GREEN - We Can Do It: When it comes to the environment, women lead the way

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/8/6 | Gregory Dicum

[SmithL]

From Rachel Carson, the founder of modern environmentalism whose 1962 book "Silent Spring" first raised popular awareness of industrial chemicals in the environment, to Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate who mobilized women in East Africa to plant more than 20 million trees, the story of environmentalism is the story of women going up against long odds to do what they know is right.

Because today is International Women's Day, it's a perfect time to celebrate a few of the many women -- from radical rabble-rousers to corporate officers -- who give the environmental movement much of its strength and energy. In the past year, just under half of the more than 50 people I've interviewed for this column have been women.

Melinda Kramer, co-founder of the Berkeley-based Women's Global Green Action Network, says that's to be expected. "Women are inextricably linked to issues of environmental sustainability," she explains, "as mothers, as caretakers, as food producers, as consumers and as nurturers." Kramer, who had been working with women leaders in Africa, China and Siberia, founded the organization to provide training and resources to female grassroots environmental advocates around the world.

"In order to ensure their own health, and that of their family and communities, women really need to manage and influence environmental policies," she says. "For a lot of women, environmentalism is too narrow a term for their work -- social justice and human rights have a lot to do with women's everyday responsibilities."

[SmithL]

Sure let's start this discussion with Rachel Carson and how her lies are responsible for the deaths of MILLIONS of children, worldwide.

[Tulane]

What did she lie about, how did she cause death of children? (not flaming, just don't know who she is...I assume an environmentalist).

[sully777]

Silent Spring: Strong enough for a man but made for a woman

No, that's not right...what was the name of that soap?

Silent But Deadly: Strong enough to wound a man but able to slay your woman.

That's not the name of the soap

[Tulane]

Didn't the nobel peace winner say that the US govenrment invented aids to enslave Africans? I could swear I read that in a MSM article somewhere.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Women voters and the nanny state

[Vaquero]

Rachel Carson killed millions of people world wide with her villifying of a safe insecticide....DDT quote from Dr Michael Crichton: So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven't read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don't report them. I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn't carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn't give a damn.

[johnandrhonda]

You are right. With her junk science book that contributed to the banning of DDT, she is responsible for more deaths than any woman in history, and it continues to this day at the rate of than 1 million per year from mosquito-borne illnesses...

[ncountylee]

Rachel Carson ranks with Stalin and Mao when it comes to body count.

[sully777]

What did she lie about, how did she cause death of children? (not flaming, just don't know who she is...I assume an environmentalist).

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I think DDT is the subject.

[moonhawk]

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm

summarizes her lies and the consequences (I supposed one should say "allegedly...")

[moonhawk]

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm

summarizes her lies and the consequences (I supposed one should say "allegedly...")

[GreenFreeper]

how exactly did her lies causes Millions of deaths...your not going to cite Junkscience now are you? DDT is not banned for malaria control ANYWHERE!

[Tulane]

I like Crichton because he isn't afraid to speak his mind, even when he is in the "minority." He is a scientist not looking for a consensus, but the truth.

[sully777]

I'm not arguing with the truth concerning DDT. It single-handedly wiped out several plagues that were about to begin after WWII, as well as the malaria-carrying mosquito. However, many scientists were very concerned that insects were becoming resistant to DDT.

The fact that it hasn't been used in the USA may help us one day in the event of a national emergency. That is, if the environmentalists can be silenced and the politicos have the balls to re-introduce the stuff.

[Tulane]

I thought DDT was banned (I have no dog in this fight)...it's not banned?

[SmithL]

What did she lie about, how did she cause death of children?

Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring"

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Ping to Post 6 for analysis.

[GreenFreeper]

It's banned for agricultural use. Even in the US it can be used to control malaria but it's pretty much been eradicated so there is no use.

[SmithL]

Rachel Carson played a HUGE role in banning DDT, thus causing untold deaths due to malaria and other diseases.

[Tulane]

If it doesn't cause cancer, why is it banned for ag use?

[GreenFreeper]

The fact that it hasn't been used in the USA may help us one day in the event of a national emergency. That is, if the environmentalists can be silenced and the politicos have the balls to re-introduce the stuff.

Excellent point. In Sri Lanka DDT is now useless in the fight against malaria. The truth is DDT isn't as bad as once thought nor the wonder pesticide places like junkscience claim.