Published on Jan 17, 2017
Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.
Rachel Carson premieres January 24 at 8/7c on PBS.
Food-matters
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Published on Jun 21, 2016
The dangers of glyphosate (Roundup) in our food supply are clear and present. Why are industry and government not acting as they should? Just as was the case in the 1950s with DDT and tobacco, we are on the brink of disastrous damage to health worldwide. This short film begins to explain why, and what we can do.
Food-matters
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Published on Oct 13, 2014
Find more Earth Focus content at https://www.linktv.org/earthfocus
(Earth Focus: Episode 69) Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in the world. They’ve been linked to the decline of honeybees. But scientists now say they also harm many terrestrial, aquatic, and marine invertebrates. They damage sea urchin DNA, suppress the immune systems of crabs, and affect the tunneling and reproductive behavior of earthworms. They kill off the insects that many birds, amphibians, and reptiles rely on for food. According to Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society, through the widespread use of these pesticides “we are killing the underpinning of the food chain.” In human blood studies, neonicotinoids are linked to DNA damage and cell mutation.
Neonicotinoids command 30% of the global insecticide market with sales of over $2.6 billion in 2009. Manufacturers argue that their pest-fighting power is indispensable to agriculture. They were introduced in the 1990s to replace more damaging insecticides. They are systemic and absorbed by the plant, making all parts of the plant — including nectar and pollen — toxic to pests.
Neonicotinoids are widely used as seed treatments, applied as soil drench, or sprayed onto foliage. In the US, they are used on some 200 million acres of crop land — on almost all corn, canola, and half of all soybean crops as well as on many fruits and vegetables. They are also extensively used in home and garden products. They are persistent, water soluble, and now found in stream samples across the United States and Canada.
“We are witnessing a threat to the productivity of our natural and farmed environment equivalent to that posed by organophosphates or DDT,” says Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin. Dr. Bonmatin is the lead author of an analysis of 800 peer-reviewed reports on the risk of neonicotinoids (and the systemic pesticide fipronil) completed in October 2014 by the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, a group of independent scientists from 15 countries. DDT was widely promoted for pest control in the US after World War II but was subsequently banned due to both environmental and human health concerns.
Read Earth Focus correspondent Miles Benson’s blog post, “Poison Is Big Business”: https://www.linktv.org/earth-focus-bl…
Food-matters
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Published on Sep 18, 2012
From Earth Focus/LinkTV: Honeybees, the essential pollinators of many of our major crops have been dying of in massive numbers since 2006. This threatens the US agricultural system and the one in twelve American jobs that depends on it. There is growing evidence that a new class of pesticides — nerve toxins called neonicotinoids — used on most US crops including almost all corn — may be toxic to bees. The US Environmental Protection Agency allowed neonicotinoids on the market without adequate tests to determine their toxicity to bees. Environmentalists want neonicotinoids banned until needed safety tests are done. While the US government is slow to act and neonicotinoid sales reap billions for the chemical industry, bees continue to die.
See the original video at www.linktv.org
Food-Matters
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Published on Nov 26, 2016
On November 22, 2016, officials from The Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency ( PMRA ) which is responsible for pesticide regulation in Canada, held a media technical briefing by teleconference about neonicotinoid pesticides.
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Food-matters
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The row over neonicotinoids has taken a new twist with leaked documents suggesting an outright EU-wide ban on their use in field crops. Damian Carrington of The Guardian has seen the unpublished European Commission documents and thinks the controversial pesticides could be outlawed by the end of the year.
The village pub has always been popular but now researchers say there is proof that a rural watering-hole has positive effects on the community. A team from Newcastle Business School and Leeds University looked at 300 parishes and discovered better social cohesion if there was a local pub. The findings are being welcomed by campaigners in the Yorkshire village of Kirkby Malzeard who are campaigning for the re-opening of a favourite hostelry.
The clocks have gone forward and spring is in the air. traditionally this is the time of year when farming gets underway again in earnest. But some farmers, particularly in East Anglia and the North of England, say wet conditions are hampering work on arable fields and delaying spring grazing for livestock.
Presented by Charlotte Smith.
Produced by Vernon Harwood.
See news report by the BBC’s Environment Correspondent – Matt McGraw
and
Food-matters
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Small traces of the world’s most widely used insecticides have been detected in tap water for the first time.
Samples taken by scientists in the US state of Iowa showed that levels of neonicotinoid chemicals remained constant despite treatment.
However drinking water treated using a different method of filtration showed big reductions in neonic levels.
Scientists say they cannot draw any conclusions relating to human health but argue that further study is needed.
Rapid uptake
The use of neonicotinoids has increased rapidly since their introduction in the early 1990s.
These systemic chemicals were seen as an advance because they are usually applied as a seed coating and are lethal to insects but not to other species.
See further information:
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Economics matters. Its theories are the mother tongue of public policy, the rationale for multi-billion-dollar investments, and the tools we use to tackle global poverty and manage our planetary home. Pity then – or more like disaster – that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date, but still dominate decision-making for the future. Instead of criticising the past, this book takes the long view forwards, identifying seven insights to help the twenty-first-century economist bring humanity into the global sweet spot (shaped like a doughnut) that combines human prosperity with ecological sustainability.
Doughnut Economics hand-picks the best emergent ideas – ranging from ecological, feminist, behavioural, and institutional economics to complexity thinking, systems dynamics, and Earth-systems science – to reveal the insights of eclectic economic rethinkers. It promises that the economic future will be fascinating, but wildly unlike the past, if we equip ourselves with the mindset needed to take it on.
For edition published in the United States see:
Follow further talks, interviews, speeches and writings of Kate Raworth.
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Photo Credit: Lightspring/Shutterstock
As long as GDP growth is the primary economic goal, achieving prosperity for all within the means of what the Earth can provide simply isn’t possible.
By Kate Raworth / Chelsea Green Publishing April 2, 2017
The following excerpt is from the new book Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, by Kate Raworth (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017)
Once a year, the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries meet to discuss the global economy. In 2014, for instance, they met in Brisbane, Australia, where they discussed global trade, infrastructure, jobs and financial reform, stroked koalas for the cameras, and then rallied behind one overriding ambition. ‘G20 leaders pledge to grow their economies by 2.1%’, trumpeted the global news headlines—adding that this was more ambitious than the 2.0 percent that they had initially intended to target.
…(read more).
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