Prevalent Pesticide Linked to Bird Decline

摘要

News flash! Insecticides harm birds, according to a pioneering book published - oh, back in 1962. Silent Spring was biologist and writer Rachel Carson's call to arms for the nascent environmental movement, and it led to bans on organochlorines like DDT. But, in a case of deja vu all over again, scientists have now linked some of today's most widely used pesticides - a class called neonicotinoids - to worrisome declines of farmland birds. Previous studies linking neonicotinoids to sharp declines in honeybee populations, known as colony collapse disorder, prompted the European Union in 2013 to pass a two-year ban on the use of the pesticides, though bee experts now believe a parasitic mite, poor nutrition or both may also weaken or kill the insects.