mmcirvin: (Default)
[personal profile] mmcirvin
I've recently learned that I share a birthday not just with [livejournal.com profile] jwgh and Vincent Price, but also with "Silent Spring" author Rachel Carson. The upcoming one would be her 100th birthday, and you know what that means, kids: it's time again to remind everyone that she killed more people than Hitler! Look, here are some of the children she killed! Everyone who dies of malaria is, by this accounting, a victim of Rachel Carson and the global ban on DDT that she brought about through the uncaring fanaticism of eco-nuts.

Except that these claims are completely bogus: the use of DDT to fight malaria declined globally largely because its indiscriminate use in agriculture bred resistant mosquitoes, which was one of the things Carson was warning us about.

Fortunately, Tim Lambert can be relied upon to knock this stuff down. Here he demonstrates that today's attacks are essentially the same ones used by Monsanto in the 1960s.

It's gotten to the point that I have a default attitude of skepticism toward organizations claiming to support the fight against malaria in the developing world, because some of them are just astroturf organizations devoted to bashing environmentalists over DDT. And I resent that.

Date: 2007-05-25 01:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] antikythera.livejournal.com
Spiffy... oversimplification of your opponent's argument, even to the point of inaccuracy, is a good way to make followers out of people who are stupid enough to only want the simplest and nicest explanation. :P

(Your birthday is the day after mine, which I share with my boyfriend and Sally Ride and John Wayne.)

Date: 2007-05-26 03:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com
Other people born on May 27 include Henry Kissinger and Harlan Ellison. Why I keep forgetting that last one, I do not know.

Date: 2007-05-25 03:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stacebass.livejournal.com
Congress just passed a bill to name a post office after RC; naturally, 60 someodd Republicans voted against it.

Because if you name a post office after an eco-whacko, children might learn about environmentalism. Noooooo!

Date: 2007-05-25 04:01 am (UTC)
ext_8707: Taken in front of Carnegie Hall (imminent destruction)
From: [identity profile] ronebofh.livejournal.com
I knew i'd seen those CEI clowns somewhere... and Lambert's link to "CO2: we call it life" reminded me. That was such a goddamn laugh riot.

Date: 2007-05-25 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com
If I worked for the AEI, I'd be angry about the similarity of names--the AEI is at least a real right-wing think tank.

Date: 2007-05-25 10:48 pm (UTC)
ext_8707: Taken in front of Carnegie Hall (frangendo)
From: [identity profile] ronebofh.livejournal.com
Where's Ted Frank when you need him?

Date: 2007-05-27 02:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sunburn.livejournal.com
Ted's hiring, so here's your chance. (http://www.overlawyered.com/2007/05/work_in_washington_dc_at_aei.html) :^)

Date: 2007-05-25 03:34 pm (UTC)
jwgh: (Default)
From: [personal profile] jwgh
Surprisingly, the conservapedia article on Rachel Carson isn't so bad. The talk page does not bode well, though.

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