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.
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
89101112 1314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 14th, 2025 12:07 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios