Excerpt from this Common Dreams/EcoWatch story:
The rapid and dangerous decline of the insect population in the United States — often called an “insect apocalypse” by scientists — has largely been driven by an increase in the toxicity of U.S. agriculture caused by the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS One.
The study found that American agriculture has become 48 times more toxic to insects over the past 25 years and pinned 92 percent of the toxicity increase on neonicotinoids, which were banned by the European Union last year due to the threat they pose to bees and other pollinators.
Kendra Klein, Ph.D., study co-author and senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth, said the U.S. must follow Europe’s lead and ban the toxic pesticides before it is too late.
“It is alarming that U.S. agriculture has become so much more toxic to insect life in the past two decades,” Klein said in a statement. “We need to phase out neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees and other insects that are critical to biodiversity and the farms that feed us.”
“Congress must pass the Saving America’s Pollinators Act to ban neonicotinoids,” Klein added. “In addition, we need to rapidly shift our food system away from dependence on harmful pesticides and toward organic farming methods that work with nature rather than against it.”
Seated Statue of Senusret I
This statue is one of ten, made out of white limestone, depicting King Senusret I seated on his throne wearing the Nemes headdress decorated with the frontal cobra uraeus.
The statues differ slightly from one another and bear the harmonious features of a young man with a serene expression. The most remarkable thing about these statues is the decoration on the sides of the thrones showing the theme of the unification of the Two Lands, which was associated with the Nile god, Hapi. On five of the statues, Hapi was replaced by Horus and Seth.
Furthermore, we have here one of the rare cases in which the image of Seth, god of confusion, power and desert, was not destroyed through the superstition of later generations.
Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty, reign of Senusret I, ca. 1971-1926 BC. Limestone, from
Lisht. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 31139
