« An "Undeniable Fury" Among Republican Voters | Main | Another Partisan Hit From An Ex-Diplomat »
April 25, 2005
Malaria and DDT, Again
The Daily Demarche once again reminds us of the deadly and heartwrenching effects of the environmental movement's jihad against DDT:
Last Friday was Earth Day, and I am willing to bet that very few, if any, of the “celebrations” that marked the day touched on today- Africa Malaria Day. Malaria is the single largest cause of death in Africa- ahead of aids, even:
'Malaria kills one child every thirty seconds, about 3000 children every day, one in the five of the 4.6 million deaths in Africa each year is attributed to malaria and over one million people die of malaria each year, the report states in part. Also, more than 900,000 children under five years of age in Sub-Sahara Africa die of malaria.
As a heavy disease burden, an estimated 300-600 million people suffer from malaria each year, and the number of fever cases requiring treatment for malaria in children is much higher at an estimated 1-2 billion. [...] Malaria in pregnancy kills up to 200,000 newborn babies each year'.
The United States donates $19 billion a year in foreign aid, yet millions of children are dying as a result of mosquito bites. Why? Because the environmental lobby in America and the rest of the world won the battle over DDT in the 1970’s:
Dr. Demarche goes on to recount how EPA chief William Ruckelshaus, in contradiction of seven months of EPA hearings, announced a ban on most uses of DDT in the United States. Never mind that Ruckelshaus was a memeber of the Environmental Defense Fund, and that the environmental movement was using the DDT fight as a means to leverage their power.
A dear friend of mine, whose political compass points somewhere to the left of Noam Chomsky, is a great believer in the power of skepticism. Unfortunately, his skepticism includes questioning only the authority of the US government, or the "establishment". I believe he's failing to realize that any activist group is vulnerable to the same classic temptations of power. I often wonder at how leftists will reject out of hand any pronouncement of Donald Rumsfeld or GWB, yet will take as gospel the vagaries of the EPA.
We need to work to remedy the devastation caused by our unscientific and unethical banning of this very useful weapon in the fight against this killer disease.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thebernoullieffect.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/118
