HONG KONG: The Obama administration has launched an effort to reduce the alarming death rate among bees and other insects that pollinate plants, but it’s not moving against a class of pesticides that scientists view as a suspect.
The plan announced by the White House this week calls for more research into the effects of pesticides, both lethal and sub-lethal, and to figure out how bees are exposed in the field and at what levels. It also includes guidelines for government agencies to make public lands more hospitable to bees and monarch butterflies.
“Today’s announcement marks an important step toward promoting the health of pollinators that are critically important to our economy, environment, and health,” John Holdren, the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in a blog post detailing the moves.
But the plan doesn’t include any step to rein in the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, a class of bug-killer that’s under increased scrutiny in the United States and Europe. That’s disappointed some US environmentalists, who hoped the White House would go further.
“They put in some really good goals, and they talk about how there’s multiple threats to the health of pollinators, and that’s all good. We agree with that,” Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch, told VICE News.
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