I don't like the tone of this article, the author is a little too angry and full of vitriol, but i do think it is another good example of the dangers of exaggerating "global warming". If you thought Krauthammer was controversional, reader beware. Uncle Eric, given you lived in Ethiopia in the 1970s, i am curious about your take on whether banning DDT was a good idea or not.
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/02/16/the-green-death/
Karl, until we started these conversations, I had no idea of the extent to which the conservative right vilified anyone expressing any environmental concern. I find this very disconcerting. How can such an attitude can such an attitude be helpful in discovering truth. Absolutely there are scientists who exaggerate claims, but this proves nothing more than that not all scientists are honest. It certainly does not prove that all people advocating caution in the use of DDT are unscrupulous or gullible. Nor does this discredit all work done by scientists with respect to climate change. The logical progression is not there.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a long time since I read Rachel Carson’s book. I remember few details, and have more relevant books to read now than to reread that book. By my reading, however, he totally ignores (for whatever reason) Carson’s CENTRAL, MOST FUNDAMENTAL point, namely that agricultural chemicals should not be used indiscriminately. I know you don’t advocate the indiscriminate use of agricultural chemical. Does Dr. Zero? He seems to.
And I would take issue with a few things that Dr. Zero says. “The motivation behind Silent Spring . . . is the worship of centralized power and authority.”“fanatical believer”“hysteria” etc. Karl, do your own research. I have not been inside Carson’s head, but I do not think this is a reasonable, let alone fair description of the kind of a person she was. Conceivably, she could have been wrong, but not malicious. Carson expressed her concerns, namely that the indiscriminate use of poisonous chemical sprays would, on the long run, do serious damage to the environment we depend on, and that the public needed to know this.
So I am curious, Karl. If you encounter an author using vitriolic language describing the actions of someone else – Carson in this case – as fanatical, hysterical, etc. on what basis do you find him credible?
So on to DDT. This is not nearly as simple as Dr. Zero makes it out to be (this could turn out to be way too long – I hope you really want to know, Karl). Of course it works. When we were in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Government had a “Malaria Eradication Program.” a friend of mine worked in that program. He insisted it was a misnomer. It should be “Malarial Control Program”. But the program had made a huge difference in the incidence of malaria. And that points to the most basic problem with the use of DDT – indiscriminate use. Lack of education and the desire to take profit encourage indiscriminate use, but this is deadly on the long run.
So if one could, in fact, eliminate malaria, as we have done with small pox, how one uses the chemical is not terribly important. But that’s not the way it is.
Practically, it is impossible to eliminate all mosquitoes. (The program is to spray the inside of all houses in an are on a regular basis.) This means at least two things: 1) The moment the use of DDT is stopped, malaria returns with a vengeance. Since many of the malaria control programs were run by government (in Ethiopia it was) when government no longer has funding to run the program, the problem is greater than before. I have no idea why most government sprating programs were stopped, whether it was the ban on DDT or lack of funding. I rather expect it was lack of funding. In many, many cases, DDT was banned for agricultural use (on food) but could still be used for mosquito control. Currently there is much more interest in insecticide treated mosquito netting than in spraying houses. For one thing this much cheaper, and for another, it puts the individual homeowner in charge. 2) The other thing is DDT resistance. There are DDT reistant mosquitos. The ban on the indiscriminate use of DDT had as much, probably more to do with concern over this resistance as with human health or thin egg shells.
Another thought on the vilification by the extreme right of those who disagree with them.
ReplyDeleteAs you probably know, Ethiopia was ruled by a Marxist government during the time we were living there. We became very aware of the government's attempt to vilify their opponents at that time. Most of this was done in Amheric which we did not understand well enough to follow, but we knew there were mass rallies, and at these rallies, there was much yelling of "down with imperialism", "down with feudalism", "down with western imperialism." This lead latter to "death to imperialists," and "death to feudalists." There were other, similar slogans. Many Christians distinguished themselves in that situation by refusing to respond to that sloganizing, and many were imprisoned for their refusal. But that is another story. We found all of this scary, wondering when that kind of vilification would turn to hatred towards us. And that too is another story.
On one visit to Addis Ababa, I was invited to join a group of friends who was going to see a movie. It turned out to be an English language movie produced by the communists. The setting was resistance cell during WWII. It was fascinating to see the way the film makers portrayed the communists as noble and compassionate, the Nazis as evil, and the Americans, who were in the same resistance cell as the heroic Russians, as in it just for the money. For me it was amusing, simply because of the way things were being manipulated, but when I began thinking about how this might be affecting gullible Ethiopian minds, if ceased to be amusing.
When I read Krauthammer and Dr. Zero, when I read their vilification of those who disagree with them, I become very uneasy.
To my ears they have way to much common ground with the communist propagandists, Hitler's Nazis and religious fundamentalists of any stripe. I don't sense any desire to discover the truth there. It has been discovered, as far as they are concerned!
Am I the only one with this uneasiness?