We’ve covered the world in pesticides. Is that a problem?

[Recursion]

Interesting article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/18/the-world-uses-billions-of-pounds-of-pesticides-each-year-is-that-a-problem/

That’s led many researchers to wonder what sorts of broader impacts all these chemicals are having. They’ve helped feed billions of people, but they may also be causing health problems elsewhere. To sort through all the claims, the latest issue of Science has a fascinating special section devoted to the world’s pesticide use. Here are a few good charts and highlights:

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2) There’s a surprisingly large variation in how farmers in different countries use pesticides:



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3) Chemical pesticides have been quite effective in boosting agricultural yields.



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There are other, lesser-known impacts as well. Australia’s wheat farmers are now dealing with one of the worst weed infestations in the world — an issue caused in part by overuse of herbicides, which led to resistant weeds. And some 300,000 people kill themselves each year by ingesting pesticides, largely in Asia. That’s a whopping one-third of the world’s suicides.

Those are just the effects scientists know about. A notable paper from Heinz-R. Köhler and Rita Triebskorn points out that researchers still don’t understand the full impact of many chemicals on broader ecosystems. “Although we often know a pesticide′s mode of action in the target species,” they write, “we still largely do not understand the full impact of unintended side effects on wildlife.”

[BumRushDaShow]

1. There is also a climatic issue

where in countries that are sub-tropical/tropical, there will always be a larger incidence of "pests" (e.g., insects) than in the temperate climates, where pests generally die over winter (although many have adapted short lifecycles to emerge, grow, breed, and die before winter hits).

[last1standing]

2. Only if we want to survive.

How could the supposedly most intelligent species on Earth think spreading poison on the ground wouldn't have a negative impact?

Maybe Douglas Adams was right. Thanks for all the fish.