23
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 23, 2022) A study published inĀ Nature Reviews Earth & EnvironmentĀ warns that thawing of permafrost (a ground that remains completely frozen for two or more years) in the Arctic region can prompt the reemergence of greenhouse gases (e.g., methane and carbon dioxide), microbes, and chemicals (e.g., banned pesticides like DDT). Past research finds gases, microbes, and chemicals drift near the poles, becoming entrapped in ice under the accumulating snowfall. As the global climate continues to rise and the climate crisis worsens, studies like this show significant effects, as ice encapsulating these toxic chemicals is melting. Upon melting, some chemicals can volatilize back into the atmosphere, releasing toxicants into the air and aquatic systems, with the ensuing consequences. Microbes frozen for thousands to millions of years can also emerge from thawing permafrost, with unknown implications on human, animal, and ecosystem health. The melting permafrost is already beginning to impact infrastructure, creating sinkholes that damage roads, trees, and utility poles. Moreover, mixtures of chemicals, microbes, and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in permafrost are difficult to assess. Therefore, studies like this highlight the need to evaluate the health and ecological effects of melting arctic permafrost (and glaciers) from anthropogenic (human)-induced climate change. […]
Posted in Climate, Climate Change, contamination, Pesticide Residues | No Comments »
02
Feb
(Beyond Pesticides, February 2, 2022) Over the last 40 years, dragonfly species have declined in the United States due to an interplay between increasing pesticide use and rising temperatures from climate change, according to a recent study published in Ecological Applications by researchers at the University of Ottawa. The study highlights the need to evaluate and address insect declines on a macroecological scale, as human activities over the last several decades have become key drivers of Earth system processes in the Anthropocene era. At this macroecological level, the authors call for analysis of multiple interacting stressors, including land use change, pesticide applications, precipitation, and temperature. To conduct their macro-scale analysis, researchers used a dataset consisting of over 200,000 observation records for dragonflies in the U.S since 1980. Then, U.S. land was subdivided into 100 x 100 km (62 x 62 mile) quadrants, and observation records plotted and refined to ensure that at least 15 species were observed in each quadrant used. Datasets were also obtained on land use changes (via HYDE dataset), pesticide applications (via U.S. Geological Survey), and changes in precipitation and temperature (via Climatic Research Unit). Review of the data found that out of 104 dragonfly species, each […]
Posted in Climate, Pollinators, Uncategorized, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
08
Nov
(Beyond Pesticides, November 8, 2021)Ā California state agencies, led by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), released a draft Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy to guide and accelerate near- and long-term climate action across key California landscapes. All states need such strategies, and to be effective, they must be backed by ambitious targets focused on reduction of pesticides and support for organic agriculture. Tell your state legislators and governor to adopt a Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy that supports organic agriculture and land management.Ā (CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Please use this form.) A Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy will identify our natural and working lands as a critical yet currently underutilized sector in the fight against climate change. These lands can sequester and store carbon emissions, limit future carbon emissions into the atmosphere, protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change, and build resilience to future climate risks. Climate smart management of our natural and working lands also improves public health and safety, secures our food and water supplies, and increases equity. The strategy should define the stateās natural and working landscapes; describe how these lands can deliver on climate change goals; highlight priority nature-based climate […]
Posted in Climate, Take Action, Uncategorized, Water | No Comments »
05
Nov
(Beyond Pesticides, November 5, 2021) Once again earning its environmental leadership reputation, California has released a draft strategy document designed to catalyze near- and long-term climate action through focused attention on the stateās natural and working lands, and on nature-based solutions. The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) announced the draft Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy in mid-October. In the announcement, CNRA asserts that the stateās 105 million acres can āsequester and store carbon emissions, limit future carbon emissions into the atmosphere, protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change, and build resilience to future climate risks.ā The agency also notes that the plan would secure food and water supplies, improve public health and safety, and forward equity. It has invited public comment, and a coalition of California (and national) nonprofit advocates is delivering a letter that calls on the agency to include, in the plan, ambitious targets to move the stateās agricultural sector away from the use of harmful synthetic pesticides. Beyond Pesticides will sign on to the letter. This ānatural and working landsā document will inform Californiaās 2021 State Adaptation Strategy and the 2022 Scoping Plan ā master documents guiding the stateās climate action during […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, California, Climate, Climate Change, Uncategorized | No Comments »
01
Nov
(Beyond Pesticides, November 1, 2021)Ā Join with 37 environmental and health groups, farm organizations, and beekeeper councils, who have delivered a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) leaders seeking major reforms in the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP). They provided a comprehensive list of OPPās major failures as the lead federal office for pesticide regulation and management, including: Allowing chlorpyrifos to stay registered for more than 14 years after health experts and affected farmworkers petitioned for its removal based on its known neurological danger, Allowing unlimited use of Roundup (glyphosate) long after it was shown to contribute to deadly non-Hodgkinās lymphoma in heavy users and it devastated the treasured monarch butterfly, now driven to near extinction in North America, Approving hundreds of neonicotinoid systemic insecticides, now the most widespread insecticide in the country where they are decimating honey and native bees and other key pollinators and beneficial species; and Registering dicamba in a highly volatile herbicide, a shocking blunder later overruled by a federal court ruling that stated OPP ānot only substantially understated the risks ā¦. It also entirely failed to acknowledge other risks, including those it was statutorily required to consider.ā Take action: Tell EPA and Congress that the […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Climate, Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pesticide Regulation, Take Action, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
08
Oct
(Beyond Pesticides, October 8, 2021)Ā Taking a page from the playbook of Trump Administration Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, the current secretary, Tom Vilsack, used a September G20 summit in Italy to target the European Unionās āFarm to Forkā (F2F) strategy, a part of its European Green Deal. Mr. Perdue had said that F2F is āmore . . . āpolitical scienceā than demonstrated agricultural scienceā; Secretary Vilsack called it āa path very different from the one the U.S. is pursuing.ā The F2F initiative aims to transition the EU to a sustainable food system such that it also achieves significant mitigation of climate change. But Mr. Vilsack chose to counter the F2F efforts by promoting an āalternative strategyā ā under the moniker āCoalition for Productivity Growthā ā through which āother nations pledgeĀ notĀ to follow the European path on farm policy.ā He has described this alternative, U.S.-led strategy as āa market-oriented, incentive-based, voluntary system [that] is effectiveā at slashing agricultural carbon emissions. Climate, pesticide, organics, and other environmental and health advocates, including Beyond Pesticides, are troubled by these actions. Mother Jones poses the central question in the headline of its September 30 article: Why is Secretary Vilsack So Afraid of a Plan to Cut […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Climate, International, Uncategorized, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) | No Comments »
02
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, August 2, 2021) One reason to eat organic food is to join with a crucial national and global campaign to eliminate toxic, petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers and protect ecosystems in the urgent fight to curtail the climate crisis and biodiversity declineāin addition to local and immediate health and environmental benefits. Despite an important and timely vote by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in 2018 to protect native ecosystems as a critical tool in sequestering carbon and improving environmental resiliency, and despite the Biden Adminstrationās stated commitment to fighting the climate crisis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its National Organic Program (NOP) have not acted to put this recommendation in force. As our understanding of the connection between protecting intact ecosystems and combating climate change has grown, the urgency to implement this recommendation cannot be overstated. We must act now! Sign the petition to tell the National Organic Program (NOP) to take action to finalize the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) recommended rulemaking that will protect Native Ecosystems and thereby preserve the integrity of the organic seal, help reverse the biodiversity crisis, and reduce global climate change. Sign by September 20, 2021. The Organic Foods Production Act […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Biodiversity, Climate, Take Action, Uncategorized | No Comments »
