Electrek reports statistics about Earth Overshoot. These are statistic of which I was previously unaware, but really bring home how badly we have messed up.

Earth Overshoot Day is the day in each year by which we have used up 100% of the resources that become available each year, and is currently the 2^nd of August, but getting earlier each year. Another way of looking at this is that each year we are currently using 170% of the resources that the earth provides each year: clean air and water, forest products, fertile soil, pollination, fisheries, land use, etc. The graph to the right puts that all into focus.

In other words, we are living on an overdraft. This obviously cannot continue.

This BBC story is worrying enough anyway, but highlights some downright dishonesty by Bayer, the maker of Imidacloprid (a Neonicotinoid pesticide).

A Bayer spokesman said "Neonicotinoids have gone through an extensive risk assessment which has shown that they are safe to the environment ...".

No, Mr. spokesman, that is not what science does; science cannot do that. Science can show that some things are not safe. In the absence of proof that things are not safe, it is assumed that they are safe, but being safe is not proven. Recent history is littered with examples of things that were assumed to be safe, but were later shown to be unsafe (DDT and Agent Orange are a couple of notorious examples). Many medicines that were tested (in extensive clinical trials) and used to treat patients, were later withdrawn because they were shown to be dangerous (due to side-effects) or simply ineffective.

The pharmaceutical and pesticide industries are science based, and I find it hard to believe that companies. like Bayer, in these industries do not understand what science can and cannot do: the difference between not proving something is unsafe, and proving that it is safe. So, how about a bit more honesty from such companies? Otherwise the public will start to think you are as bad as Big Tobacco.