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[somedaybitch]

Malaria and Rachel Carson

The World Health Organization now estimates that there are between 300 and 500 million cases of malaria annually, causing approximately one million deaths. About 80% of those are young children, millions of whom could have been saved over the years with the regular application of DDT to their environments.

Carson cannot be blamed directly for these deaths. She didn't urge total bans in "Silent Spring." Instead, on the single page obliquely acknowledging DDT as an anti-malarial agent, she writes, "Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity.'"

Comments

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

if I'm remembering my PBS series correctly, Guns, Germs and Steel pointed out that originally Africans didn't live so close to the water that they had issues with the misquitos. The concentration of people closer to the water, caused by european empires, and the efficiency of being close to the water, has caused much of this change. The concentration of people in cities has sharpened it. This is an unintended consequence, just like writing a book about overkill with chemistry had unintended consequences. It isn't that Carson was wrong, she was right, the reaction to what she said was a knee jerk of lemmings rushing to a conclusion. Human beings are as good at that as they are in taking advantage of a thing for short term economic gain, that will destroy things in the longrun. In my more cynical moods, I believe we deserve every bad thing we get...

The question is, and ever has been, what will we do to change this? This is one of those spots where I feel very much alone, screaming in the wind.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

It isn't that Carson was wrong, she was right, the reaction to what she said was a knee jerk of lemmings rushing to a conclusion.

yes, exactly.