Every year, millions of honey and native bees and untold number of other insect pollinators are killed by pesticides used on seeds for corn, soybeans, sunflowers, fruits and other crops. Hi, I’m Friends of the Earth Canada’s CEO, Bea Olivastri, and I’m asking you to make a New Year’s resolution to do three
Considering the contents of the Paris Agreement triggers mixed emotions. I’m glad, sad and mad all at the same time. Glad that 195 countries could reach an agreement that signals the end of our use of fossil fuels and commits them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And, I’m glad that Canada has moved from obstruction
Paris. Day 12. The final draft text was released at 9pm Thursday night and exhausted negotiators are discussing it today, Friday, with the goal of releasing a final text tomorrow. Twelve days and nights of complex negotiations have not strengthened the original text but weakened it. It started off ambitiously. World leaders came to Paris
Think about our daily habits and you can’t escape the fact that bees are an important part of our lives. Morning coffee and tea, honey on toast, an apple in our child’s lunch, mid-day snacking on almonds or grapes, a cranberry martini after work or apple pie for dessert at a dinner party. Our holidays
There’s one thing that Mother Nature hasn’t yet wreaked havoc with and that’s bringing the cooler comfortable temperatures for fall, like clockwork. You unpack that sweater from the bottom drawer and think about dragging out your summer stowaway bins from the basement. On second thought, maybe Indian summer is around the corner? Unlike us, bees
On behalf of Friends of the Earth and our bee friends, I want to congratulate RONA on its commitment and performance to reduce the use of neonicotinoids in its nursery plants. Last year, Friends of the Earth tested flowering plants meant to be “bee-friendly” in 18 cities in North America. Over 50% of the flowering
Yesterday, Friends of the Earth Canada, in collaboration with a number of other organizations, sent a letter and report to all Ontario MPP’s in support of Ontario’s proposed plan to reduce the use of neonicotinoid pesticides by 80% on coated corn and soy seed within the province. The report outlined the five major reasons we
In 2013, the European Commission placed a two-year moratorium on the use of three neonicotinoid insecticides (clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam) after a growing body of scientific research demonstrated their potential to harm honeybees and wild bees. Given the importance of bees in the ecosystem and the food chain, the EU decided to follow a precautionary
By Gideon Forman and Beatrice Olivastri Back in November, the Ontario government signaled its intention to reduce the use of “neonic” pesticides on corn and soy seed by 80% by 2017. A prime motivator for the proposal was a new analysis from the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides—a group of 29 independent scientists from around
