[extropy-chat] Rachel Carson

Damien Sullivan phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu
Wed Oct 5 03:05:56 UTC 2005


On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 09:07:47PM -0400, David Lubkin wrote:
> Adrian wrote:

> >but exaggerations are not useful -
> >indeed, they often backfire if they do anything - in exposing this kind

> I found Bruce Sterling's trumpeting of the authors as successors to 
> Rachel Carson ironic, given how many millions of third-world malaria 
> deaths can be laid at her feet. I can't think of anyone else in US 

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?

-xx- Damien X-) 



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list