The Systemic Insecticides – A Disaster in the making.

An excellent text presenting evidence of the consequences of systemic insecticides on European wildlife, where many naturalists concerned for birds have undertaken careful research counting numbers of species over many years. It is therefore possible to compare current population sizes of insect-eating bird species with reliable data from 30 years ago. The scientific evidence reveals that these bird species are declining on a massive scale. There is also review of scientific data on the increasing use and detection in the wider environment of neonicotinoid insecticides. When used as seed dressings, neonicotinoids migrate to every part of the plant: leaf tips, all parts of flowers and pollen. These insecticides damage the central nervous systems of insects, and very small quantities are effective. Since 2004 they have been detected as major contaminants of Dutch surface water, killing or debilitating non-target insects and possibly other arthropods, and progressively reducing food supplies for insect-feeding birds. The concise text and diagrams, with every fact supported by a reference from scientific literature, are accompanied by beautiful artwork: this provides an accessible way for the layman to be informed of the environmental disaster humans are causing. The text quotes Graham White, an environmental author who keeps bees in the UK Scottish borders: “We are witnessing an ecological collapse in all the wildlife that used to live in fields, hedgerows, ponds and streams. All the common species we knew as children are being wiped from the face of the countryside”.