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NATURE WARS

NATURE WARS. ISS 310 Spring 2000 Prof. Alan Rudy 4/18/00 Questions? Main Points?. Preface. “ We are an ambiguous species, living simultaneously in and outside of nature.” (vii)

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NATURE WARS

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  1. NATURE WARS ISS 310 Spring 2000 Prof. Alan Rudy 4/18/00 Questions? Main Points?

  2. Preface • “We are an ambiguous species, living simultaneously in and outside of nature.” (vii) • “We have allowed our sense of dominion over the rest of the earth to justify remodeling the globe to suit our needs.” (viii) • How would Cronon, or Hurley, respond to this last quote? • How about this next one? • “… our self-interest is gradually forcing us to develop a perspective of stewardship rather than dominion if we wish to survive.” (viii)

  3. Preface II • “I expected to find a rapidly diminishing use of pesticides… • I was surprised to discover that most biologically based methods remain at the fringes of pest management, in the realm of potential but unproven techniques.” (ix) • He says he wants to find out why such techniques remain underdeveloped. • Why do you think they would be underdeveloped?

  4. Ch.1: A Pestiferous World • How does he say we define pests? • Those which compete with us for food & shelter, try and eat us, and/or feed in or on us. • “Our human activities have exacerbated pest situations far beyond their natural significance.” • “how our attempts at dominion over nature have backfired…” (1) • What other examples do you know of?

  5. A Pestiferous World II • “survival-driven need to control pests” (2)? • Eradicate or Reduce population levels. • We make pests of previously innocuous species. • Pests become resistant. • Has led to an escalating chemical arms race. • WHAT IS THE MOST RECENT ESCALATION? • Core paradox • Our pest control strategies damage us as often as they control pests. • Do they damage us equally, do you think?

  6. A Pestiferous World III • Section Two: pests and human history • Agriculture and Urbanism • concentrate humans, human artifacts and wastes, and pests. • simplified ecologies with complex intertwined systems of mutual relations and control • some species dominate in ways they couldn’t before.

  7. A Pestiferous World IV • Section Three: the history of pesticides • 1700s = renewed intensive agriculture • fertilizer, monocropping, machinery, chemicals • combined with colonialism • most fertilizer (guano) was mined in colonies • many, many new pests (and pest vectored diseases) were introduced at home and abroad as a result • with agroecological simplification. • The military developed many pesticides to control barrack and personal hygiene -- DDT dusting.

  8. A Pestiferous World V • Section four: contemporary background • Rachel Carson: Silent Spring & DDT • In favor of Integrated Pest Management and science-, as opposed to profit-, based chemical applications in the name of pest management. • Carson was the first “hysterical woman” of the environmental movement -- DESPITE HER SCIENTIFIC CREDENTIALS AND RESEARCH. • All she wanted was complete, multiple-level science done BEFORE applications… this sounds like????

  9. A Pestiferous World VI • “Our ability to control the harmful side of science had [has] not kept pace with the potential of science and technology to improve human life and protect the environment.” (11)

  10. A Pestiferous World VII • Section five: contemporary state of the problem • 1.1 billion pounds in US/year • 4.5 billion world/year • “We” use 1/4 of all pesticides IN THE US. • 4 pounds/person/year -- $8.5 billion/year • Chemical pesticides INCREASE pests by • killing all natural predators • encouraging resistant strains to develop

  11. A Pestiferous World VII • Pimentel Data on pp.12-13 • >$700 million annual health costs • >$30 million animal product costs • $1.8 billion in groundwater monitoring/cleanup • 67 million birds; 6-14 million fish • Pesticides: powerful (un)natural selection agent • Resistant insects, plant pathogens, weeds, nematodes, rodents and parasites • Natural predators, parasites super-susceptible • Wipe out pests, predators, new pests explode

  12. A Pestiferous World VIII • Section six: alternatives • Integrated Pest Management hampered by • commitment to pesticides • anti-pest psychology • short-term profitability • complexity and time-space specificity of IPM • inattention to “downstream” social and ecological effects • Finally, issues of who you trust… is your faith in environmentalists or scientists or the government or chemical companies

  13. Ch.2: The Gypsy Moth • Big controversy over Bt spraying for European moth from the east and Asian moth from Russia to the west in Vancouver, BC. • Moth introduced, accidentally, to North American by French naturalist, Trouvelot, in Mass. in the 1880s • they’ll eat almost anything green.

  14. The Gypsy Moth II • 19th C Massachusetts: Manual removal;, road-block inspections, and fire strategies followed by state/federal legislation and the new chemicals • Arsenicals (copper/Paris Green and lead arsenate) • 5-7 year population explosions/collapses. • “The government Commission then responded to the outcry by producing bulletins and distributing handouts containing information about the sprays, especially quotes from the experts assuring the public “as to the lack of danger to man or beast attending to” the chemicals. • What era is Winston referring to? What does this sound like?

  15. The Gypsy Moth III • Gypsy moth boom and bust not only led to the first eminent domain law -- we can enter your private property to eradicate a pest -- but also the first plant quarantine law. • Later, after WWII, DDT, Dimilin and Carbaryl before Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) arrives with organic agriculture in the 1970s/80s. • Vancouver Again • Large scale monitoring • Trade sanction constraints -- US forest import regulations • Difference between claims associated with “eradication program” and “control program” re: trade.

  16. The Gypsy Moth IV • Bt: • “the most recognized, heavily tested, successful and safe alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides...” (31) • bacterial spores attack lepidopterous insect guts. • The public had good reason not to trust gov’t insect spray programs – even though, in this case, human health issues were really unlikely. • Key opponents make the majority of the noise.

  17. The Gypsy Moth V • Ag Canada has success when Nancy Argyle convinces scientists that their communicative strategies PRODUCE distrust. • Openness to the strong questions, however “unscientific,” from the public and media the key. • These days, Vancouver is using tighter: • Inspection • Monitoring • trapping needn’t generate spraying • Localized spraying. • NOT MENTIONED -- Bt resistance and (these days) biotechnologically produced Bt-plants.

  18. CONCLUSION: • WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM WINSTON’S DISCUSSION OF PESTIFEROUSNESS AND THE GYPSY MOTH?

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