Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Why Are Humans Making Toxins That Kill Us and All Other Living Things?


Hi Roger!

I am glad to hear that you understand how toxic insecticides are and don't want to use them. I never use insecticides in my work. I find that they are unnecessary and there are better alternatives. Some people think that a little poison is not so bad. They think that sometimes it is necessary to use toxic chemicals to kill the rascals! I have concluded that this short sighted thinking is what will bring humanity to its demise. People need to realize that a little poison here and a little there adds up to a lot when looked at the whole US and when looked at over the decades. I just read an article in the Sierra Club’s magazine, Sierra, Jul/Aug 2008, “Songbird Swan Song: Do your food miles trample bobolinks and warblers?”. The article blames pesticides used all too frequently in Latin America countries on food crops that us Americans buy, as the chief reason songbirds have declined. Many of the songbirds that we see during the summers in the US overwinter in Latin America and the pesticides kill outright many of these birds decreasing their populations and threatening their existence.

Another reason to not use toxic chemicals that concerns us humans more directly can be summed up in one word: cancer. We know what causes cancer, mostly toxins in the environment that we come into contact with, and toxins in the foods we eat, and yet we are still looking for a cure. The cure is to stop making these poisons in the first place, and this will only happen when enlightened people like ourselves stop buying and using toxic stuff.

Europe has recently enacted a sweeping new chemical law that requires chemical manufacturers to prove a substance is nontoxic before it can be sold. This law is the opposite of regulations in the backward thinking US policy that requires a chemical to proven as hazardous before it can be removed from commerce. Hopefully, the lure of selling to Europe’s large market will compel American chemical companies to produce nontoxic chemicals in the future. This certainly highlights how big business rules the US’s policy and not the elected (supposed) leaders in Congress.

Regarding the Japanese beetles, a few of them is nothing to get alarmed about. Just pick them off and smash them in your hands or stomp under your feet. Using an insecticide is never necessary for these beetles. Insecticides don’t discriminate; they kill everything they come into contact with, including humans, perhaps not right away but over time as with cancer. If you have a fish pond you can feed them to your fish. Just throw the Japanese beetles into the water, the fish will see and eat them. If at some point you do have many Japanese beetles, the traps work the best. I definitely would not use the soil stuff, b/c it sounds like it works against all grubs, and there are native grubs that have a right to live and benefit the environment.

To a healthier, natural world!

Roland Oehme

No comments:

Post a Comment