The date was chosen by the Pesticide Action Network to commemorate the 30,000 people killed as a result of the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, when 27 tons of deadly gas used in the manufacture of pesticides were released by a leak at a Union Carbide plant. In addition to the thousands of deaths, thousands of others were left with nervous system damage and other physical injuries. The use of toxic pesticides is closely linked with monoculture plantations and agroindustry, two of the main causes of deforestation and devastation for communities who depend on forests.
WRM joins in solidarity with the call against the use of toxic pesticides and joins in the Vía Campesina/CLOC Continental Campaign Against Pesticides and For Life in Latin America: http://www.cloc-viacampesina.net/pt/campanas/campana-contra-los-agrotoxicos-y-por-la-vida, as well as the Campaign Against Pesticides and For Life in Brazil: http://www.contraosagrotoxicos.org.
For more information on the particularly serious situation in Brazil – the world’s biggest consumer of pesticides and the country of the South with the largest area of industrial tree plantations for pulp production – see the “Manifesto for the International Day of Struggle Against Pesticides (in Portuguese) at: http://wrm.org.uy/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Campanha_03_-dezembro_2014-DIA-INTERNACIONAL-CONTRA-USO-DE-AGROTOXICOS.pdf