[Dialogue] NYTimes.com: Industry Ignored Its Scientists onClimate

[David Walters]

Draino, if ingested, can do one great harm. If used as directed, it will keep your sink functioning. The same can be said for DDT and  many other products,. My ancestors believed in drinking sassafras tea each spring for good health. Thirty years or so ago some government bureaucrat had it removed from store shelves because it was thought to be a carcinogen.  

Apparently there are many in government that have not yet heard that all the decisions of the earth belong to all the people of the earth.

David Walters
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Don Hinkelman 
  To: Colleague Dialogue 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 7:16 AM
  Subject: Re: [Dialogue] NYTimes.com: Industry Ignored Its Scientists onClimate


  Hi Don,



    Tens of million of malaria  deaths can be attributed to the virtual elimination of DDT from the planet based on the overblown concerns of DDT's 
    ill ecologic effects popularized by Rachel Carson.  See this article.
    http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/Fall02/DDT.html


  DDT is a sensitive point for me.  One of our colleagues in the Calcutta House was slowly killed by DDT or a similar pesticide (please help me with his name).  Well-educated, and concientious, he applied anti-bedbug powder regularly to his mattress.  Painful symptoms resulted, and after more than ten years of treatments to purge the chemicals from his body, he passed away.  


  I would not be surprised that that selective use of DDT could be useful.  However, my experience with the chemical education of rural populations and the article you cite makes me skeptical.  Instead of referencing scientific studies, he uses similar ideological words as the people he is criticizing--"...another favored ideology of environmental activists".  The website, 21st Century Science seems to be highly ideological and inflammatory as well, with titles such as: "The Global Warming Fraud", "Windmills for Suckers" and "Carbon Offsets are Genocide".  I appreciate critical thinking and agree with you that unintended consequences are very common and often ignored.  Yet, for scientific questions I would stick with more non-ideological sources like "Science" for basing decisions on.  For us lay readers, the most comprehensive, well-referenced summary of this question I have read is in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT


  Don Hinkelman


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