That’s right. A new report from the good folks at Crop Life America identifies a cure for our nation’s prevailing economic ills: PESTICIDES!
Bald eagles were nearly wiped out in the 1970s due to the harmful effects of the pesticide DDT. Photo courtesy US Military
Turns out, pesticides create an additional $82 billion by improving crop yields, with “spin-off effects” of $166.5 billion in related industries. The report also concludes that pesticides have produced environmental benefits by quadrupling yields of corn and wheat without having to clear additional land. Who knew?
Of course, there’s absolutely no mention of the indirect costs on America’s native wildlife or public health from spilling toxic chemicals into our waterways. Nor is there any evaluation of the long-term impacts of agribusiness and industrial-scale monoculture, both of which are responsible for dismantling local food networks and putting the small family farmer out of business.
Let’s not forget that less than 40 years ago, the widespread use of DDT had virtually eradicated bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and pesticides today continue to wreak havoc on fish and amphibian species across the country.** (Read Defenders factsheet to learn more about the real impacts that pesticides have on the environment.)
Now, we all have to eat. And certainly pesticides will continue to play an important role in feeding the country. But no economic assessment can be complete without also examining the impact that pesticides have on water quality, human health, and the myriad species that must endure these poisons in their habitat.
Crop Life America has been lobbying Congress to weaken protections from pesticides that keep our drinking water safe and our people and wildlife healthy. This one-sided report is just their latest attempt to exploit our nation’s current economic downturn in order to boost corporate profits for the pesticide manufacturers and agribusinesses they represent.
Pacific salmon are just one of many species at risk from pesticide poisoning.
At-risk species like Pacific salmon and steelhead, which have tremendous economic value of their own, are now threatened with extinction in large part because of toxic run-off into our rivers and streams from farms sprayed with pesticides. The truth is that we need stronger protections to limit the damage that pesticides inflict on the environment, not weaker ones.
If pesticides are to be used, we must do a better job of making sure they don’t harm humans and wildlife. Rolling back environmental protections and dumping ever more pesticides onto the land and into our water is not a recipe for sustainable economic growth.
Help Defenders stand up to powerful special interests like Crop Life by supporting better protections from pesticides.
**NOTE: A recent survey of 583 conservation scientists found that 99.5% of respondents believe that a serious loss of biological diversity is imminent.
Plastic bags imperil leatherback sea turtles, who are thought to mistake the bags for jellyfish.
(An irregular column to capture insults to wildlife)
Plastic bags have long been the bane of conservationists around the world. Cheap to produce and disposed of without a second thought, plastic bags kill marine animals, leech toxic chemicals and take an estimated 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. Not to mention they play a starring role in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. So why are California textbooks now touting positive messages about these disposable derelicts?
According to the Huffington Post, schools officials in California edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags after feeling pressure from the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the plastics industry. This included a rewrite of textbooks and teachers’ guides, featuring a new section to the 11th-grade teachers’ edition textbook called “The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags.” The title and some of the textbook language were inserted almost verbatim from letters written by the chemistry council.
Absent from the rewrite is the fact that each year, Americans use an estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags – almost all of which are thrown into the garbage, and with many migrating to the planet’s rivers, lakes and oceans. The millions of tons of plastic floating in the world’s oceans traps as many as a million seabirds every year, as well as some 100,000 marine mammals. Many of these animals mistake the bags for food, such as the imperiled leatherback sea turtle, who likely mistakes the plastic bags for jellyfish, a preferred food source.
Fortunately, change is in the air: throughout the country, efforts have been launched to cut down on the use of plastic bags, from the explosion of reusable shopping bag sales to plastic bag taxes. Washington, D.C. was the first to institute a 5 cent tax on plastic bags distributed by any ”business that sells food items,” from grocery stores to bakeries. The Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act, known locally as “Skip the Bag, Save the River,” is an attempt to save the city’s degraded Anacostia River.
Not only has the effort been successful, but Treehugger asked if this may be the most effective tax ever. Just one month after its introduction last January, the number of plastic bags handed out by supermarkets and other establishments dropped from the 2009 monthly average of 22.5 million to just 3 million. While significantly reducing plastic waste, the tax revenues will be used to clean up the Anacostia. The District isn’t the only one reaping success from a plastic bag ban. In China, a ban on super thin plastic bags reduced plastic bag usage by 66 percent and saved China 1.6 million tons of petroleum. With savings like these, a plastic bag tax has the potential to catch on worldwide.
Now THAT’S the kind of problem solving that should be taught in schools.
To learn more about how plastic bags make it from the check-out aisle to our waterways, watch The Majestic Plastic Bag – a Mockumentary.
Two of the 14 Mexican gray wolves caught in traps required leg amputations.
Endangered lobos could once again fall victim to traps now that the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission has lifted a ban prohibiting their use on habitat in the Apache and Gila National Forests, the Albuquerque Journal reported late last month.
At least 14 endangered Mexican gray wolves have been caught in traps set for other animals, and many have been injured. Two were so badly maimed that their afflicted legs had to be amputated.
We’ve suspected for a while now that New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has no love for lobos. Her Game and Fish Department — in an unprecedented move earlier this summer — walked away from its responsibility to help out with their recovery. But this latest development is downright reprehensible.
Why? During the trapping timeout, then Gov. Bill Richardson asked the U.S. Geological Survey’s New Mexico Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit to investigate potential effects of trapping on the wolves. The study is complete, yet despite being funded with taxpayer dollars and conducted by a public agency, the state’s Game and Fish Department has refused to release the findings.
New Mexico wildlife officials approved trapping on the Apache National Forest.
The Game and Fish Commission then voted to allow trapping in Mexican gray wolf habitat based, in part, on the withheld study.
It’s no secret that the Gov. Martinez wanted to end the trapping ban. Her so-called small business commission made that much clear in an April report. There are around one dozen trappers who set traps in the wolf recovery area.
But by suppressing scientific information and public discourse on a decision that could mean life or death for lobos, Gov. Martinez and company have crossed the line.
Given that only 50 Mexican gray wolves were found in the wild at last count, every one lost or injured is a blow to the species’ survival. With stakes riding so high, decisions like lifting a trapping ban need to be based on sound science and done with transparency.
It’s time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Team to take a look at this “secret study,” the number of wolves injured by traps, and figure out if private trapping is a setback to recovery of the Mexican wolf.
(An irregular column to capture insults to wildlife)
It seems hard to believe that the Florida manatee would have many enemies, but it appears that the gentle giant has more to worry about these days than deadly boat propellers. The Tea Party, joined by the Crystal River City Council and Citrus County Commission, has come out in opposition to new restrictions on boating and other human activities proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the state’s slow-moving mammals.
Unsafe Sanctuary
Due to its naturally occurring warm water springs, Kings Bay, Fla. has been increasingly popular among wintering manatees. But a controversial summer water sport zone, which allows fast-moving boats to zoom through the bay, poses a deadly threat to the animals. In fact, Pat Rose of the Save the Manatee Club said, ”I don’t know of a more dangerous place for manatees in the summer.”
If the proposed regulations are approved, all of Kings Bay would become a refuge, and a set of temporary rules posted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this winter would become permanent. The rules enable the federal agency to establish closed areas or other rules anywhere in the bay, such as in the event of a cold front or after manatee season has closed. A move like this would be great news for manatees, and the 100,000 people who show up each year to see them.
Unfounded Allegations
Not everyone is cheering the regulations. Edna Mattos, the leader of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots, is coming out strong against the marine mammals. According to the St. Petersburg Times, she claims the protections elevate nature about humans, a move that’s “against the Bible and the Bill of Rights,” and that protections will erode private property rights, particularly for those citizens with docks.
Huh? Apparently she hasn’t done her homework. According to Rose, people whose property sits on a manatee sanctuary (where boat traffic is not allowed) may have to get stickers on their boats allowing them exclusive access, but that’s it. That’s a compromise that even Mattos – who admits she enjoys showing off the animals to her grandchildren – shouldn’t find much to complain about.
Kings Bay is a part of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, the only refuge created for the purpose of protecting manatees. And with manatee deaths reaching a record high last year, protecting this area is more important than ever. By moving forward with the proposal, the Fish and Wildlife Service will help the refuge better serve its purpose – to safeguard this vulnerable and unique animal.
But while ocean lovers and activists came together in solidarity, another kind of gathering was taking place in the Sunshine State. Florida’s Senate President, Mike Haridopolos, met with Big Oil representatives in an “off the record session” to develop energy policy recommendations for state lawmakers, including Florida Governor Rick Scott and House Speaker Dean Cannon. On the agenda? You guessed it – outer continental shelf energy development (aka, drilling off of Florida’s coasts).
Could the timing have been worse? Apparently Florida lawmakers are suffering from the same case of oil spill amnesia that’s plaguing the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have now passed three reckless offshore drilling bills. But the Floridians who joined Hands on Saturday haven’t forgotten – and neither has Defenders. In fact, we had both coasts covered this weekend – with Florida representative Elizabeth Fleming joining former governor Charlie Crist and other state and city officials in St. Petersberg and marine policy advisor Richard Charter speaking up in California’s Sonoma County. Their message (and ours): keep our coasts clean, healthy and drilling-free.
(A NEW, irregular column to capture insults to wildlife)
Florida’s new Governor Rick Scott has taken a wrecking ball to many environmental and social programs in Florida. And now he’s got efforts to fight climate change in the cross hairs, repealing climate change programs and dismantling relevant committees and agency departments established by former Governor Charlie Crist.
In fact, Florida has already seen the impacts of sea level rise: roughly 9 inches in the past 75 years, with an acceleration in the rate of rise in the past decade, according to a report from Florida Atlantic University. Changes to natural habitats are already visible. On Big Pine Key, for instance, what used to be a pine forest has turned into a tidal marsh. Apparently, this hasn’t made an impact on the governor.
“I’ve not been convinced that there’s any man-made climate change,” Scott said in May. “Nothing’s convinced me that there is.”
Hopefully Gov. Scott and the folks in Tallahassee have enough life rafts to go around.
(An irregular column to capture insults to wildlife)
Defenders of Wildlife leads the pack when it comes to protecting wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
