[extropy-chat] Rachel Carson

[David Lubkin]

Damien Sullivan wrote:

>I've seen this before, from a conservative enviro-skeptic sort.  I challenged
>her.  She said DDT was a miracle drug which mosquitoes didn't develop
>resistance to, unlike the modern replacements.  Five minutes with Google found
>papers (CDC, I think) talking about the development of DDT resistance in the
>relevant mosquitos.  Can you do better?
>
>They still use DDT in limited applications, but try to avoid mass spraying.
>
>And I fail to see how Rachel Carson writing accurately about what DDT was
>doing to birds translates into her being responsible for millions of deaths.
>Should she have suppressed the truth she found?  Is it her fault people chose
>to value the existence of the bald eagle?

http://www.malaria.org/news132.html [quoting Bruce Ames]
http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm [citing studies]
http://reason.com/rb/rb061202.shtml

Words and actions have consequences, as do silence or inaction. 
Whatever one's motives, one bears responsibility not for what was 
intended but for what actually happened.

I'm disgusted with the prevalence of excusing horrors and calamities 
on the grounds that they were prompted by good intentions.


-- David Lubkin.