Insecticide firms in secret bid to stop ban that could save bees

Yes...! I am praying that this ban goes through..!

In many ways this is thanks to all the people who have signed petitions and sent emails outlining their outrage at these horrible chemicals killing off our bee-autiful bees...

Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers.

Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer, a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents.

I am disgusted that the UK and the chemical companies have been trying their best with a behind-the-scenes campaign to sabotage this ban. Do they not realise that we need the bees...! It makes me so cross. Even though they have had ministers like David Cameron publicly saying that 'If we do not look after our bee populations, very serious consequences will follow'..
He is a liar.. He does not care about the bees..

But luckily there are European Union officials who do care. And they are now being targeted by the big chemical companies, especially Syngenta who has even threatened to sue some of these individual officials. As they will lose out on their billions of profits..

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "As the proposal currently stands we could not support an outright ban. We have always been clear that a healthy bee population is our top priority, that's why decisions need to be taken using the best possible scientific evidence and we want to work with the commission to achieve this. Any action taken must be proportionate and not have any unforeseen knock-on effects."

www.guardian.co.uk...

Lastly I think sites such as Avaaz have contributed a huge amount in helping stop these mad ideas that seems to be popping up worldwide.. And it is truly incredible to see that many many times these online petitions reach their targets very quickly..!

Save our Bee-loved Bees...! Sign the petition:

www.avaaz.org...

Peace
fluff

Signed the petition a while ago, thanks for bringing it up again for others.

I sometimes think it would be beneficial to this ball of dirt if 95% of bees did die off and 100% of humans followed. Then Mother Nature willl carry on doing her stuff without us parasites and the bees would be left alone to repopulate themselves.

Cheers for posting.

reply to post by fluff007


Lets hope sanity & not profit prevails.
If these little guys become extinct so do we!

reply to post by nerbot

Signed the petition a while ago, thanks for bringing it up again for others.

Me too..!

I sometimes think it would be beneficial to this ball of dirt if 95% of bees did die off and 100% of humans followed. Then Mother Nature willl carry on doing her stuff without us parasites and the bees would be left alone to repopulate themselves.

Lol. Well it would teach us a bloody lesson..! I for one believe the bees would out survive us..

reply to post by creatives


The human race would not become totally extinct if the bees became extinct.. But there would be a huge decline in the population... Bees pollinate over 30 percent of the world's crops..

However it would not do us any favours if our poor bees died out.. They need to be saved..!

They know that bees are unconditionally part of the eco-system and killing them off is 100% part of their plans to create a dead earth with the only choice human civilization as to survive is do everything the elite want us to do, while we can't even grow our own food to save ourselves.

It's exactly what they plan and even if it fails, they still see it as wining because when it all comes down they would still be on "top"...well on top for them, because I see them lower than any other human beings.

Childish power stupid fools, utterly pathetic.

Originally posted by fluff007


Yes...! I am praying that this ban goes through..!

In many ways this is thanks to all the people who have signed petitions and sent emails outlining their outrage at these horrible chemicals killing off our bee-autiful bees...

Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers.

Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer, a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents.

I am disgusted that the UK and the chemical companies have been trying their best with a behind-the-scenes campaign to sabotage this ban. Do they not realise that we need the bees...! It makes me so cross. Even though they have had ministers like David Cameron publicly saying that 'If we do not look after our bee populations, very serious consequences will follow'..
He is a liar.. He does not care about the bees..

But luckily there are European Union officials who do care. And they are now being targeted by the big chemical companies, especially Syngenta who has even threatened to sue some of these individual officials. As they will lose out on their billions of profits..

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "As the proposal currently stands we could not support an outright ban. We have always been clear that a healthy bee population is our top priority, that's why decisions need to be taken using the best possible scientific evidence and we want to work with the commission to achieve this. Any action taken must be proportionate and not have any unforeseen knock-on effects."

www.guardian.co.uk...
Lastly I think sites such as Avaaz have contributed a huge amount in helping stop these mad ideas that seems to be popping up worldwide.. And it is truly incredible to see that many many times these online petitions reach their targets very quickly..!
Save our Bee-loved Bees...! Sign the petition
www.avaaz.org...
Peace
fluff

OK so if the internet is so powerful like you all are alluding to, how about setting up a massive campaign to bring down the companies that are against the ban. I surely don't have the smarts to do so, but if people are so passionate about it, then go for it, make syngenta or whoever the companies are pay in the worst way possible. Bring them down : ) Turn the world against any of their products. If it doesn't work, and people won't go without the products these companies make, then maybe humans deserve whatever happens

I thought I would add this to the pile of context and reference. I imagine this may play some part in the timing and urgency as well.

Greens Blame EPA for Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder

The curtain isn't quite as solid as it once was it seems and it's a pretty ugly scene behind it, eh?

reply to post by fluff007

I am disgusted that the UK and the chemical companies have been trying their best with a behind-the-scenes campaign to sabotage this ban.

I just spent the whole day (from 10am to 6pm) reworking bee frames and nesting two more hives. We lost 4 hives over winter, did a double-split 2 weeks ago, and with the two new hives, back at 6 hives. Yes, I'm a beekeeper, and locally, everyone lost 50-70% of their hives.

Our local Bee Inspector, who had 40 hives, was dropped to 12 over winter. The losses are due to the weather, a warm snap, then cold, then warm again. The bees unclustered, then froze to death.

That's not including the stress from pesticides. That was just a natural event. Now......add in the stress of pesticides.

If Mother Nature deals a bad hand, we really don't need to be adding to it with neonicotoidnals. But we are.

This will be a tough year for beekeepers, fighting weather, and mankind's poisons.

reply to post by fluff007


People still rely on government to tell them what to do. People are ready and waiting worldwide for someone to tell them what to do. Is this programmed?

How about farmers just stop voluntarily using chemicals on their crops? The people don't want it right? Or is someone telling the farmers what to do too, and they're complying as well?

reply to post by fluff007

Poor little bees...

US demand for formulated pesticide products is forecast to increase 2.6 percent per year to $12.1 billion in 2016. Gains will be driven in part by rising demand for new formulations...

---

...active ingredient product, (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fumigants, defoliants and desiccants, rodenticides, nematicides, biopesticides) and market (e.g., agriculture by type, agriculture by crop, commercial, consumer).

www.freedoniagroup.com...

reply to post by fluff007


yeah just read it on twitter... greenpeace hung a mighty big bloody sign off a building today.



Brilliant!

save the bees!

Originally posted by Thurisaz
reply to post by fluff007

 

yeah just read it on twitter... greenpeace hung a mighty big bloody sign off a building today.

Brilliant!

save the bees!

I have been reading the tweets most of the day... why hasn't ATS tweeted this?

this is a huge thing. I remember the huge thread about the bees dying... well this is one of the reasons.

it is a huge issue, if we don't take steps to save the bees, well we are all pretty much doomed...only a matter of time.

I wish I had 500 accounts to flag this one to the hilt.

reply to post by fluff007


Perhaps the scariest thing about this is the power corporations have.

Even when it means the potential extinction of a vital part of our agricultural process, which could cause massive damage to thousands of species on Earth, some politicians are making money from protecting this process.

Every politician that has put their own special interests and corporate friends above the well-being of our environment should not just be fired, they should be imprisoned.

Much like the banking corruption now coming to light and being seen right there out in the open, this is the obvious corruption of government by corporate business to the most extreme level - these people are like comic book villains, willingly risking an entire species and the health of our own to line their own pockets.

I really hope these corporations and their paid off politicians are exposed and seriously harmed by this ban. I hope they all go out of business within a month.

Greenpeace EU unit‏@GreenpeaceEU45m
#bees meeting now expected to end at 12:30 Brussels time. Watch this space for result of vote to ban bee-killing pesticides #savethebees

twitter.com...

In the U.S. Obama should get behind this with a major prime-time speech to Congress, if that's what it takes.

Knowing that their poison is causing a worldwide loss of bees and still trying to protect their products is blindfolded corporatism run amok (as usual).

reply to post by Aleister


hi there

I am sitting waiting on twit for the decision...
fingers crossed!!

wooo hooo!

we got a partial ban

Press release - April 29, 2013
Brussels – A clear majority of EU countries have supported the European Commission proposal to temporarily ban three pesticides that are scientifically shown to be harmful to bees: imidacloprid and clothianidin, produced by chemical company Bayer, and thiamethoxam, produced by Syngenta.

Majority of EU countries support partial ban of bee-killing pesticides

Greenpeace EU unit‏@GreenpeaceEU24m
BREAKING: majority of EU countries support partial ban of bee-killing #pesticides. Our statement: http://(link tracking not allowed)/10naYMs #bees #savethebees

reply to post by greatfriendbadfoe

OK so if the internet is so powerful like you all are alluding to, how about setting up a massive campaign to bring down the companies that are against the ban. I surely don't have the smarts to do so, but if people are so passionate about it, then go for it, make syngenta or whoever the companies are pay in the worst way possible. Bring them down : ) Turn the world against any of their products. If it doesn't work, and people won't go without the products these companies make, then maybe humans deserve whatever happens

We are not all alluding to the internet being all powerful. I never said that. What I said was that in many ways online campaigning has helped to take action against all the crazy decisions made by the governments and huge corporations world wide..

And with such a vast number of the population on social media sites the information is shared quickly and reaches huge numbers of people world wide in seconds..!
It is helping people take back their power. This is only the first step. We are saying no. This is not what we want. We are the people and you should listen...

We are making a noise. Ruffling feathers.

There are now over 21 million members on the Avaaz site.. It is working.. Instead of criticising people who are actually trying to do something about it. Do something yourself.. Even if it is only signing a petition. Share the information. Tell your friends, family and work colleagues. Even just making people aware of the dire situation we are in helps..

Have you done anything...?

We cannot change the world alone.

It is easy to break one pencil. But try breaking several at once. Together we are strong..

Avaaz—meaning "voice" in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages—launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.

www.avaaz.org...

Do some reading.