> Avaaz is a 6.5-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. Yesterday they launched a campaign to urge the US and EU to suspend neonicotinoid pesticides. BBCT share concerns about growing evidence suggesting that some pesticides, including neonicotinoids, are harmful to bees. However, there are some statements in the Avaaz summary which, based on BBCT's understanding of the scientific evidence, are not well supported. This weakens their position and threatens to make hard-won signatures less valuable. Furthermore, they make a strong case for pesticides being the root cause of global bee declines. In some instances pesticides may be seriously affecting honeybees, but it is BBCT's view that many of our wild bee species have declined primarily due to habitat loss and other factors, besides pesticide use. With honeybees the situation is also more complicated than the Avaaz literature implies. Disease has a significant role in ongoing declines. 

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Read More at:
http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/avaaz.html

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