At my house in France, I am building some outdoor fountains. I notice large numbers of bees dead in the water just a few weeks ago and on an ongoing basis. Since I’m in the middle of agricultural land, pesticides were the likely culprit — at least according to my gardener. There is also a disturbing lack of birds. There are birds, but far fewer than I would expect compared to rural areas in which I have been that aren’t in the middle of cherry orchards and vineyards.

This seems, a first glance, a good decision. I’d much rather the EU doing this sort of regulation instead of chasing CO2 boogeymen by banning high powered vaccum cleaners or banning certain types of tea kettles.