Dear friends,
Right now,
billions of bees are dying. Already,
there are nowhere near enough honeybees in Europe to pollinate the crops, and in
California -- the biggest food producer in the US -- beekeepers are losing 40%
of their bees each year.
We're in the middle of an environmental
holocaust that threatens all of us, because without pollination by bees,
most plants and ⅓ of our food supply are gone.
Scientists are sounding
the alarm about pesticides that are toxic to bees, and say we’re using way, way
more pesticides on our crops than we need. But as with oil companies and climate
change, big drug companies that sell pesticides are fighting back with
corporate-funded junk science that questions the evidence, and gives politicians
an excuse to delay.
Scientific studies are expensive. Avaaz may be the
only crowdsourced funding model in the world able to raise enough to fund the
world's first large scale, grass-roots supported, totally independent study
of what's killing our bees, that decisively challenges the junk science of
big pharma. The need is urgent, and if we can't do this, it's not clear who can.
Let's see if we can raise a massive fund to save our bees.
Click to pledge what you can, we’ll process your donation only if we
raise enough to fund a study that can go head to head with big pharma:
We’re running out of
time. A new study has revealed the scary truth: in more than half of
European countries, there are not enough honeybees to pollinate crops. In the
UK, the honeybee population is only a quarter of what is actually needed for
pollination -- and although other kinds of bees are stepping in to fill the
honeybee void, we’ll likely start losing them too if we keep loading our crops
down with pesticides.
And it might all be for nothing: in the 70 years
since pesticides were introduced, we've learned that some of them
do more
harm than good when it comes to cultivating our food because they kill off
the natural enemies of pests. Worse still, over time many pests become immune to
pesticides, forcing farmers to use more and more deadly chemicals -- often
poisoning themselves in the process.
Everyone from official government
agencies to scientists agree that one group of widely-used pesticides called
neonicotinoids is killing bees. But chemical giants like Bayer and their
supporters continue to argue against regulation of their products, presenting
self-funded research they claim show pesticides aren't necessarily responsible
for the bees’ deadly decline. And it's working -- in the United States, the
newest battleground for the ban on deadly pesticides,
the government says
there is not yet enough evidence to justify a ban. If we lose in the US,
Europe could follow suit and lift their own temporary hold on these dangerous
chemicals.
It’s time to end the debate once and for all. When enough of
us pledge, Avaaz will fund research by highly-respected scientists to fill
critical gaps in knowledge. Then, we can join beekeepers and local advocacy
organisations in
a massive global offensive to save the bees by fueling
strategies like:
- Organising a media tour with our giant Bernie the bee to ensure the
research shows up in the world’s biggest media outlets.
- Funding public opinion polls in key agricultural countries to smash
the claim that farming communities can’t survive without bee-killing chemicals.
- Going after retailers to take the deadly pesticides off their
shelves. It’s already happening in Europe, but we’ll get supermarkets and
garden centres around the globe to follow suit.
- Campaigning hard to get a game-changing anti-pesticides bill that has
been lounging in the US congress passed once and for all.
- Naming and shaming those pushing the bee-killing pesticides by
running hard-hitting billboard and newspaper ads.
- Taking legal action to stop government agencies that have approved
neonicotinoid pesticides, despite evidence proving they are toxic to bees and a
host of other beneficial creatures.
The bees are up against a
well-oiled, resource rich machine that will do whatever it takes to ensure the
profits of chemical companies and big agriculture don’t take a hit.
Pledge
now to support a massive effort to save the bees -- Avaaz will only process
donations if we raise enough to make a difference:
If the bees die out, the
world we hand off to our grandchildren will look very different -- apples and
almonds could become exotic foods in our supermarkets. But we’re making
incredible progress in the fight to protect our precious pollinators: last year
2.4 million Avaaz members were part of a massive movement in Europe that
convinced the EU Parliament to place a 2-year ban on the worst bee-killing
chemicals. If our movement joins forces now to clear up the false debate that’s
stalling our legislators, we could win urgently-needed pesticide bans all over
the world and end the chemical war on bees once and for all!
With hope
and determination,
Ricken, Mia, Emma, Allison, Christoph, Mais, Emily,
Ian, Jeremy and the whole Avaaz team
MORE INFORMATION:
Pesticides halve bees' pollen gathering ability, research shows (The
Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/bees-pollen-pesticides-ban
Honeybee shortage threatens crop pollination in Europe (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25656283
Pesticides 'making bees smaller' (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/20/pesticides-making-bees-smaller
U.S. funds research to reduce use of pesticides harmful to bees
(Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/08/epa-honeybees-idUSL2N0KI1QM20140108
Chemical giants go to court, bees go to Washington, and giant
carpenter bees (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/04/bees-buzzfeeds-pesticides-ban-congress
One-Third of U.S. Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening Food
Supply (Wired)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/
Pesticide Lobby Spends Millions To Defend Chemicals Tied To Bee
Deaths (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/pesticide-lobby-bees_n_2980870.html
Warning Signs: How Pesticides Harm the Young Brain (The
Nation)
http://www.thenation.com/article/178804/warning-signs-how-pesticides-harm-young-brain
The night of my arrival, on the Friday, was fairly
uneventful. We went to Lidl to buy cereal: yummy chocolate hoops. I had the
most tedious seven-hour train journey yet, as I had been quite absent-minded in
the morning and forgotten to grab a book. Though, all in all, it wasn’t too
bad. I was just half asleep all evening.
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