e., the purple martins are more plentiful because we don't kill
> the insects like our neighbors do, so we enjoy their "natural abilities."
> Plus we have many human (me: hormone breast cancer with NO risk
> factors--same for other neighbors plus pancreatic, non-smoker lung, brain,
> liver, and skin cancers) and canine cancer cases in our area, which is
> right in the middle of grain farm country and chemicals are widely
> used.When will the madness stop? When we're all dead?
> The world is changing and not in a good way. People need to speak up and
> protest the use of these type of chemicals. I for one do not wish or choose
> to eat poisonous food crops but the birds and the bees do not know any
> better. Grow local, eat local and just maybe BIG AG will slowly fade back
> into blackness from where them came.
>
> As I drive through the corn fields of Illinois and Indiana, I used to
> squash millions of bugs on my windshield which would become quickly coated
> with goo. No longer, I can drive for miles now and not squash a bug. They
> are not there any more. So the birds cant eat them. I don't know where they
> went or why. I just know my windshield stays clean in corn and
> soybean country now and it didn't used to.
>
> Since I learned that neonicotinoid pesticides are being used on annual
> garden plants I buy each spring at box stores such as Lowe's, Home
> Depot & Walmart,
> I will not be buying them in future, unless they change this practice. So
> much for attempting to grow bee friendly plants in my garden. Fortunately,
> most of my plants are now perennials and organic. To date, this season I
> have seen only a handful of butterflies and 2 bees in my garden. Only 1
> monarch. I use a paper lantern "hive" to deter wasps from settling nearby.
> I hope people are no longer buying the bee and wasp traps, which kill them.
> We can't afford to lose any more of these important insects. I only buy
> organic corn for my family- better for them, plus the birds & the bees!
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info|make a donation toward list
> maintenance:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
> message archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture/
> Google message archive search:
> site: lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/permaculture [searchstring]
> Permaculture Institute USA http://permaculture.org
> How to permaculture your urban lifestyle
> http://www.ipermie.net
> Avant Geared http://www.avantgeared.com
> https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
> Permaculture: -- portal to an expanding global network of landtech
> pioneers -- who are designing ecological land use systems with integrated
> elements for synergy, sustainability, regeneration and enhanced
> nature-compatible human habitat




--
Kia ora

[image: Picture]
*Steve Hart*
Ecology Architect
skype: stevenlawrencehart




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page