ABSTRACT

Agricultural chemicals pose a grave pollution threat to entire ecosystems. Chemical runoff from croplands causes river eutrophication; insecticides and herbicides kill ‘benign’ animals and birds as well as ‘pests’. DDT nearly wiped out dozens of domestic bird species on the eastern seaboard of the USA before its use was banned in the early 1970s; meanwhile in Thailand, DDT is now threatening drinking water supplies throughout the country; and over large regions of Central America, where pesticide use levels are among the highest in the world, wildlife is being decimated and the natural ecology is crumbling.