> Why worry? In spite of the likely higher pesticide residue levels in 
> California's Central Valley, vertebrate animals continue to be abundant 
> even within the pesticide treated crops.

Although question this may stray from bees and beekeeping, there is a 
commonality.

The problem is that we know these pesticide  compounds are novel, or as some 
would say simplistically, 'unnatural'.  As such, we have no idea of the 
long-term effects on life or if they are steering evolution.

Mere abundance of surviving life is only one consideration, albeit a 
reassuring one.  How the various organisms, including bees and man, may have 
been altered and how evolution may have been affected and 'steered'  may 
seem today to be a rather obscure and distant worries, but the fact remains 
that all we have are guesses.

The effects of novel compounds, or even 'unnatural' concentrations of 
'natural' ones, as we are now finding out now, may be delayed generations 
and be so subtle that they puzzle observers and elude strong proofs of cause 
and effect.

The hormone-like behaviour of some 'harmless' common industrial and domestic 
chemicals has recently come to light as have the potential and real effects 
of their widespread distribution.

These pesticides, on the other hand are not, 'harmless', compounds intended 
to be beneficial or at least neutral in their effects on life, but rather 
compounds specifically designed to eliminate or pervert important biological 
processes, some of which all life -- including the esteemed members of this 
list --  hold in common.

 

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