| Pesticides are often sprayed on newly cleared and replanted areas, to keep down the growth of brush and help keep insects from eating new trees. However, no one knows what the long-term effects will be of spraying these pesticides on forest soils. | Beneficial insects and even essential micro-organisms within the soil are undoubtedly also harmed. However, very little is known about the actual effects on these unseen creatures, and many people still deny that the pesticides may seriously damage forest ecosystems. |
| When chemical pesticides kill too many insect predators, the insects they feed on suddenly experience a population explosion. In these unnaturally large numbers, any species can become a pest; the pesticides have effectively created a new pest where there were previously only harmless insects. | More pesticides are then brought in to control these new pests. The large amounts of pesticides now in the environment mean that some species are beginning to become resistant to them, and still more pesticides are needed to combat these creatures. |
| In a short-term economic view, pesticides still save money and for this reason have more benefits than drawbacks. However, the drawbacks include such a serious potential impact on all forest life, and on top of this are often a danger to human health, that we may not continue to depend on them as much as we do now. |
pollution -- page 5 of 5
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sub-topic
[dying trees]
related topics
[soil] [insects] [pests] [forests through time]
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