Protect Our Pollinators
Action Alert from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
March 2016

ACTION

Worth billions of dollars economically and so much more in inherent value, pollinators like birds, bats, bees, butterflies and beetles are responsible for much of our food and many of our beautiful spring flowers. But tragically they're also being poisoned by our overuse of toxic pesticides.

The Environmental Protection Agency has just released a report finally acknowledging that neonicotinoids may be harming bees. But the report is deeply flawed, looking only at impacts of neonics on honeybees and entirely ignoring their impacts on more than 4,000 species of native bees, not to mention birds, bats, butterflies and beetles.

The EPA needs to fix its report to address these impacts. Even more importantly, it must act to protect our pollinators from dangerous pesticides.

Take action below -- urge the EPA to address the deficiencies in its original risk assessment and give our pollinators the close look they need to survive.

Sign an online petition here.

And/Or better yet, make direct contact:

Administrator Gina McCarthy
phone (202) 564-4700

EPA Regulations comments page

INFORMATION

Did you know that honeybees are responsible for pollinating 1 out of 3 bites of food that we eat? Or that spring wildflowers arrive thanks not just to bees but also bats, beetles, butterflies and hummingbirds? Let's face it: We owe a lot to our pollinator friends -- and now they need our help.

The widespread use of a dangerous class of pesticides called neonicotinoids -- applied to crops and sold on pretreated plants at garden retailers -- is threatening pollinators nationwide. That's because once the chemical is applied to a seed or plant, all parts of it become toxic, including leaves and pollen.

And the agency in charge of defending our wildlife isn't doing its job. In a new risk assessment looking at the impact of imidacloprid (a common neonicotinoid) on honeybees, the Environmental Protection Agency ignored the best available science in favor of biased studies funded by the chemical industry. The agency also ignored how these chemicals might harm thousands of other native pollinators, from bats and bumblebees to hummingbirds.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

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