OTNP June 2024
To make a prairie it takes a
clover and one bee.
One clover, and a bee,
And revelry.
The revelry alone will do,
If bees are few.
Emily Dickinson
Via Awesome Kimberly Thank you.
A Sierra club member, friend, and activist sent me the following:
Beautiful 10-minute youtube about desert “dirt”. It’s well-done.
This is awesome! Watch it. And the microbial life in that biocrust is a big part of what holds it together. I would bet all our desert national parks are using glyphosate (antibiotic) based products.
Toads ewwwww – they give you warts.
NOT!
I wonder how many things we know today that we won’t _know_ tomorrow.
Does the Western spadefoot toad have beautiful eyes? 😊
California is a hotspot of amphibian declines — half of the state’s frogs and toads are in trouble — and new research suggests that agricultural pesticides may be one of the biggest reasons. “Declines of four…species were strongly associated with the amount of upwind agricultural land use, suggesting that wind-borne agrochemicals may be a factor,”
Source: Pesticides Linked to Amphibian Declines | Anthropocene
My friend (who sent the YouTube above) and I then ended up continuing the exchange. They were frustrated with some of the activities surrounding the gold spotted oak borer (GSOB) carbaryl spraying program. Highlight that, Google it, and be appalled at all the environmentalists who are doing the pesticide industries’ bidding. My friend was not entirely happy with the claims that:
1) The oak forests will all die without the spraying program.
2) It is OK because Carbaryl breaks down very quickly.
A part of our discussion is paraphrased below.
The pesticide manufacturers and their huge PR departments are clearly using “invasive species” and “save the (pick one)” to manipulate even environmentalists. You want to bet me whether or not the heads of big PR departments have psychology professors on speed dial? You want to bet me that a lot of the literature that environmental groups get about saving the (pick one) is actually manufactured in certain PR departments to play on our concern about the environment.
And our environmental groups which _could_ and _should_ be a wonderful resource for a [non “Monsanto”] way of looking at pesticide use, are not just silent, they actually aid and abet the pesticide companies. Our environmental groups which _could_ and _should_ be a voice of reason are not.
biology is beautiful!
So I ask with respect to GSOB carbaryl spraying. — Why?
1) The animals have to walk around in it. Birds, Pacific chorus frogs, praying mantids, squirrels — carbaryl is _not_ approved for organic. Carbaryl is outright banned in 41 countries including but not limited to the United Kingdom, Switzerland, all 27 countries in the EU. And we are spraying it in our wilderness areas to save just . . . . just the trees? Many of us refuse to allow Carbaryl on our food, yet we are forcing the native animals to walk in it, and even eat it when they groom.
2) Since carbaryl breaks down so “quickly”, what actually is the half life of carbaryl under optimal conditions?
3) What are un-optimal conditions?
4) And is that like DDT that has a half life of as little as 14 to 30 days, but is still somehow all over our ocean floors and continues to poison our Marine biology here in California? Quote: There are still numerous species of fish off LA County coastal waters contaminated with enough DDT and PCBs to merit public health warnings from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). Since 2001, there has been a tremendous amount of research demonstrating high DDT levels and toxicological impacts on a wide array of marine mammals and even endangered California Condors. End Quote: https://opc.ca.gov/2022/07/ddt/
5) And does everyone know that DDT in certain “un-optimal” . . . . well actually many conditions, breaks down into DDE which is longer lived, and more toxic than the original DDT?
6) The scientifically determined DDT half-life has drastically changed (by hundreds of fold!) in the last 20 years. DDT is one of the best studied pesticides of all time and it’s scientifically (well, chemical company — “scientifically” ) proven half-life continues to change.
But the pesticide manufacturers can claim that it breaks down in _as little as_ 14-30 days. And they do the same with each new pesticide including carbaryl. Now these breakdown times are all actually “half-lives” so in one time period there is still half of it left. And in another time period a quarter, and in another time period an eighth, etc, etc so It really goes away _much_ slower than that statement “it breaks down in as little as 14-30 days” implies.
Sigh😀 The manufacturers play us environmentalists for fools. Using words like “under optimal conditions” and “in as little as.” Why should an environmentalist, or anyone, just believe somebody, somewhere saying that it breaks down fast? And completely unrelated to the specific problems with carbaryl above; but too many of us forget history. The Bhopal India Union carbide plant disaster was the worst industrial accident the world has ever known. They were making …. carbaryl
Why should any “environmentalist” be spraying a poison if they can’t answer every single _simple_ question above. And more appallingly; why should they be spraying _anything_ in an area they are trying to “save” that is not _at least_ approved for organic?
This reminds me of the dumping of human and industrial waste in rivers not all that long ago. “It is out of our lives!” And “we are helping our environment . . . by sending it away.” “Really, we are helping the (our) environment.” We don’t care about the downstream lives.
We (so called environmentalists included) are currently dumping toxins all over our environment today and not caring in the least about time, and the “downstream” lives of our children … their children, and so on.
Look at the data, and question it. That is kind of what Google is for. And our environmental groups should be _leading_ challenges! They should not be promoting the pesticide manufacturers!
Look at the little hard spade (like a fingernail) on its hind foot right behind its last inside toe. It uses that “spade” to burrow backwards into the ground. Beautiful biology is more than just eyes!
And here is yet another idea. So an imaginary invasive species (remarkably similar to nasty ol’ GSOB) is going great gang busters. It is now literally covering thousands of acres of land and forest. But there is an ecology. So a year, 5 years, even decades, some little insect predator that’s been struggling to find good food tries something new. It is not a big focus in its simple brain: this new prey thing looks weird. It doesn’t smell right, ewww, but hey let’s give it just one little bite. Oh my gosh this is delicious!!! And now there’s two little insect predators, and now there’s 10 – a party, and now there’s 140 – it’s a banquet!, All eating our hypothetical GSOB analog and now there’s a thousand little insect predators, and now there’s carbaryl. No more little insect predators.
It takes Just three easy steps for you to start encouraging our environmental groups to stop being pesticide enablers. And these three steps are easier than ever.
All you have to do is the quick, easy suggestions below. And I’ve made them even easier! If you have looked at them before, check out how easy they are now!
You can even do them more than once! And please forward this to just one new person. It doesn’t cost you a dime.
Thank you all for what you do! I really do believe that this project is much more than complaining.
More than complaining about how bad pesticides are, complaining about how bad the sierra club is, and complaining about how much information the pesticide manufacturers hide from us. I believe that the three easy steps allow us the opportunity to create something positive. I believe that annual pesticide reviews of our wilderness areas can do more to reduce pesticide use overall than virtually anything else we could do. We _have_ to create safe zones.
Bob
For past OTNP issues.
But you may want to start here. www.puravidaaquatic.com/wordpress/why-i-started-this/
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