Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring" in 1962.
I read the book a few years later believing everything I read.
Being a hunter and fisherman, wanted to preserve my way of life. I earned a degree in Natural Resources Management.
Carsons main attack was on the chemical DDT, the chemical that came on the market in 1939 and has been credited for saving 500 million people. It eradicated malaria in every developed country on the planet.
Paul Muller won the Nobel Prize in Medicine "1949" for developing the chemical.
According to Dr. Mark Levin, a Federal Court could find no proof that DDT caused harm to life forms. No matter, the EPA by that time was powerful enough to sidestep the courts and ban the chemical anyway. Rachel Carson with one book changed the world. She is praised by environmentalists. Others have difficulty with the preventable death of millions, most under the age of five years.
It is estimated that in Africa alone one million people die each year from mosquito born pathogens.
Maybe Carson's intentions were legitimate; maybe she shared the beliefs of the abortionists who insist the undesirables be kept under control.
I take no hard stand on the matter but would like to know the truth.
I do believe malaria or some other former scourge will return to the states, and I would pay any price for it to save my grandchildren.
Let's not forget, children of my generation followed the spray trucks down the streets of America during the 50's and early 60's.
About Me
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- Roger Howell
- Adult male, three score, B.S in Natural Resources Mgt.,Teaching Certificate in Secondary Biology, Masters Degree in Gifted Studies,Board Certified landscape conntractor,machinest,carpenter,philosopher, naturalist, lightweight history buff. I sat on the stage one night and talked with the old blues man Son Thomas, I try to learn something new every day. I love trivia. Children are innocent and pure. Anyone who harms a child should be drawn and quartered
2 comments:
You were wise to believe Carson when you read it. Odd that wisdom sometimes flees us as we age.
The U.S. was certified free of malaria in 1939, according to the history of the CDC, the agency that was set up originally to fight malaria in the U.S. DDT didn't become available for use by civilians until 1946, some seven years later. We eliminated malaria the same way every other nation did, by curing humans of the disease so mosquitoes had nothing to transmit. We did that with a combination of draining of mosquito breeding areas near houses, vast improvements in health care, especially public health, and rising housing standards, including window screens to keep bugs out of houses at night.
Dr. Levin erred. Two federal courts ruled that DDT is so dangerous it should be banned, by 1970. They ordered Agriculture, and then EPA, to conduct the required rule making procedure to make that happen. EPA acted only under injunction from two courts.
EPA can't sidestep courts. Under U.S. law, a regulation cannot stand if it is not supported by clear evidence. Even after the rule, it was challenged twice in federal court. In both challenges the courts ruled EPA got the science exactly right.
About a million people a year die from malaria worldwide. At least 80% are children, maybe more. This is half the rates of infection and disease we had when DDT was used extensively.
Here are the simple facts: DDT is an uncontrollable poison in the wild. DDT wreaks havoc on ecosystems, top to bottom. DDT's effectiveness against mosquitoes dropped dramatically in the middle 1960s because of overuse in agriculture -- just as Rachel Carson warned. WHO had to stop using DDT in Africa as a result. Seven years later the U.S. banned DDT use in agriculture. That ban did not affect Africa's reduction in DDT use seven years earlier, and 10,000 miles away. Mosquitoes don't migrate more than about 100 yards, and certainly not across the Atlantic.
So the rap on Rachel Carson is exactly wrong. Ironically, it is her "integrated pest management" scheme that she urged in 1962, finally being implemented in Africa today, that is doing so much good, reducing malaria rates dramatically everywhere it is tried.
Come on over to Millard Fillmore's Bathtub (http://timpanogos.wordpress.com), and search for DDT. There is a wealth of information available on the stuff.
Iron sharpens iron
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