Neonicotinoids - resulting in the most significant negative externality of production ever?

That is a big call, with candidates such as the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, and Chernobyl. However, the difference with these examples is the negative externalities resulted from a single catastrophic event. The negative externalities of neonicotnoids occur because of the widespread use of insecticide and only now have studies proven its devastating effects.

A quote attributed to Albert Einstein states that “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

A new study, published in Science, shows that an insecticide known as a neonicotinoid could be the most significant factor in “colony collapse disorder” - the term used to describe the mystery of rapidly declining numbers of honeybees. Neonicotinoids are a different type of insecticide - the seeds are coated with the insecticide so that as it grows the seedlings absorb the chemical. So, rather than needing to indiscriminately spray a whole field, there is a little bit of insecticide inside each plant. The studies show that insecticide may not be killing the bees outright, the effect is to make them lose their way - they are unable to find their way back to their hives.

Even if the nightmare scenario of Einstein’s quote does not eventuate, the effect of bee pollination on the agriculture industry is still massive with US$18 billion of crops in the USA dependent on bee pollination each year. As the evidence stacks up against neonicotinoids it would seem that the best response for the government would be to ban their use. In fact, France, Germany and Italy have suspended their use since 2009 and have reported a halt to the decline in the bee population.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the pharmaceutical giant Bayer who manufacture the insecticides dispute the methodology of the studies but may have a hard time in maintaining that neonicotinoids are safe to bees. A link to an article on the studies (including Bayer’s response) can be found here. More information on reversing colony collapse in Italy can be found here.

So is it the most significant negative externality of production ever? Worth a discussion! And let us hope that in the future the T-shirt below will remind us of what could have happened rather than what did…