photo courtesy of: Oyundayim.com
Most children grow up playing simple games like hide and go seek, or freeze tag. Then there is me, a only child that resorted to exploring my surroundings, and new creatures I hadn't yet learned about. Every child has played with, or caught frogs before. Attempting to catch or sometimes even run from natures tiny creations is a common part of peoples childhood's. It saddens me to think that one third of amphibians worldwide are in danger of extinction due to the use of Atrazine on crops. Reported by the Los Angeles Times in January of 2006. They also reported 1,856 species known are in danger of extinction. If only the teenage mutant ninja turtles could step in and fight against the crime taking place in our backyards. Frogs are not the only Amphibians being effected by this blatant disregard for wildlife. Salamanders, Toads, and Caecilians have been effected by this toxic herbicide. Tyrone B. Hayes and his group of colleagues reported the following statement in 2003,......
"Given these adverse effects and the continued increase and use of pesticides in agriculture over the past 50 years, it is likely that pesticides have played and will continue to play a role in amphibian declines,"
Hopefully our children will one day be able to play with the frogs as we once did.
Sources: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/25/nation/na-frogs25
Tyrone B. Hayes on the Environmental Health Perspectives
are researchers trying to find a way to get farmers to stop using this on their crops? what exactly does atrazine do to these amphibians?
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible to think that our kids will not be able to experience the fun things we did as kids since others do not care about the environment!
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