The federal government is finally realizing that the world's most popular insecticide is a major factor in the mass deaths of bees. Igor Pogdomy/Shutterstock
And oh, look: Seattle banned on the use of neonicotinoids on city land more than one year ago, citing hundreds of scientific studies demonstrating their negative impact. It was City Council Member Mike O'Brien who took up the cause after local environmentalists, including the Sierra Club and Central Co-Op, first raised the alarm.Bees are dying in record numbersâand now the government admits that an extremely common pesticide is at least partially to blame.
For more than a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has been under pressure from environmentalists and beekeepers to reconsider its approval of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, based on a mounting body of research suggesting they harm bees and other pollinators at tiny doses. In a report released Wednesday, the EPA basically conceded the case.
The rest of the country should steal more of our ideas.
