UK PM Lands Brits in Deep Doo Doo

• CJ
• UUT
• EAC
• OCT

 UK’s Corrupt Politics [FEWW-R 092202]

A Very Shabby Democracy: Majority of Brits Oppose Brexit

[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists.]

• FEWW-R UK are available via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

Background:

• Nine out of ten Brits say the UK government is run by a few big entities acting in their own interests.
• 67% say that UK political parties are corrupt.
• 69% of respondents in the United Kingdom believe the media are corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 66% feel political parties are corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 55% believe parliament / legislature is corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 49% feel business is corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 45% say public officials and civil servants are corrupt/extremely corrupt
• 18% feel education systems are corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 24% say judiciary is corrupt/extremely corrupt.
• 32% believe police are corrupt/extremely corrupt.

[Latest FIRE-EARTH DIRECTIVES, ALERTS, FORECASTS, BULLETINS and MESSAGES available to authorized groups via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.]

EU Slaps Google with $2.7bn Fine for Abuse of Market Power

EU imposes largest penalty to date against a company for market distortion

Link submitted by GooWatch:

“Google has been fined €2.4bn ($2.7bn; £2.1bn) by the European Commission after it ruled the company had abused its power by promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results,” said a report.

“Other corporation to have been targeted include:

• Microsoft (2008) – the Windows-developer was fined €899m for failing to comply with earlier punishments, imposed over its refusal to share key code with its rivals and the bundling of its Explorer browser with its operating system. Five years later, it was told to pay a further €561m for failing to comply with a pledge to provide users a choice screen of browsers
• Intel (2009) – the chip-maker was ordered to pay €1.06bn for skewing the market by offering discounts conditional on computer-makers avoiding products from its rivals. Intel challenged the fine, and a final court ruling in the matter is expected in 2018
• Qualcomm (2015) – the chip-maker was accused of illegally paying a customer to use its technology and selling its chipsets below cost to push a rival out of the market. If confirmed, it faces a fine that could top €2bn, but the case has yet to be resolved
• Apple (2016) – Ireland was ruled to have given up to €13bn of illegal tax benefits to the iPhone-maker since 1991, and was ordered to recover the funds plus interest from the company. However, Dublin missed the deadline it was given to do so and has said it will appeal
• Facebook (2017) – the social network agreed to pay a €110m fine for saying it could not match user accounts on its main service to those of WhatsApp when it took over the instant messaging platform, and then doing just that two years later

“The commission is also investigating Amazon over concerns that a tax deal struck with Luxembourg gave it an unfair advantage.” the report said.

What Did These Kids Do to You, BaracK Obama?

5,835 refugee minors missing in Germany last year: report

Some 5,835 refugee minors have disappeared in Germany in 2015, including 555 who were under the age of 14, German media reported.

The report was published by the news organization Funke Mediengruppe, which obtained the information from the German parliament.

Most of the missing minors reportedly came to Europe from Syria and Afghanistan, and fewer numbers from Morocco, Eritrea, and Algeria, according to the data released by Berlin’s Interior Ministry.

The authorities have so far failed to explain how so many kids could have disappeared without a trace.

The latest revelation follows the Europol’s announcement in January, that since mid-2014 about 10,000 minors had gone missing after entering the EU.

In May 2015, Italian authorities warned that about 5,000 children had disappeared from asylum reception centers since the previous summer.

In Sweden, about 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and teens had gone missing by October last year, within a month of arriving in the southern town of Trelleborg, officials have admitted.

[Our Swedish colleagues believe thousands more refugee minors are missing in Sweden.]

In 2015, a total of 1,047,844 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe [Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta, as well as Cyprus] including 1,011,712 by sea, with at least 5,394 fatalities recorded globally, said IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.

More than 95,000 unaccompanied refugee children claimed asylum in Europe in 2015, more than 4 time the number in 2014, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Who is responsible for this evil?

Mr Obama, we hold you responsible for the destabilization of Syria, deaths of tens of thousands of Syrians and the fate of missing refugee children.

Related Links

• NOTHING SHORT OF GENOCIDE: 10,000 Migrant Kids Missing in EU January 31, 2016
• Latest Data: 723 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean of 953 deaths worldwide (2016)

NOTHING SHORT OF GENOCIDE: 10,000 Migrant Kids Missing in EU

Fate of the migrant kids who don’t drown at sea…

At least 10,000 migrant children may have disappeared in Europe over  the past 24 months, said the EU’s police intelligence unit (Europol).

“We estimate that at least 26,000 unaccompanied children entered Europe last year – children who have risked everything to flee war, persecution and extreme poverty alone. They come from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Somalia and Iraq, among other places, seeking sanctuary,” said Save the Children’s CEO, earlier this month.

On Friday, IOM said an estimated that 55,528 migrants and refugees had crossed the Mediterranean to enter Europe during the first 28 days of 2016 – a rate of nearly 2,000 per day. The daily average is nearly equivalent to the total numbers for the month of January as recently as two years ago.

During the same period IOM has recorded some 244 deaths at sea [global total of 361 fatalities,] as well as at least a dozen more deaths of migrants and refugees who died either after reaching Europe or traveling to a launch point in Turkey. By comparison, total deaths on Mediterranean Sea routes were 12 in 2014 and 82 last year.

Just hours after IOM released its latest statement, 39 more migrants and refugees including 10 children drowned on Saturday trying to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.

In May 2015, Italian authorities warned that about 5,000 children had disappeared from asylum reception centers since the previous summer.

In Sweden, about 1,000 unaccompanied refugee children and teens had gone missing by October last year, within a month of arriving in the southern town of Trelleborg, officials have admitted.

In 2015, a total of 1,047,844 refugees and migrants arrived in Europe [Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta, as well as Cyprus] including 1,011,712 by sea, with at least 5,394 fatalities recorded globally, said IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.

Asylum Seekers from 149 Countries Arrive in EU

800,000+ first time asylum seekers registered in EU (Jan – Sep 2015)

Citizens of 149 countries sought asylum for the first time in the EU in the third quarter of 2015. The largest number of asylum seekers came from Syria (138,000), Afghanistan (56,700) and Iraq (44,400), eurostat reported.

The number of asylum-seekers in the EU-28 during the third quarter of 2015 reached 430,600 (i.e. including repeat applicants), reported eurostat. This was 250,400 more than Q3 of 2014. Some 413,800 of the asylum applicants (96 %) were first time applicants.

The number of Syrians and Iraqis seeking international protection more than
tripled in Q3 of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, reaching about 138,000 and 44,500 respectively; while the number of Afghans applicants doubled to more than 56,500, said the report.

“Asylum applicants from Iraq (11 times more) recorded the most substantial relative increase in the EU in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter of 2014 followed by Albanians (nearly 8 times more), Afghanis (almost 6 times more), Pakistanis (4 times more) and Syrians (3 times more).”

The highest number of first time asylum applicants in Q3 of 2015 registered in Germany and Hungary (both with just over 108,000 applicants, or 26% each of total applicants in the EU Member States), followed by Sweden (42,500, or 10%), Italy (28,400, or 7%) and Austria (27,600, or 7%). These 5 Member States together account for more than 75% of all first time applicants in the EU-28.

About 33% of first-time asylum seekers originated from Syria.

• More than 410 000 first time asylum seekers registered in the third quarter of 2015.
• Over 210 000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the second quarter of 2015.
• At least 185 000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the first quarter of 2015.

At the end of September 2015, more than 808,000 applications for asylum protection in the EU Member States were still under consideration by the responsible national authority.

[Note: First time applicant for international protection is a person who lodges an application for asylum for the first time in an EU-28 Member State.]

Eurostat News releases

• More than 410,000 first time asylum seekers registered in the third quarter of 2015
• Over 210,000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the second quarter of 2015
• 185,000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the first quarter of 2015

Mediterranean Sea: A ‘Convenient’ Killing Machine

Up to 900 migrants drown, only 28 rescued

Hundreds of migrants are believed to have drowned after their boat sank about 100km off the coast of Libya.

The 20-meter-long boat was carrying up to 950 migrants, and only 28 survivors have been rescued, according to the latest reports.

The sinking is probably the largest loss of life of migrants attempting to cross to Europe, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), adding that the North Africa-Italy route was the world’s deadliest.

The EU voted last year to heavily downsize search and rescue attempts. The decision was reached after EU members said they couldn’t afford to house the refugees, and feared that it would encourage even more migrants to cross the sea.

Some 13,500 people arrived in the Italian waters over the past week (April 10 – 17), said UNHCR. “Their arrival exacerbates a growing crisis which has seen some 31,500 people cross Mediterranean waters to Italy and Greece so far this year, as war and violence intensify in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.”

As many as 1,700 migrants are now feared to have drowned so far this year.

An estimated 218,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2014, while 3,500 others drowned, said UNHCR.

“Sea of Police” in Ukraine, Looting in Argentina, Hunger Strike…

Thousands of police move on large protest camps in central Kiev, Ukraine

Thousands of riot police and Interior Ministry personnel have moved on  large protest camps in Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in the center of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev amid snow and sub-zero temperatures.

Clashes broke out after police began tearing down barricades close to the main protest site in the square, but soon turned into a tense standoff.

According to unconfirmed reports police began storming the Kiev city hall, which was occupied by protesters a week ago.

Mass street rallies began about three weeks ago shortly after the government’s decision to withdraw from a free-trade deal with the EU last.

Police surround a section of the protest stage in central Kiev, Ukraine. Image credit: Paulina Leonovich

Looters hit Argentina’s Stores amid ongoing police strike

Looting has spread across 19 out of 23 provinces in Argentina, as police continue their strike due to low pay.

The looting first broke out in Cordoba province earlier this month, leaving several people dead and more than 100 others injured before the local police struck a deal to double their monthly salaries to about $1,900.

Police are demanding above-inflation pay rises and refuse to answer call-outs. Inflation in Argentina is running at 25 – 30 percent a year.

Supermarkets, retail businesses, banks and public transport have all shut down in dozens of Argentina’s cities, just as a summer heatwave engulfs the country.

About a dozen people have been killed and hundreds more injured since the looting began.

One of hundreds of  stores ransacked by looters in the northern Argentine province of Tucuman December 10, 2013. Credit: Paloma Cortes/Reuters Aysua)

Taxi drivers on hunger strike in New Zealand

Auckland taxi drivers are on hunger strike outside the airport’s headquarters protesting conditions at Auckland Airport, according to local reports.

About 100 drivers from the Auckland Taxi Association (ATA), representing drivers from five small taxi companies and dozens of supporters have been holding the hunger strike since Monday because they say changes in rules favors larger companies.

ATA, which represents 180 drivers from smaller companies, wants the minimum fare in line with what the larger companies charge.

Spokesperson for ATA told reporters that with waiting times included, drivers are earning little more than $1 per hour.

Image Credit: One News

Indian Nurses Hunger Strike 2012

Indian nurses working in New Zealand went on a hunger strike vigil at the Ghandi statue near Wellington’s railway station on July 24, 2012.

“The hunger strike began two months after several hundred Indian nurses marched on parliament over the frustrations they have had in attempting to gain registration in New Zealand, including nursing students and graduates of two bridging nursing degree programs,” said a report.

Monsanto Chemical Found in Euro Urine

“Quantifiable levels” of Monsanto herbicide found in urine samples from 18 Euro countries

In a recent study by Medical Laboratory Bremen in Germany humane urine samples from 18 European countries showed residues of Glyphosate and the metabolite AMPA.

“On average 44 % and 36 % of the urine samples analyzed were found to contain quantifiable levels of Glyphosate and AMPA, respectively,” said the report.

• The frequency of detection ranged from 10% to 90%.  The highest Glyphosate concentration was 1,8 μg/L  in Latvia, followed by Malta, UK and Germany, while the highest AMPA concentration was 2,6 μg/L  found in Croatia.

• A total of 6.6% of  samples showed residues that “significantly exceeded the tentative reference value of 0,8 μg/L forGlyphosate,” the report said.

The report concludes; “The results give a first idea to which extent adults in 18 European countries are exposed to Glyphosate. The regional and individual variations are large. Diet seems to be the main sources of exposure. However, more scientific work is needed to distinguish between different exposure situations.”

Glyphosate was discovered to be a herbicide by a Monsanto chemist and was marketed in the 1970s under the trade name Roundup.

Aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), an organic acid, is one of the primary degradation products of the herbicide glyphosate.

Both Glyphosate and AMPA are said to have low toxicity, with glyphosate being an EPA Toxicity Class III chemical (on a scale of I to IV, Class I is most toxic) for oral and inhalation exposure.

In 2007, Glyphosate was the most used herbicide in the United States, with about 100,000 tons applied  by the agricultural sector, government and home and garden users.

-oOo-

Other Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Black Forest Fire: Initial Home Assessment

Updated: June 15, 2013 at approximately 12:00 a.m. (DST) – El Paso County Sheriff’s office

The extent of damage caused by the Black Forest Fire to homes in the region is as follows:

• Total Loss: 473
• Partial Damage: 17

Note: This is a preliminary home assessment. Due to continuous and dynamic fire activity the information could change.

The blaze was reportedly 30 percent contained, as of posting.

Related Links

• Initial Home Assessment
• Black Forest Fire Map – Thursday, June 13, 2013 – 5:00 p.m.

-oOo-

Another Toxic Weekend in Beijing

Beijing Air Pollution: Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI). Source: AQICN

Eurozone: Unemployment Rate Hits New High

DISASTER CALENDAR SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,196 Days Left 

[December 2, 2012] Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,196 Days Left to the most Fateful Day in Human History
• Symbolic countdown to the ‘worst day’ in human history began on May 15, 2011 ...

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Global Disasters/ Significant Events

Jobless rate in the euro area rose to a new high of 11.7% in October

European Central Bank has warned the single currency zone would not emerge from its crisis until the second half of 2013 [wishful thinking?]

Unemployment rate in recessionary euro area climbed to 11.7% in October up from 10.4% last year.

[Eurozone, officially the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of 17 European Union (EU) member states using euro (€) as common currency.]

• October 2012 rise was the 14th consecutive monthly record since September 2011 when unemployment reached 10.3 percent.

• An additional 173,000 were out of work across the euro area, bringing the total to 18.7 million.

• Some 25.92 million people across the 27-state European Union single market were out of work in October, Eurostat said.

• The youth unemployment rate climbed to 23.9% in the euro area and to 23.4% in the EU single market compared with 21.2 % and 21.9 percent a year ago, leaving about one in four young Europeans out of work in October.

• Spain’s jobless rate rose to 26.2% from 25.8% the previous month (55.9 percent of under 25s were out of work), and Italy’s climbed to 11.1% from 10.8%.
• Greece’s unemployment rate jumped to 25.4% from 18.4% a year ago (at least 57 percent of under 25s were out of work), and Portugal’s 16.3% from 13.7%.
• France’s jobless rate was 10.7% and Ireland’s 14.7% in October.

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs

• 2010 Disasters [Links to 2010 Disaster Calendar]
• Mega Disasters
• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2012 Disaster Calendar

GLOBAL WARNING

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

How Dirty Is Your Money?

How Much CO2 Does Your Money Produce?

Did you know?

Each dollar you earn (or spend) produces 450g of CO2 pollution!

Original Entry >> Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar

Are You Allowed to Live Free of Toxic Pollution?

The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution Must Be Made A Fundamental Human Right!

Of nearly 90,000 chemical compounds in use, the majority of which have never been tested for health effects, only a fraction are registered and of those only a handful have been banned by EPA in the last thirty years. Meanwhile, about 2,000 new chemicals are introduced each year.

See Main Entry: The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution

Related Links:

• Top EU court backs citizen rights in air pollution
• Initial Condition No. 6. Understand your human rights!

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EU Energy Strategy Beats US Energy Tragedy

As the 27-nation EU bloc declare their support for eco-friendly products and technology, and propose to cut energy consumption, the US opts for offshore drilling.

France’s Ecology Minister told EU energy ministers in Paris last week that energy efficiency has become the “keystone” in EU energy strategy.

The EU Commission’s “action plan on sustainable industrial policy and on sustainable consumption and production” is part of that startegy.

“There will be proposals on green public procurement, as well as widening the scope of the existing directive on eco-design to help improve the energy efficiency of buildings, and the scope of rules on eco-labeling will be widened,” a Commission spokesperson said.

The EU bloc is 63 percent more populated than the US, but uses less than a half of the per capita energy and produces 46 percent less CO2. [Sources: EIA, US Census Bureau, BP]

So, which one of the two “super states” has a smarter energy strategy, EU or the US?

Hint: You don’t need a Ouija board to work that out!

Related News Links:

• EU executive to tackle eco impact of consumerism

Related Links:

• Antienvironmental, Antisocial, Anti American!

• Arnie Knows the Score!
• CO2 Emissions Must Be Criminalized!

• The White House of Horror!!
• EPA Plays Piggy In the Middle
• The right to disturb wildlife!!

• Bering Sea Drilling Revisited!
• GHG

• World Oceans in Extreme Danger

What’s a Hydrokong?

A Shrinking World Series

Is it a mega-tropical storm system, or an extra-tropical cyclone (ETC), i.e., a non-tropical, large-scale low pressure storm system like a Nor’easter?

“Hydrokong” is a colossal atmospheric phenomenon. It’s an extreme precipitation event which is enhanced by circulation changes that increase and concentrate the distribution of water vapor.

Hydrokong! The Storm System as it appeared over the central United States June 12, 2008 04:15 UTC. The still image is an aviation color enhancement of a satellite image.

Globally, as total precipitation increases, the duration or frequency of precipitation events decreases. However, warmer temperatures and regional variation can significantly affect those offsetting behaviors. For example, reduced total precipitation in one region, the Western United States, can significantly increase the intensity of precipitation in another region, the Midwest. Hydrokongs essentially create two extreme events, droughts in one region and flooding caused by mega-intense precipitation in another. As the global temperatures rise, more hydrokongs should be expected.

Another Hydrokong in the making? A new System as it appeared over the central United States June 27, 2008 04:15 UTC. The still image is an aviation color enhancement of a satellite image.

An aviation color enhancement of a floater [updated periodically] satellite image GEOS Eastern U.S. Imagery, NOAA SSD. For full size image right-click on the image and select “View Image.”

In the words of Brian Pierce, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, describing the aftermath of flooding last week: “We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring.”

Are Extreme Precipitation Events Earth’s Natural Defense Mechanisms?

Related Links:

• Nature’s Defense Mechanisms
• www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/index.php [Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service!]
  

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Image of the Day: Southern Spain

Desertification of Southern Spain

The land of southern Spain has dried, leading to rationing and disputes over water. Photo: Monica Gumm for The International Herald Tribune. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

The average surface temperature in Spain has risen 2.7 degrees compared with about 1.4 degrees globally since 1880, records show. (Source)

Related Links

• Drought (Index Page)
• In Spain, Water Is a New Battleground
• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?

Wind Energy in Norway, Nuclear in F*nland

Are the Norwegians More Intelligent Than the Finns?

Top 10 Reasons why the Norwegians May Be More Intelligent that the Finns [then again …]:

10. Finland with an estimated population of 5.32million, most of whom are intoxicated most of the time [no offense intended, just citing a matter of fact relayed to us by a Finnish colleague,] wants more nuclear energy despite the fact … well read it for yourself: More nuclear power and How Do You Say ‘Duck-n-Cover’ in Finnish?

As for our Norwegian [distant] cousins, the North Sea gas pipeline operator Gassco has just awarded [Aug 20, 2008] Sweden’s Marine Matteknikk AB “a contract to survey 636 km of seabed for potential pipelines to carry carbon dioxide to offshore burial sites.” (Source)

Let’s hope there’ll never be an earthquake on the Norwegian Continental shelf.

Continued …

Food Fetishism + Cheap Oil = Mounting Pollution

Excerpts from

The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1)

Cheap oil has distorted the notion of creating ‘economic gains’ to such great extents that governments subsidize the industry to export and import the same product, often in similar quantities, within the same fiscal period. Country A exports Q tons of product P to country B, while it imports Q tons of the same product P from country B at the same time, with a net zero gain in commodity exchange for either country. However, the exchange produces about 9Q tons of CO2e pollution, nine times the weight of the commodity that was flown in either direction, for every 1,000 miles that the consignment is airborne.

Our weekly shopping basket includes items that would have flown more air miles than the average family fly in their lifetime! A 1kg (2.2lb) bag of New Zealand kiwifruit (in any of its cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury… or organochlorine varieties) produces about 142kg (313lb) of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent gases) pollution flying to the US, or 188.7kg (416lb) of CO2e to Europe.

Related Links:

• The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens

1. Killed by Homo Economicus
2. Domination by Disinformation
   
3. Is a Future Possible?
   
4. Exponential Growth Economy and Oil
   
5. Where Is All the Money?
6. Exporting Democracy to the Middle East

• The Food Chain:Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World

Rising Food Prices and the US-China Trade Imbalance

Rising Food, Fuel and Fertilizer Prices

How expensive must food, oil and fertilizers get before they could turn the tide of China-US trade imbalance AND force the EU economy into major retreat?

Would the breadbasket of the world use the rising prices of grains (cereal crops) as an economic weapon against China and EU?

Related Links:

• Fueling Food Shortages
• Sam’s Club, Costco Ration Rice Amid Hoarding Worries
• Japan: The land of rising . . . err . . . Prices!

• Brazil Lula defends biofuels from growing criticism
• Corn eyes new peaks, may add to food woes
• Bolivia Morales: biofuels serious problem to poor

• Only One Guess Allowed!
• Famous Last words …
• EU needs more pesticides, scientists claim

EU needs more pesticides, scientists claim

Scientists: Reduction in pesticides makes EU uncompetitive!

(Reuters) Scientists from seven European Union countries have warned against a planned reduction in the number of pesticides allowed in the EU, claiming this could increase resistance of pests and make crop cultivation uncompetitive.

“The scientists […] fear that reducing the available range of pesticides could lower their efficiency as it is likely that it will increase resistance.” they said.

The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. (photo credit: Clinton & Charles Robertson, via wikipedia)

“In order to safeguard the production of food at affordable prices, it is essential to provide farmers with access to sufficient diversity of crop protection solutions.” the scientists’ spokesman from the UK’s Rothamsted Research institute added: “This is essential to prevent or delay the development of resistant pests, and to maintain the efficacy of remaining crop protection products,” he added.

Is their concern legitimate, or are they sacrificing the truth for the sake of their careers? The Chemical giants are doing booming business with their “+cide” products. Are the scientists party to their business “success?” FEWW would welcome any information provided by genuine whistleblowers. [Strict confidentiality of the sources of information is assured.]

A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used for preventing, controlling, or lessening the damage caused by a pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent (such as a virus or bacteria), antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest.

Codling moth: It is native to Europe and was introduced to North America, where it has become one of the regular pests of apple orchards. It is found almost worldwide. It also attacks pears, walnuts, and other tree fruits.

Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms) and microbes that compete with humans for food, destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or cause a nuisance. Although there are benefits to the use of pesticides, there are also drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other animals.Pesticides are hazardous to some wildlife in the sea because it gets evaporated and goes into the clouds.Then it rains, surface run-off into the sea and poisons them. (Source Wikipedia)

Types of pesticides

There are multiple ways of classifying pesticides:

• Algicides or Algaecides for the control of algae
• Avicides for the control of birds
• Bactericides for the control of bacteria
• Fungicides for the control of fungi and oomycetes
• Herbicides for the control of weeds
• Insecticides for the control of insects – these can be Ovicides (substances that kill eggs), Larvicides (substances that kill larvae) or Adulticides (substances that kill adult insects)
• Miticides or Acaricides for the control of mites
• Molluscicides for the control of slugs and snails
• Nematicides for the control of nematodes
• Rodenticides for the control of rodents
• Virucides for the control of viruses (e.g. H5N1)

A weevil of the Curculionidae family: Lixus angustatus (Image credit: Alvesgaspar, via wikipedia)

Weevils are often found in dry foods including nuts and seeds, cereal and grain products. In the domestic setting, they are most likely to be observed when opening a bag of flour although they will happily infest most types of grain including oats, barley and breakfast cereals. Their presence is often indicated by the granules of the infested item sticking together in strings, as if caught in a cobweb. If ingested, E. coli infection and other various diseases can be contracted from weevils, depending on their diet.

Pesticides can also be classed as synthetic pesticides or biological pesticides (biopesticides), although the distinction can sometimes blur.

Broad-spectrum pesticides are those that kill an array of species, while narrow-spectrum, or selective pesticides only kill a small group of species.

A systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward (through the xylem) and outward. Increased efficiency may be a result. Systemic insecticides which poison pollen and nectar in the flowers may kill needed pollinators such as bees.

Most pesticides work by poisoning pests. (Source Wikipedia)