from thefreeonline on 29th July 2023 by JOHNATHAN HETTINGER at The Extinction Chronicles
EPA says three widely used pesticides driving hundreds of endangered species toward extinction
Hands hold coated corn in a corn field near Mansfield, Illinois, on Tuesday, May 30, 2023 (Darrell Hoemann/Investigate Midwest).
Clay Bolt went looking for a rusty patched bumblebee, he would head to a city. The wildlife photographer said his best bet would be Minneapolis or Madison, Wisconsin, in a botanical garden or even someone’s backyard — as long as it was far away from crop fields and neonicotinoid pesticides.
“We are presently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,”
“It’s kind of ironic. Cities have become a refuge for some of these most endangered pollinators,” said Bolt, manager of pollinator conservation for the World Wildlife Fund. “Thousands of acres of monocultural row crops leave little to no room for most pollinators.”
The rusty patched bumblebee has seen populations plummet with the rise of industrial agriculture and was given…
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