True Left

Bayer and the bees | DW Documentary

Insecticides are sometimes necessary in farming. But some substances, like neonicotinoids, kill not only pests but bees as well. Now the Bayer Group, one of the main manufacturers of these pesticides, is coming under pressure.

Scientists around the world have found that neonicotinoids are the main cause of mass bee deaths. Research has shown that a number of insecticides should have been banned long ago. For years, the Bayer Group has sought to silence the critics and pressure scientists into not publishing their findings.

For more than two decades, experts have been warning of the negative effects of neonicotinoids, with a whole range of studies published on the subject. It would appear that the industry, aided by the authorities, managed to successfully delay any ban on these substances for years. Studies show that neonicotinoids not only kill pests, but also bees and other beneficial insects. Dutch toxicologist Henk Tennekes was among the first to recognize the problem. He believes neonicotinoids are the most toxic insecticides ever produced. He discovered a study carried out by Bayer itself, back in 1991, which found that a particular neonicotinoid had a negative effect on the nervous system of a fly species. These effects were said to be "irreversible”. Tennekes then confronted the company with his findings. He was taken aback by the response: "Bayer now claims” he says, "that the binding of critical receptors in the nervous system by neonicotinoids is reversible. So they’re contradicting the results of their own study.  ... If they had considered what impact this substance has, they would have had to take it off the market."

Scientists in France also analyzed mass bee deaths and likewise identified an insecticide made by Bayer as the culprit. Toxicologist Jean-Marc Bonmatin reveals how the company then sought to prevent the results from being published. Meanwhile, toxicologists in Japan discovered that neonicotinoids also harm other creatures, such as fish and river crabs. There too, Bayer sought to suppress publication. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaNSByf4sLA&list=TLPQMDYwNTIwMjHfplOKnl0N3w&index=1

Bayer played a key role in the Wirtschaftswunder in post-war West Germany, quickly regaining its position as one of the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical corporations. In 2006, the company acquired Schering, in 2014, it acquired Merck & Co.'s consumer business, with brands such as Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholl's, and in 2018, it acquired Monsanto, a leading producer of genetically engineered crops, for $63 billion.[9] Bayer CropScience develops genetically modified crops and pesticides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer

Once the Bees are gone most other life will follow shortly thereafter....

"Once the Bees are gone most other life will follow shortly thereafter...."

That would be a good thing. But you can bet Western civilization will step in at the last moment to prevent species extinction. Then once species are in no danger of extinction, Western civilization will resume killing any number of individual victims:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-right/western-civilization-sustainable-evil/

I think the plan is actually robotic drone bees to be honest....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJCMIsLuGpg

Just another day in Western civilization:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KPXxh97H40

TYT is far too superficial in only blaming big business for this. There was big business in ancient times too but no such problems. Why not? The real problem is not big business, but Western machines.

As if fertilizers weren't bad enough, now we have to deal with the waste left from the processing fertilizers also!

What a shitshow Western Civilization is.

Chemist Thomas Midgley invented both leaded gasoline and CFC chemicals (the leading cause of the destruction of the ozone layer). Of course, if he didn't invent them, some other Westerner would have.

Thomas Midgley Jr. (May 18, 1889 – November 2, 1944) was an American mechanical and chemical engineer. He played a major role in developing leaded gasoline (Tetraethyllead) and some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), better known in the USA by the brand name Freon; both products were later banned due to concerns about their impact on human health and the environment.
[...]
In 1923, Midgley took a long vacation in Miami, Florida, to cure himself of lead poisoning. He found "that my lungs have been affected and that it is necessary to drop all work and get a large supply of fresh air".[9]
[...]
In 1924, unsatisfied with the speed of DuPont's TEL production using the "bromide process", General Motors and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now known as ExxonMobil) created the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation to produce and market TEL. Ethyl Corporation built a new chemical plant using a high-temperature ethyl chloride process at the Bayway Refinery in New Jersey.[9] However, within the first two months of its operation, the new plant was plagued by more cases of lead poisoning, hallucinations, insanity, and five deaths.[7]

On October 30, 1924, Midgley participated in a press conference to demonstrate the apparent safety of TEL, in which he poured TEL over his hands, placed a bottle of the chemical under his nose, and inhaled its vapor for 60 seconds, declaring that he could do this every day without succumbing to any problems.[7][10] However, the State of New Jersey ordered the Bayway plant to be closed a few days later, and Jersey Standard was forbidden to manufacture TEL again without state permission. Midgley would later have to take leave of absence from work after being diagnosed with lead poisoning.[11]
[...]
In 1940, at the age of 51, Midgley contracted poliomyelitis, which left him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation.[17][18][19]
[...]
Midgley's legacy has been scarred by the negative environmental impact of leaded gasoline and Freon.[20] Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history",[21] and Bill Bryson remarked that Midgley possessed "an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny".[22] Use of leaded gasoline, which he invented, released large quantities of lead into the atmosphere all over the world.[20] High atmospheric lead levels have been linked with serious long-term health problems from childhood, including neurological impairment,[23][24][25] and with increased levels of violence and criminality in cities.[26][27][28] Time magazine included both leaded gasoline and CFCs on its list of "The 50 Worst Inventions".[29]

Midgley died three decades before the ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas effects of CFCs in the atmosphere became widely known.[30] In 1987, the Montreal Protocol phased out the use of CFCs like Freon.[31]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

I also want to talk about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole

A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. Continued traffic action ejects both asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement.[1]
...
The American Automobile Association estimated in the five years prior to 2016 that 16 million drivers in the United States have suffered damage from potholes to their vehicle including tire punctures, bent wheels, and damaged suspensions with a cost of $3 billion a year. In India, 3,000 people per year are killed in accidents involving potholes. Britain has estimated that the cost of fixing all roads with potholes in the country would cost £12 billion.[6]

The Western reaction, however, is to just keep reinforcing/repairing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole#Prevention

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance adds maintaining pavement structural integrity with thickness and continuity to the mix of preventing water penetration and promoting water migration away from the roadway.[3]
...
Sealing Asphalt Cracks

According to the US Federal Highway Administration, 70% of unsealed cracks become potholes within 3 years. Sealing the cracks through asphalt crack filling can help prevent potholes and further pavement damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothole#Repair

Throw-and-roll repair

The FHWA manual[1] cites the throw-and-roll method as the most basic method, best used as a temporary repair under conditions when it is difficult to control the placement of material, such as winter-time. It consists of:

    Placing the hot or cold patch material into a pothole
    Compacting the patch with a vehicle, such as a truck
    Achieving a crown on the compacted patch of between 3 and 6 mm

This method is widely used due to its simplicity and speed, especially as an expedient method when the material is placed under unfavorable conditions of water or temperature. It can also be employed at times when the pothole is dry and clean with more lasting results.[5] Eaton, et al., noted that the failure rate of expedient repairs is high and that they can cost as much as five times the cost of properly done repairs. They advocate this type of repair only when weather conditions prevent proper techniques.[3]

Researchers from the University of Minnesota Duluth have tested mixing asphalt with iron ore containing magnetite which is then heated using ferromagnetic resonance (using microwaves at a specific frequency) to heat the mixed asphalt. The mixture used a compound of between 1% and 2% magnetite. The group discovered that material could be heated for a patch to 100 °C (212 °F) in approximately ten minutes which then applied a more effective repair and drove out moisture which improved adhesion.[6]

Semi-permanent repair

The FHWA manual[1] cites the semi-permanent repair method as one of the best for repairing potholes, short of full-depth roadway replacement. It consists of:

    1. Removing water and debris from the pothole
    2. Making clean cuts along the sides of prospective patch area to assure that vertical sides of the repair are in sound pavement (Eaton, et al.,[3] recommend a bituminous tack coat in the open cavity, prior to placement of patch material.)
    3. Placing the hot or cold patch mix material
    4. Compacting the patch with a device that is smaller than the patch area, e.g. vibratory rollers or a vibratory plate

While this repair procedure provides durable results, it requires more labor and is more equipment-intensive than the throw-and-roll or the spray-injection procedure.

Spray-injection repair

The FHWA manual[1] cites the spray-injection procedure as an efficient alternative to semi-permanent repair. It requires specialized equipment, however. It consists of:

    1. Blowing water and debris from the pothole
    2. Spraying a tack coat of binder on the sides and bottom of the pothole
    3. Blowing asphalt and aggregate into the pothole
    4. Covering the patched area with a layer of aggregate

This procedure requires no compaction after the cover aggregate has been placed

Edge seal repair

The FHWA manual[1] cites the edge seal method as an alternative to the above techniques. It consists of:

    1. Following the "throw-and-roll" steps
    2. After the repaired section has dried, placing a ribbon of asphaltic tack material on top of the patch edge, overlapping the pavement and the patch
    3. Placing sand on the tack material to prevent tracking by vehicle tires

In this procedure, waiting for any water to dry may require a second visit to place the tack coat. The tack material prevents water from getting through the edge of the patch and helps bond the patch to the surrounding pavement.

which themselves worsen the environment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt#Health_and_safety

IARC has classified paving asphalt fumes as a Class 2B possible carcinogen, indicating inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.[103]

In 2020 scientists reported that asphalt currently is a significant and largely overlooked source of air pollution in urban areas, especially during hot and sunny periods.[105][106]

And, yes, guess which civilization is to blame for asphalt:

In the 1830s there was a surge of interest, and asphalt became widely used "for pavements, flat roofs, and the lining of cisterns, and in England, some use of it had been made of it for similar purposes". Its rise in Europe was "a sudden phenomenon", after natural deposits were found "in France at Osbann (Bas-Rhin), the Parc (Ain) and the Puy-de-la-Poix (Puy-de-Dôme)", although it could also be made artificially.[36] One of the earliest uses in France was the laying of about 24,000 square yards of Seyssel asphalt at the Place de la Concorde in 1835.[37]

A non-Westerner, in contrast, would understand that potholes are trying to tell us something. Let's look at the first paragraph again:

A pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement. It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area. Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area. Continued traffic action ejects both asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement.[1]

Potholes are obviously telling us to stop using cars! But not only will Westerners ignore this, they will actually complain about potholes not being constantly repaired (and thus their message covered up instead of given attention) as an example of "Third World" behaviour:

https://www.amren.com/features/2021/05/a-letter-to-white-americans/

A South African Woman, American Renaissance, May 21, 2021
...
Most of our secondary roads have become like the rest of Africa: potholes, no shoulder, grass growing into the center of the road. There are small forests, with trees as tall as a man growing out of sidewalks and right up to roadsides. Everyone sees the decay, but the ANC doesn’t seem to care.

This is not "decay"; this is things going back to the way they were before Westerners turned up and ruined everything! (Last time I checked, trees are not carcinogenic, unlike asphalt.) For thousands of years we were doing fine without cars, and roads back then didn't have potholes either. I wonder what happened?

Whites arrived in South Africa in 1652, not long after the Mayflower arrival in America.
...
For 350 years, we toiled to sow the seeds of Western Civilization.

Yeah, I noticed.....

They had as much right to be there as any other new-world settlers. They built a wonderful country against daunting odds.

**** YOU.

Years ago, I heard a former Transkei official tell a visiting American that “we don’t care if the roads turn to dust, as long as we get rid of the whites.”

This is wisdom.

Western Civilization is a health hazard for non-humans:
https://youtu.be/lsJqMmuFWO4

Even then, Westerners are only concerned with how it affects them, i.e. that they cannot consume the fish anymore. So Westerners are actually concerned that they cannot commit more violence!

It's OK for polluters to be "white":

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chemicals-pipelines-destroying-black-communities-023153459.html

Chemicals, pipelines destroying Black communities today. And poor of color are dying.

Along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, land where Black people were once enslaved on plantations is now being poisoned by petrochemical plants that have given the place a new name: Cancer Alley. In the fall of 2019, Robert Taylor told a Poor People’s Campaign gathering there about the toll of watching his family and neighbors die. Taylor’s daughter has a rare disease that her doctor told her she had a 1 in 5 million chance of contracting. She has since learned that three other neighbors are dying of the same disease.

Four hundred miles north in Memphis, Tennessee, Black residents invited the Poor People’s Campaign to support their organizing to stop the Byhalia Pipeline. The proposed crude oil pipeline would repeat the systemic racism of the 1970s urban renewal by running the line through Memphis’ African American communities. In this place where Ida B. Wells once challenged the lies used to justify lynching, Black Memphians are again resisting lies that would harm their community.

More than 150 years after slavery was abolished in the United States, descendants of enslaved Americans continue to challenge systemic racism because they experience the ongoing impact of America’s original sin on the very land where it first occurred.

But slavery’s legacy doesn't stop in those communities.

Neighborhoods of color across the country are hit by industrial waste and air pollution and deprived of green spaces at significantly higher rates than white communities. Poverty, redlining (a practice that segregated housing) and the overwhelming lack of diversity in the environmental space keep the cycle of pollution and community destruction concentrated in Black America.

In fact, whites in America experience 17% less air pollution than they cause. Black people experience 56% more than their consumption causes, according to a 2019 study.

Also:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/global-heating-study-shows-impact-150744439.html

A new study says that black people living in most US cities are subject to double the level of heat stress as their white counterparts.

The researchers say the differences were not explained by poverty but by historic racism and segregation.

As a result, people of colour more generally, live in areas with fewer green spaces and more buildings and roads.

These exacerbate the impacts of rising temperatures and a changing climate.
...
Using satellite temperature data combined with demographic information from the US Census, the authors found that the average person of colour lives in an area with far higher summer daytime temperatures than non-Hispanic white people.

For the purposes of the paper, the scientists defined "people of colour" as including all Hispanic people (regardless of race) and anyone who does not identify as white alone.

In all but six of the 175 largest urbanised areas in the continental US, people of colour endure much greater heat impacts in summer.

For black people this was particularly stark. The researchers say they are exposed to an extra 3.12C of heating, on average, in urban neighbourhoods, compared to an extra 1.47C for white people.

Exposure to heat not only leads to to increased mortality, it is also connected to a range of impacts including heat stroke, loss of productivity in work and impaired learning.

"Our study helps to provide more quantitative evidence that climate racism, environmental racism exists," said Dr Angel Hsu, from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the lead author of the paper.

"And it's not just an isolated incident, it's pervasive all across the United States."

While being poor was certainly a factor for exposure to increased urban heat in the summer, it didn't provide a full explanation.

In around half the cities, the average person of colour faced higher summertime heat than people living below the poverty line, even though just 10% of people of colour were classed as poor.
...
With temperatures likely to increase due to global heating over the coming decades, this is a problem that is likely to get worse

We all know the solution. But no one will implement it.