The Devastating Effects of Pesticides on the Environment - Term Paper Example

Environmental Studies Table of Contents Introduction 4 Discussion 5 References 11 Introduction This paper weighs in on the ethical perspectives surrounding the use of pesticides in agriculture and the impact of such widespread use on the ecology. The paper posits that pesticides use in commercial, large-scale agriculture pose substantial ecological harm, threaten the sustainability of agricultural practices, and threaten the health and well-being of human communities, and is therefore ethically indefensible in the long run (Aktar et al., 2009). Discussion Comprehensive assessments of the impacts of pesticides use in commercial agriculture reveal lasting, persistent, and widespread damage to the environment on many levels, as pesticides wreak havoc on ecosystems because of the way they leak out from the target land areas to the surrounding soil, ground water, surface water, and the air to pose toxicity risks to all kinds of organisms, not just the organisms targeted for elimination in agriculture, with deadly and unpredictable consequences to the general environment and to organisms in whole ecologies. The problem is that once the pesticides are released into the environment, there is no telling what kinds of organisms will get affected. Moreover, because all of life in ecologies depend on one another, the decimation of some organisms because of toxicity to pesticides, such as non-target water organisms and insects, the damage to the whole ecology is profound, with other organisms along the food chain also being put at risk for death. As an example, some chemicals such as chlorpyrifos, common ingredients in many kinds of pesticides in agriculture, have been found to be severely toxic to all kinds of fishes, in both warm and cold waters, causing such harmful effects as deformities in the vertebral parts of the fishes. Chemicals in Roundup, a chemical herbicide used in conjunction with GMO crops, have been found to likewise have a profound toxic effect on all kinds of water life, including fishes, with the impact including impairment in the ability of fishes to survive and to perform basic functions of being, including impairment in swimming and breathing, so that the fishes contaminated with the pesticide ingredients become more likely to succumb to the actions of predators. This impairment in ability to survive threaten the ecology by subverting the natural ecological balance, with devastating effects on the whole ecology. Some species of aquatic animals, such as fresh water dolphins, have been put at risk of becoming extinct because of pervasive chemical pollution of water systems from commercial agriculture. In water systems that have been highly contaminated by toxic chemicals from pesticides, such as PCBs and DDTs the survival capabilities of other aquatic animals such as minks, otters and other fishes have become severely compromised, and the toxicity levels of such animals are predicted to rise with no pause due to the persistent and heavy use of pesticides and their subsequent leaking into the water systems. This is true for instance in India and the Ganges River, where the levels of chemical pollution from runoff feeding into the river have been shown to be chronically persistent (Aktar et al., 2009). In land creatures, the use of pesticides have equally had devastating effects, with consequences for the viability of the land environments to sustain life and to preserve ecological balance For instance, chemical pesticide components alachlor and atrazine have been shown to be a cause for the mass deaths of bees, which have massive ramifications for the future of the entire chain of life in many geographies. This is because of the way the massive deaths of bees from pesticides translate to the loss of a vital pollination function in the ecology, the foundation of the whole food chain. Without pollination, plants cannot propagate, and that vital function gone, so too does the domino chain of events that sustain life is halted. Insects, such as spiders, because some chemical herbicides and pesticides decimate their natural habitats and kill and shrink the plant species on which they live on, are naturally candidates for mass die offs too. Pesticides that target certain bird species, such as pigeons, cause harm to non-target birds too, again touching off unintended chains of destruction that are difficult to stop and to pin down. Certain chemical compounds in pesticides too, that were deemed to be safe to birds and to livestock such as chickens, have been later found to compromise the integrity of bird and chicken eggs, thereby harming the ability of birds to survive and to reproduce successfully. Chemicals in pesticides have been found to induce conditions that make bird and chicken eggs more fragile, and more vulnerable to cracking. This is true for chemicals such as trifluralin, which experts have deemed to be virtually safe to all birds, but in practice cause damage to bird eggs and to chicken eggs as discussed above (Aktar et al., 2009). Organochlorines or OCs are a subject of intense scrutiny because of their extensive use in pesticides and because of the way the levels of OCs accumulate in birds and other migratory animals. Birds are of special interest because of the way they are able to migrate over large distances to affect other populations of birds in other geographies. This is true for instance in India, where local bird and migratory bird populations are exposed to increasing levels of OCs from exposure to pesticides in use in the country in larger and larger amounts. bats are especially vulnerable to OCs, according to studies, and correlations are being established in research between the high concentrations of OCs in bat species worldwide and the spectacular decline in worldwide populations of the creatures from 1936, when the numbers were close to nine million bats, to 1973, when their numbers have been reduced to a few hundred thousand, just 200,000 by one scientific estimate (Aktar et al., 2009). Focusing on neonicotinoids, in use in commercial corn and soybean fields, the literature has established how such chemical compounds have caused the massive die offs of bees around the world, and especially in countries such as Canada, where the use of such chemical compounds in agriculture is pervasive and intensive. The damage to the ecology of the death of pollinators is profound, because of the vital function of bees in making sure that crops and other plants that are vital to the preservation of ecologies and for maintaining the abilities of those ecologies to sustain human life. Already many governments around the world have come to push for legislation banning, controlling, and restricting the use of such neonicotinoid compounds in commercial agriculture in a bid to reverse the bee deaths, but the process also entails many parties who are to be harmed by such bans, such as corn farmers, vigorously opposing restrictive regulations and laws against neonicotinoids. The problem is that because the ban is not universal, the continued use of such chemicals extensively in some regions have spillover effects in other ecologies. Damage to large ecologies do not know country boundaries after all. In the case of Canada and Europe, the continued use of neonicotinoids in the United States and in some parts of Europe cannot but have negative environmental effects in neighboring states. One can say therefore that even if Canada is successful at banning neonicotinoids, the pervasive use of the chemicals in US agriculture means that Canada will continue to be affected in environmental terms. Moreover, the curbing of one class of compounds cannot solve a problem where many other chemicals cause damage in ways that the scientific community cannot keep tabs of. Therefore, on balance, it is clear that the use of pesticides is ethically indefensible, given the extensive and profound, and lasting damage to the environment that result from such use (Ferguson, 2014; Toxics Action Center, 2012). References Aktar, M. et al. (2009). Impact of pesticides use in agriculture: benefits and hazards. Interdiscip Toxicol 2 (1). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984095/ Ferguson, R. (2014). Ontario moves toward curbing pesticide blamed for bee deaths. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/11/25/ontario_moves_toward_curbing_pesticide_blame_for_bee_deaths.html Toxics Action Center (2012). The Problem with Pesticides. ToxicsAction.org. Retrieved from http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/pesticides Read More