But Her Heart Was Good (How many has Rachel Carson killed?)

Forbes.com ^ | 5/21/07 | Rich Karlgaard

[gridlock]

Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring--the book that got mosquito-killer DDT banned and launched the modern environmental movement--while struggling with cancer. The disease killed Carson in 1964, two years after Silent Spring came out.

Today's Washington Post has a story on Carson--whose 100th birth anniversary occurs later this month--and her noble fight against cancer. A touching piece.

But maddening, too! Because in the story's 34 paragraphs, there are only a buried pair, the 26th and 27th, that note the ongoing controversy about DDT's ban.

A Maryland Congressman (evil Republican, of course ... wink, wink) is quoted as saying that malaria deaths might have been prevented had DDT not been banned.

That happens to be true. DDT kills mosquitoes, which carry malaria, which was all but eradicated before DDT was banned.

Buried in paragraph 27, and paraphrasing the Congressman, The Washington Post concedes that "numerous" deaths might have been prevented by DDT.

Let's stop here. Any curious reader would ask, Just how "numerous" is numerous? Wouldn't you ask that question? The Post never asks that question. Why?

Because the answer devastates Rachel Carson and her followers. According to these CDC figures, malaria kills more than 800,000 children under age five every year.

Every year, 800,000 small children die from malaria, a disease once nearly eradicated. Ponder that.

And all The Washington Post can say is "numerous?"

That's scandalous.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

[DanielLongo]

Ah, but children don’t count in the life of a liberal. Especially third world children.

[sig226]

Some estimates put the number of malaria deaths as high as 2,000,000 people every year. Whether they were over the age of five or under it makes no difference. It’s been going on for 30 years.

[gridlock]

Ah, but children don’t count in the life of a liberal. Especially third world children.

Maybe they just consider them to be really, really, really late-term abortions...

[Hiddigeigei]

My house has walls. Doesn't yours?
Kidding aside, I understand what you mean, of course. Maybe we should fumigate under the bridges and let the Africans produce their own DDT.

[gridlock]

Thanks for the figure. If you have 800,000 under five, then 2,000,000 overall would be in the right neighborhood.

I think the reason to focus on the children is because Libs are always talking about what we have to do for The Chilllllrun, as Rush would say...

[Dianna]

hexachlorophene for antibacterial/antifungal soaps that almost got rid of ringworm infections.

We are in ringworm hell at my house. 10 days into treatment, the first site isn't looking much better and we've just discovered site number two.

FReeper advice would be appreciated!

[gridlock]

One doesn't have to regret the Enlightenment to be a conservative

One doesn't have to regret the Enlightenment to be a conservative... But it helps!

Sorry, playing to the Pubbie stereotype, again...

[gridlock]

I remember the shampoo we used when we were kids. But I’m pretty sure that stuff, foul as it was, is not available anymore. It sure did the trick, though!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Up your wazoo.

[gridlock]

That’s not where I get bitten by mosquitos... but maybe I’m not hanging out at the right kind of parties...

My question regarding a house with no walls was more related to conditions one might find in Africa.

[srmorton]

It's funny that you should post this article today because I just mentioned this very topic today in my BIO 110 class. It was the first lecture when I discuss the scientific method and I always caution them to be careful about believing the some of the various claims that are made in the name of science. For example, what qualifications does Leonardo De Caprio have that would enable him to make such pronouncements about the environment?

I also mentioned Rachel Carson as an example in which there were serious unintended consequences from a decision based on emotion and not real scientific evidence. Many thousands of lives lost due to malaria could have been saved if the decision to ban DDT had not been made.

[Clemenza]

The road to hell is paved with Rachel Carsons...

[Nachoman]

Who gets dibs on the carbon offsets of the dead kids?

[gridlock]

I teach a Sunday School class, and the kids were giving me the standard Government-School line about Global Warming. I told them that they should be a good deal more skeptical about what their teachers are telling them (present company excluded, of course!)

[JoeSixPack1]

Any committed Environmentalist who does not immediately go out and kill himself is a poseur...

Every time I read a variation of this statement things uncontrollably come out of my nose. ie: coffee, beer, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, bagels, etc. It's really amazing! :-)

[rlmorel]

I have known for years that banning DDT was a crime.

Liberals are the absolute masters of refusing to consider the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Tens of Millions dead in China for liberal support of the “Agrarian Reformers” following WWII

Millions dead in Southeast Asia following Vietnam caused by the rise of the left in America.

Million and millions of people dead from Malaria...banned by liberals.

All Liberals are one-dimensional thinkers.

[gridlock]

When I was a kid, I remember the DDT truck coming down the streets of New Delhi. It was like a rolling cloud. Even then, I knew that that truck was doing me a World of good, even as my eyes watered and my breath got short.

DDT smells bad, but Malaria really sucks.

[Hiddigeigei]

The founding fathers of our country were all creatures of the Enlightenment.

[I'm ALL Right!]

And yet, Jacques Cousteau did not offer up himself and his family first. I wonder whom he believed worthy to live and who was expendable.

[oldbrowser]

Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring--the book that got mosquito-killer DDT banned and launched the modern environmental movement

There is something "so right" about that fact, it just fits perfectly into the DNA of well intentioned liberal environmentalist.