Milloy has always had a terrible sore about the DDT Rachel Carson story.
Here is a discussion by ACSH on the intentional or negligent ignorance of the media about malaria, the most devastating of the tropical diseases, by far.
http://acsh.org/2014/03/ddt-misunderstood-media/
Milloy has big time anger, like me, about the cheating done by scientists, and the Ruckleshaus outrage of deciding against DDT even after the judge on the hearing said that DDT should not be banned. All because of the nonsense put out by Rachel Carson, great saint of the enviros–killer of millions with her book full of lies Silent Spring.
Shame on her, Shame on Ruckelshaus. How much suffering, how many small coffins, how many disabled for life by cerebral malaria or the other sequelae ? It is a chronic relapsing disease in the poor countries of the world–like having the worst case of the flu over and over again, with liver and kidney and general condition compromised.
It is particularly irritating that a Republican Administration would be complicit with the lefty enviros campaign against DDT, and would get involved in meddling that caused such horrific suffering in the 3rd world.
No excuse for banning the life saving pesticide.
Malaria is a terrible disease that kills kids. You do not want malarial encephalitis or black water fever.
Even a run of the mill case of malaria can threaten the life of a child and knock down an adult or child for a long time.
These scares about DDT are an outrage–the stuff is not toxic, not carcinogenic.
But I am just a shadow of the Great Milloy when it comes to advocacy for DDT.
from a wiki discussion.
A comparison of average per capita GDP in 1995, adjusted for parity of purchasing power, between countries with malaria and countries without malaria gives a fivefold difference ($1,526 USD versus $8,268 USD). In the period 1965 to 1990, countries where malaria was common had an average per capita GDP that increased only 0.4% per year, compared to 2.4% per year in other countries.[129]
Poverty can increase the risk of malaria, since those in poverty do not have the financial capacities to prevent or treat the disease. In its entirety, the economic impact of malaria has been estimated to cost Africa $12 billion USD every year. The economic impact includes costs of health care, working days lost due to sickness, days lost in education, decreased productivity due to brain damage from cerebral malaria, and loss of investment and tourism.[130] The disease has a heavy burden in some countries, where it may be responsible for 30–50% of hospital admissions, up to 50% of outpatient visits, and up to 40% of public health spending.[131]
Nail squarely hit, Sir. We can spend all our lives bemoaning the myriad useful idiots clamoring to be heard, but at the end of the day, most real world problems can be traced to a handful of unelected bureaucrats. Ruckelshaus was a lawyer and a failed politician with no understanding of science. His national political career was a series of backroom appointments. Four presidents, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush, appointed him to high national or international positions. Between government jobs he worked for giant legal firms specializing in service to political campaigns and massive waste management companies with an obvious interest in increasing regulatory cost for industry. I’m hard pressed to think of a more clear-cut example of “old-boy network” politics at work.
Anti-human and anti-real science. Sounds about right for government controllers.
Mike,
Well said – I only wished I had said it.
Rich
@john–
No doubt, Carson is greatly culpable, and her book came at exactly the time when it could do the most damage. Silent Spring, along with Paul Ehrlich’s ridiculous Population Bomb inspired millions of clueless students and professors.
I was a junior at UCLA when seminars were given on this, and was absolutely shocked to see these laid back SoCal types turn into enviro-Nazis before my very eyes. No, this is not hyperbole. For the first time in my life, I saw a real “brood of vipers” right there in academia.
And, Ehrlich, was NEVER condemned as the moron he is, and is still embraced by the movement—as is Carson.
Yes, Ehrlich and Carson deserve a special place in Hell—along with their followers, but the guy who actually did the damage—-Ruckelshaus—except for this article curiously escapes blame. Lest we forget, he was the bastard who went against his own science advisory board and banned DDT.
For that reason alone, the EPA should have been closed, and if replaced, an entirely different name should have been used. Has any other government agency been founded on a disastrous policies that killed millions? Josef Mengele killed far fewer.
Young people do not realize that this stupendous failure of the agency would be much worse than if the FDA had approved thalidomide. Why? Because the side effects of thalidomide would have soon emerged, and tragic as they were, the drug would have been pulled—not so different from what the FDA does now, BTW.
But, EPA’s banning of DDT caused millions of deaths—-virtually all of which were preventable.