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George Eustice targetted by campaign group seeking to protect Bees and UK environment

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Britain is breaking its promise of better bee protections by allowing a bee-killing poison banned in the EU to be used on our fields! This U-turn puts the powerful sugar lobby above pollinators already in crisis -- we cannot stay silent. Let’s build a new massive buzz to save our bees, and Avaaz will deliver our voices to Environment Secretary George Eustice, putting him on the spot.
Sign now
Dear friends across the UK,
This is urgent! Britain is breaking its promise of better bee protections by allowing a bee-killing poison banned in the EU to be used on our fields!

Just before the 2018 Europe-wide ban on neonicotinoids, Britain U-turned to become a leader on pollinator protection. Then-Environment Secretary Michael Gove even went on record saying the restrictions would be kept in place after leaving the EU. Now the government is opening the back door to pollinator poisons by allowing neonic use on sugar beet. And sugar lobbyists are celebrating!

Let's respond with all our people-power. Avaaz members across the UK and beyond have come together in millions every time a new threat to our bees emerged -- let's quickly build a massive buzz for the bees and when we reach 100.000 voices we'll deliver them in hard-hitting ads to our government. Sign now & share widely:
Protect British bees - stop bee-killing pesticides on our fields!
Bees and other pollinators are already struggling: a third of the UK bee population is thought to have vanished in just a decade. And bee-keepers are raising the alarm that this so-called “emergency authorisation” could last another *two years*!

Meanwhile, the lobbying efforts of some proponents of continued neonic use in the UK were described as ‘incredible’ and kept off social media -- presumably to blindside bee-friends up and down the country.

This isn’t about pitting farmers against environmentalists -- with up to three quarters of our crops dependent on bees and other pollinators, we all need our bees to be safe. And while it’s not even clear whether the virus these neonics are supposed to fight will even hit, we do know that emergency authorisations are a sneaky way to water down the ban on these bee-killers. Let’s tell Secretary Eustice to stick to the promise to keep bee-killers off our fields:
Protect British bees - stop bee-killing pesticides on our fields!
It can feel exhausting that the same battles need to be fought over and over again -- but that’s what our community does: stick up for those who can’t fight for themselves, and call out our governments when they roll back hard-won protections for the bees. With spring just around the corner, let’s get our voices buzzing for bees once more.

With hope,

Antonia, Anneke, Bert and the whole Avaaz team

More information:

• Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide (The Guardian)
• Government to let farmers use bee-killing pesticide banned in EU (The Independent)

 

https://avaaz.org/britishbees

 

via https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/uk_neonics_loc