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Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

nationalgeographic.com

101–110 of 342 posts

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#101
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the future is uncertain. I don't know that if my going to work tomorrow is not going to rip a hole in the space time continuum, but I'll risk it anyway. I know that's being facetious, but the point remains. There are clear and obvious dangers with current practices. They are not sustainable. One can never say for certainty that any change may not have unintended consequences, but in this case, they are bein…

Not that we do nothing. We can ban pesticides, return back to heuristic based agriculture where mistakes are localized and inventions are robust and of limited scale. Pesticides are mostly used for crops that humans do not eat directly. Food safety was never about beans or sweet potato or other efficient plant sources of protein and calories, it was about wheat, soybean and corn. Their introduction, just like the int…

Ban all pesticides? Every single one of them, synthetic and organic alike? That would be interesting.

Pretending that biotic stresses simply don't exist is....umm..novel.

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#102
post #92
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're already eating dsRNA. Plants have microRNA precursors and viruses. We eat plants. Roundup is a synthetic herbicide - that they both could be used in agriculture is when the similarity ends.

I know the difference between herbicides and microRNA but you do not seem to see the assumptions that you make.

What is the difference?

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#103

There’s no surprise here is there? We, as a society, poison pretty much everything as a standard part of the agricultural process. The outcome -the goal - of that is of course, death of vast numbers of insects. Mission accomplished. It’s a success story, strangely. The only thing that seems weird to me is how society was so easily convinced that soaking all our food in poison is OK and not a problem all good thumbs u…

If all people started growing their own food it would be far worse. I believe thats how people were convinced

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#104
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the future is uncertain. I don't know that if my going to work tomorrow is not going to rip a hole in the space time continuum, but I'll risk it anyway. I know that's being facetious, but the point remains. There are clear and obvious dangers with current practices. They are not sustainable. One can never say for certainty that any change may not have unintended consequences, but in this case, they are bein…

Not that we do nothing. We can ban pesticides, return back to heuristic based agriculture where mistakes are localized and inventions are robust and of limited scale. Pesticides are mostly used for crops that humans do not eat directly. Food safety was never about beans or sweet potato or other efficient plant sources of protein and calories, it was about wheat, soybean and corn. Their introduction, just like the int…

Actually, wheat has been the staple for peoples living near the Mediterranean for thousands of years.

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#105
post #97
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this "Roundup is a dangerous poison" was a propaganda meme that came out of the need to demonize US agribusiness in Europe. It's a kind of social activism protectionism. I would not be at all surprised to learn it was sustained by funding from ag interests in Europe. OF course Roundup is not a dangerous poison. This is simply a lie that is repeated over and over by the dishonest and the gullible.

I base my opinion on three court cases in the USA where evidence was borught to court that Monsanto knew many years ago about the cancer causing risks. on what do you base "this is simply a lie" ?

Court cases are not good ways to determine science. In a particularly egregious case in the 1980s, for example, a jury returned a verdict for a defendant in which it was claimed that a head injury in a car accident led to lung cancer.

Scientifically, there is no good evidence that Roundup causes cancer.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/08/17/cancer-juries-scienti...

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#106
post #57
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using emotive terms like 'poisoner' to tar people trying to develop safer alternatives to current products is rather disengenuous.

People who give advise are advisors, people who kill are murderers, people who have kids are parents and people who produce or spray poisons are poinsoners. Using the word "poisoner" is not calling some names, it is simply using the correct word for the person that we are discussing.

I have relations with my wife and we have children together. That makes it a true fact that I'm a motherf#@%er, yet using that label does not lead to productive discourse.

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#107
Seems like the cherry on top of increased crop yields.

Has the "apocalypse" had any major negative effects? It's certainly had major positive effects. What if insects went away completely? Certain plants wouldn't pollinate and bats would starve and corpses would take longer to decay. But what is the real problem here?

I just remember as a kid being tormented--absolutely tormented--by insects. And those weren't even the disease-carrying kind of insects.

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#108

There’s no surprise here is there? We, as a society, poison pretty much everything as a standard part of the agricultural process. The outcome -the goal - of that is of course, death of vast numbers of insects. Mission accomplished. It’s a success story, strangely. The only thing that seems weird to me is how society was so easily convinced that soaking all our food in poison is OK and not a problem all good thumbs u…

well because evolution has made it so that what kills insects only manages to give us a really bad headache (and potentially cancer way down the line, but everything gives us cancer so that is okay)

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#109
post #20

If I ever get rich enough to do so, I'm going to buy some land somewhere - perhaps old farming land that's no longer profitable, and just let it return to nature. Let the trees and bushes grow, let the insects, birds and whatever else breed there. I'm beginning to think that's one of the best things one could do for the planet right now.

My current favourite youtube channel is "Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't". He swears a lot. But he appears to know a lot about botany and a fair amount about geology. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3CBOpT2-NRvoc2ecFMDCsA I thought you might enjoy this video about "kill your lawn" and native Illinois prairie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz9I2YwmV8M

This is awesome. Thanks for pointing it out, subbed.

Re: Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

#110
When people talk about patriarchy, colonialism and white supremacy, they're talking the attitudes of domination and control that created this horrid situation. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't studied these concepts to seriously look into them deeply.
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