Beleid en debat

Une campagne de Pro Natura pour alerter sur l’état des cours d’eau en Suisse exige le retrait de certains pesticides. Les paysans se sentent pris pour cible. Le 9 mai dernier Pro Natura lançait sa campagne «Stop aux pesticides dans nos eaux», dont le but est de dénoncer l’inquiétante quantité de pesticides, herbicides et insecticides dans les cours d’eaux. Ce texte est accompagné d’un plan national en huit points pour que la Confédération applique une nouvelle politique en la matière.

European Union countries on Thursday again delayed a vote on whether to renew the sales authorization of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto Co.’s popular weedkiller Roundup, amid conflicting scientific assessments on whether the substance causes cancer in humans. “Since it was obvious that no qualified majority would have been reached, a vote was not held,” said a spokeswoman for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. The commission had proposed to reauthorize glyphosate for nine years once its current sales license runs out on June 30.

Scientists have sounded the alarm that high concentrations of pesticides are showing up in urine samples of Danish mothers and children. Researchers suspect that the pesticides harm children’s brains. “It is alarming that we have such a high concentration of pesticides in Denmark,” Philippe Grandjean, a professor of environmental medicine and head of research at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), told Altinget.

Der Vorsitzende und Ko-Vorsitzende einer Arbeitsgruppe der FAO und WHO zu Pestiziden, die am Montag Glyphosat für unbedenklich erklärt hatte, sind nach Recherchen des britischen Guardian massiv in Interessenskonflikte verstrickt. Professor Alan Boobis, der Vorsitzende des Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), ist gleichzeitig Vize-Präsident des International Life Science Institute (ILSI) Europe.

A WILDLIFE campaigner is in the middle of a 500-mile challenge to walk across Britain and Ireland to raise awareness of the declining numbers of curlew (Numenius arquata). Mary Colwell is also a writer and producer and she began her walk on April 21 in Ireland and will finish on May 29 in Lincolnshire. Mary is raising awareness of the endangered curlew, which became a red-listed species in December 2015.

Publication of the BC Breeding Bird Atlas is raising alarms about the decline of several species across the province. The atlas is one of the largest citizen-science initiatives in B.C. history. More than 1,300 volunteers contributed some 60,000 hours of their time over eight years to document the status of birds. A sampling includes:

Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)