Nov 13, 2008

Bee deaths and pesticides

Press Release by Soil Association 10/6/2008


Soil Association calls for urgent ban on dangerous pesticides linked to honey bee deaths

A group of insect-killing sprays known as neonicotinoids [1] that are widely used in UK farming have now been banned in four other European countries because they are thought to be killing bees [2]. Italy has just joined Germany, Slovenia and France in banning the sprays [3]. This week the Italian government issued an immediate suspension of these sprays after they accepted that they are killing bees. The Soil Association has today written to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment, urging him to ban the sprays in the UK with immediate effect [4].

There is worldwide concern at widespread, unexplained and devastating deaths of honey bees over the last two years. Bee keepers have reported potentially catastrophic loss of bees from their hives ranging anywhere from 30-90 percent. Britain's beekeepers have reported that close to one in three hives have failed to make it through last winter and spring[5]. This "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD) is not just a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but for consumers as well, since bee pollination is essential for crop production. The US Department of Agriculture says that one out of every three mouthfuls of food is dependant on bee pollination, and globally up to two-thirds of all major crops rely on pollination, mainly by bees.

The products implicated in bee deaths, clothianidin, imidacloprid, fipronil and thiamethoxam, are approved to kill insects on a wide range of crops in the UK including very widely grown oilseed rape, barley, and sugar beet. They are also cleared for use in ornamental plant and hop production [6]. The use of these chemicals on oilseed rape is of particular concern, as the crop's yellow flowers are very attractive to honey bees, and the crop has become popular with bee keepers.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said, "It is typical of the lax approach to pesticide regulation in the UK that we look like being one of the last of the major farming countries in the EU to wake up to the threat to our honey bees and ban these nasty sprays. We want the Government to act today to remove this threat to Britain's honey bees. The UK Government is almost alone in the EU in fighting against proposed new, tighter European controls on farm sprays, and in the light of what has happened to honey bees, we are calling on Hilary Benn to back European proposals for tighter controls on farm sprays."

Since their introduction by Bayer CropScience in the USA in 2003, these neonicotinoid sprays have been linked to the devastating loss of millions of honey bees in a number of countries. Germany banned the pesticides after beekeepers in the Baden-Wurttenberg region reported that two thirds of their bees died in May following the application of clothianidin. In 1995 bee keepers in North Dakota took Bayer to court when a third of their bees were killed by imacloprid. In France, a third of the honey bee population was killed after widespread use of imidacloprid [7].

Organic farming relies on a number of techniques to avoid the use of sprays that kill insects, including not growing the same or similar crops every year, and encouraging natural predators of insect pests (like wild birds, ladybirds and lacewings). Under Soil Association organic rules, only four sprays can be used, compared to over 300 available to non-organic farmers.

CLON PUBLIC MEETING ON TRIP TO AUSTRIAN ENERGY TOWN

  CLONAKILTY PUBLIC MEETING TO REPORT ON TRIP TO AUSTRIAN SUSTAINABLE TOWN

  A joint delegation consisting of representatives of Clonakilty Town Council and Sustainable Clonakilty went on a brief trip to the Austrian town of Güssing last week to learn how that community became self sustaining in renewable energy over a period of 15 years and eradicated it's dependence on outside energy requirements. Located in the southeast of the country, the town is around a two hour drive from Vienna.

  On this  Thursday evening (13th), they will report on the findings at a public information meeting at the Quality Hotel at 8.00pm in what should be a fascinating illustrated presentation. The meeting is open to all, and there will be a chance to ask questions, and raise issues.

  Included on the trip to Gussing was a visit to the European Centre for Renewable Energy (ECRE) to meet with the Managing Director who outlined how and why the town (which has around 4,000 people) went down this road.

  Afterwards it was onto the Biomass Plant and District Heating Plant Güssing. Here the Clonakilty delegation saw at first hand how locally grown wood is processed as woodchip in a plant to create heat which is then piped to houses and offices, just like water is done here in Ireland.

  In fact, at the biomass plant the main product is gas which is converted to electricity and biofuel, with heat production just being a by product of the process.

  It was then onto a nearby village called Strem, where the local Biogas Plant was visited. Raw materials of maize and grass silage are used to produce gas, and the organic waste is returned to the land as fertilisers and the heat by product to local homes.

  After lunch the group met with engineer Reinhard Koch, Managing Director ECRE who conceived and delivered The Güssing Model in conjunction with Town Mayor Peter Vadasz in 1992.

  Thursdys meeting tonight will ask how the Clonakilty area could possibly also become an energy self sufficient town/district, and already there are plans afoot to start this process. These will be outlined at tonight's meeting, and to be successful, will require a wide interest from the general public.

  The Sustainable Clonakilty Group has an Energy Working Group sub-committee in place since February concentrating on this project, and they have the year 2020 fixed firmly in their sights for the dream to become a reality. As well as doing it for environmental reasons, there are sustainable jobs to be created from this project as well as huge financial savings for households and busineeses in their annual energy bils.

  In Gussing, there are approximately 1,100 directly employed because of its transition to energy self sufficiency.

  Those who participated on the trip were: Mayor Cllr. Michael O' Regan, Justin England (Town Clerk), Alison Wickham, (Secretary, Sustainable Clonakilty and Energy Working Group ) and fellow members Robert Lambert, Peter Madden, Cllr. Robert Walsh and Cllr. Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin (PRO).

  Also on the trip were Trevor Buttimer, Managing Director of Clonakilty based Renewable Energy Management Systems Ltd. and Bob Hilliard, Hillback Developments. 

  See www.sustainableclon.com for further details.


Nov 12, 2008

Europe In Your Lunchtime (How The European Union Works!)


The European Commission Representation in Ireland and the European Movement Ireland warmly invite you to a public meeting to explain how the European Union works.
 

If you'd like to know more about how Europe gets things done, but you're also pressed for time, then have lunch with us on Wednesday, November 19th.
 

Europe In Your Lunchtime

(How The European Union Works!)

 

Location:                   Jurys Hotel, Western Road, Cork

Time:                            12.30pm

Date:                            Wednesday, November 19th

Chairperson:            Pat Leahy, Sunday Business Post

 

Taking part:

Andrea Pappin, Executive Director, European Movement

Dr Mary C. Murphy, Department of Government, UCC

Dr Declan Walsh, Faculty of Law, UCC

 

 

Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be provided from 12.30pm, and the meeting will begin at 1pm. All are welcome to attend this open, public meeting. Please feel free to circulate this invitation to any person you feel may be interested in coming along.

 

Please RSVP (just so we know how many sandwiches to make!): barbara@q4pr.ie or on 01 4751444

 

Nov 3, 2008

Why are Robins so special?

Irish Wildlife Trust

CORK BRANCH


"Why are Robins so special?"


Talk on Thursday 6th November

by Gavin Fennessey

Time 7pm. Venue. SMA Hall, Wilton (next to church by shopping centre).

This will be a lively talk on Robins. Well worth listening to. Talk
followed by AGM(not compulsory). No charge but any donation
appreciated on the night.

For further details contact Gill on 087 2282040.