> 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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