Donald Trump just gave an endangered bee species a death sentence.
The rusty patched bumblebee is at risk of extinction. It was once so prevalent across the midwestern United States it was considered a pest. Now, you’re lucky if you can lay eyes on one.
This vital pollinator was about to be the first bee species on the U.S. endangered species list — but the Trump White House blocked this key protection just one day before it was set to take effect.
We know exactly why this precious bee is heading toward extinction: bee-killing neonic pesticides that are putting the global food supply at risk. With Trump's recklessness emboldening corporations like Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta, there's only one response. We need a global ban on neonicotinoids now.
Click here to call for a global ban on bee-killing neonic pesticides.
If this decision were made by science alone, there wouldn’t be any argument: save the bees, save our farms and ban neonics. But there is simply too much money involved and the huge agro-chemical mega-corps like Bayer and Monsanto have too much at stake. That’s why their CEOs met in a private meeting with Donald Trump just a few weeks before the White House signed the rusty patched bumblebee’s death warrant.
What more do we need to call for a global ban on the toxic chemicals devastating our bee populations? We know that not only are bee colonies collapsing, bird and butterfly numbers are plummeting too, and neonics are a key culprit. Now an entire bee species that used to cover huge swaths of America is on the brink of extinction.
But we are fighting back. Canada is considering a national ban on one of the chemical industry’s most popular neonicotinoids. We’re fighting hard to keep the partial ban on three of the biggest neonics in Europe, and France has vowed to institute a total ban by 2018. But with entire bee species — not just colonies — now at risk, we need to pull out all the stops.
Join our call for a global bee-killing neonics ban now.
More information
CBC. 23 November 2016.
Washington Post. 10 January 2017.
The Independent. 11 January 2017.