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this is the silent killer. climate change gets all the attention but pesticides can kill everything

by ptah 7y ago

jackfoxy 7y ago
It's more like switching from fossil fuels gets all the attention. That's because there is big money to be made. Not so much money to be made by reversing deforestation, not sending garbage (dubious recycling) to 3rd world countries, not releasing toxic substances into the environment, etc.
ltbarcly3 7y ago
So if we stopped using pesticides tomorrow things would recover very quickly. Pesticides are destroyed by exposure to UV radiation and weathering very quickly, that is why farmers have to keep applying them over and over. They don't generally persist in the environment or in living things for more than a few days or weeks, with the exception of biological reservoirs where the few types that can accumulate in living things might last for months (and these types are not common, this is why DDT was banned in the first place). If we stop dumping massive amounts of CO2 into the air tomorrow the Earth will continue to warm for hundreds of years. It's clearly much, much more important to deal with CO2.
- hydraxis 7y ago
  Every day, hundreds of living species are disappearing forever, mostly due to human direct actions on the environment and particularly industrial farming. I personally find this much more important (and sad) than climate change.
  - ltbarcly3 7y ago
    "Every day {bad thing} happens due to {list of things that aren't pesticide use} therefore pesticides should be banned." This is embarrassing. It's like arguing against wind power because wind turbines are held down by cement, and making cement releases CO2. If people didn't use pesticides, yields would go way, way, way down, and more land would have to be used for intensive farming to produce the same amount of food. So you are basically arguing for pesticide use in your argument against pesticides.

this is the silent killer. climate change gets all the attention but pesticides can kill everything

by ptah 7y ago

this is the silent killer. climate change gets all the attention but pesticides can kill everything

It's more like switching from fossil fuels gets all the attention. That's because there is big money to be made. Not so much money to be made by reversing deforestation, not sending garbage (dubious recycling) to 3rd world countries, not releasing toxic substances into the environment, etc.

ltbarcly3 7y ago

So if we stopped using pesticides tomorrow things would recover very quickly. Pesticides are destroyed by exposure to UV radiation and weathering very quickly, that is why farmers have to keep applying them over and over. They don't generally persist in the environment or in living things for more than a few days or weeks, with the exception of biological reservoirs where the few types that can accumulate in living things might last for months (and these types are not common, this is why DDT was banned in the first place). If we stop dumping massive amounts of CO2 into the air tomorrow the Earth will continue to warm for hundreds of years. It's clearly much, much more important to deal with CO2.

hydraxis 7y ago
Every day, hundreds of living species are disappearing forever, mostly due to human direct actions on the environment and particularly industrial farming. I personally find this much more important (and sad) than climate change.
- ltbarcly3 7y ago
  "Every day {bad thing} happens due to {list of things that aren't pesticide use} therefore pesticides should be banned." This is embarrassing. It's like arguing against wind power because wind turbines are held down by cement, and making cement releases CO2. If people didn't use pesticides, yields would go way, way, way down, and more land would have to be used for intensive farming to produce the same amount of food. So you are basically arguing for pesticide use in your argument against pesticides.