Nature Studies by Michael McCarthy: Bees, pesticides and Defra's weasel words The coming together of a major problem and a leading problem-solver can be a significant moment, and we witnessed one such last week with the news that Professor Bob Watson is going to have a close personal look at the issue of neonicotinoids, the new nerve-agent pesticides, and their effect on bees and other pollinating insects. The issue is highly charged: an increasing body of scientific opinion suggests that neonicotinoids may be helping cause the collapses in bee populations around the world, while the pesticide manufacturers, and governments still committed to neonicotinoid use, such as those of the US and Britain, refute the allegations and insist the compounds are safe. Professor Watson's intervention is significant partly because he is the Chief Scientific Adviser to Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It has produced excitement on both sides of the Atlantic. Lord Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association, the organic food and farming charity, described his involvement as "brilliant news." In the US, the Pesticide Action Network charity said: "We are thrilled to hear he is on the case." For Bob Watson is a towering figure, and that is the bigger significance: he is the world's leading expert on policy responses to global change, on what we should do about climate change, the loss of wildlife, the destruction of ecosystems and the need to feed a world of nine billion people - and in particular, on how we should respond as a society when all these difficulties come together, as they are now. It is fair to say that he is the scientist with the most global reach and influence Britain has ever produced, yet his name is hardly known to the British public because he spent 34 years of his career in the US. An atmospheric chemist, he comes from the East End of London and still speaks with the cockney accent of Beal Grammar School for Boys in Ilford and Queen Mary College, that bit of London University "down the Mile End Road" as he says himself, although recently he has been elevated: he became Sir Robert Watson in the last New Year Honours. But plain Bob Watson is how he has been known throughout a stellar career that saw him run the environment divisions of NASA, the Clinton White House and the World Bank, and then for six years, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC (until removed by the Bush administration for being too much of an independent thinker). He went on to help run the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and the biggest-ever global inquiry into the future of agriculture, and is now leading the effort to establish a version of the IPCC for wildlife and ecosystems. Last Friday, on the day two more new scientific papers were published implicating neonicotinoids in bee declines, Bob Watson spoke to The Independent and said he and his department would review the evidence behind Defra's policy of refusing to suspend the use of the compounds. We reported this in Saturday's paper. On Monday, the Defra website carried its own story headlined: "Myth Busters," saying the Independent story was not true. It said: "The truth: Bob Watson did not order a review of the evidence. The decline in populations of bees and other pollinators remains a major concern, and he asked to receive regular updates on new research into the possible effects on insects which are not the target species of pesticides. This is what Bob Watson told me on Friday: "The real Defra position is the following. We will absolutely look at the University of Stirling work, the French work, and the American work that came out a couple of months ago. We must look at this in real detail to see whether or not the current British position is correct or is incorrect. My italics. If that's not a review of the evidence, what is? He went on: "I've got no clue whether at the end of the day, we will stay with the same position or we will substantially change our position. But we cannot simply say the situation is fine, without fully analysing these papers, and looking at the evidence and comparing it with previous evidence (My italics). The real position of Defra is that we must look very seriously at all of these papers with a very open mind as to whether they will or will not change current policy. My italics again. Anybody in Defra who wishes to continue peddling the line that Bob Watson has not ordered a review - from Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, down - is welcome to listen to the tape. Marsh marigold yellow - it'll remind you of school Worth watching out for on your Easter walk: the most impressive member of the buttercup family. You'd hardly say most buttercups were impressive, but marsh marigolds are different. For a start, they stand up proud in a dark green mini-bush of kidney-shaped leaves, but more than that, the flowers are so powerfully yellow they shine like lamps in the bare spring landscape. Looking at them by a Surrey stream this week I asked my wife: "What is it about that yellow?" She said: "It's the yellow kids use. In paintings. In primary school. She was right. It's earthy, and basic, and fantastic. I feel an advertising slogan coming on. Marsh marigolds. Buttercups with attitude.