7gen Bloc

I admit that I have always harbored the greatest affection for nature's less photogenic creatures. I've always thought that creepy crawlies were cooler, weirder, wilder. I see toads and salamanders, walking sticks and beetles, and all of their kin as magnificent works of natural art, the beautiful endgame of an ancient evolutionary chain that is as miraculous as it is mysterious.

Yet as fine-tuned as these creatures are, they are also among nature's more fragile denizens. Amphibians inhabit both land and water, and so face perils that are uniquely multi-faceted. Insects are small and delicate, vulnerable to forces most other animals can ignore. No wonder then to find both struggling for survival in these ecologically troubled times.

Amphibians have been making headlines as they disappear from habitats all over the world. No one is certain what's causing them to vanish. But some new evidence seems to confirm a culprit many have guessed at: pesticides in the environment. Scientists have found that when the world's 10 most popular pesticides are combined, they kill 99% of tadpoles exposed to the mixture.

The exact mechanism at work isn't clear. But we do know that when chemicals come together out in the world, unexpected things often happen. One of these is called potentiation. It occurs when one chemical magnifies the toxicity of another. A second phenomenon is synthesis, which is the formation of a new and sometimes unknown chemical that's created when two or more pollutants combine together.

Whether potentiation or synthesis, it's becoming obvious that human use of pesticides is destroying the world's amphibian populations. And that's no surprise. These substances are made to kill. And most of them persist in the environment for a long time, which allows them to wander literally thousands of miles from the place where they were originally used.

Insects are also disappearing in large numbers globally. And while the above study doesn't apply, I hardly think I'm going out on a limb to suggest that pesticides are probably responsible for a large share of that tragedy as well.

These are complex issues. I could spend my next 20 posts exploring their emotional and scientific contexts and still not say all that needs to be said. But let's say this for now: We've all got to stop using chemical pesticides. They have no place in a healthy home or a safe environment. Because when we spray a bit here and there, we're harming a lot more than the bugs we were aiming at.

Bugs and weeds may not be pretty or desirable, but the things we use to remove them are a whole lot uglier. Pesticides may achieve a temporary measure of bug-lessness or weed-free living, but in the long run all it's really doing is creating a serious pollution problem that's fracturing the health of our children and our world. That's not a trade-off I'm willing to make. And it's one a genuinely wise and compassionate world should reject as well.

photo: Tom Woodward