Lots of the people who are inclined to dismiss the threat of global warming as an evil plot hatched by Al Gore and others of his ilk also are fond of bad-mouthing the late Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book "The Silent Spring" launched the modern environmental movement.
They're fond of saying that countless deaths from malaria can be blamed on Carson's successful effort to have the pesticide DDT banned as an environmental hazard. A new round of such Carson-bashing has been triggered by this item, which appeared last week on Forbes.com. Echoes have been recorded all over the blogosphere (here, here, here and here, to cite a few examples).
Ah, but there are a few problems with this theme: 1) Carson got DDT banned as an agricultural insecticide, not as an anti-malarial weapon; 2) The agricultural ban slowed the development of resistance to DDT, which in turn has saved lives; 3) Malaria has made a big comeback in areas where DDT-resistant mosquitoes have appeared.
Check out the facts of the matter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment