So, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) planned to introduce a bill to honor Rachel Carson -- author of the seminal Silent Spring -- on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Carson is, as non-psychotics know, a hero who did about as much as any human being in history to raise awareness, not only of toxic chemicals in the environment, but of our symbiotic and delicate relationship to the ecosystems we inhabit.
Cardin has since decided not to introduce the bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he would block it.
Block it, you ask? Who would bother to block a piece of symbolism like this, especially one dedicated to someone like Carson?
Beware! You are now entering the fever swamps of the far right. You see, conservatives have convinced one another that Carson is responsible for a ban of the insecticide DDT in Africa, and that the DDT ban is responsible for an epidemic of malaria, and the epidemic is responsible for thousands -- millions! -- of deaths. Thus, "Rachel Carson killed more people than Hitler." Thus, a new website from CEI (the brain trust behind "CO2: We call it life") called "Rachel Was Wrong."
You'll not be surprised to learn that every part of this conspiracy theory is wrong -- badly wrong, repeatedly debunked, yet still staggering forward like a hysterical zombie with Tourette's. (Remind you of anything else? Shocked that virtually the same roster of "thinkers" is involved in both?)
Anyway, I don't want to spend much time on this. Don't feed the trolls and all. But if you want the details, your man on the front lines is the indefatigable Tim Lambert. Start with this post and then peruse this section. Have fun.
And raise a glass in Carson's memory. Obviously her work is not done.
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Comments
View as Flat
naturescene Posted 6:24 am
24 May 2007
well
The science of Silent Spring is rather sketchy, and while Carson wasn't the sole force behind the end of widespread DDT use, she was a major factor.
The problem with DDT isn't it's toxicity, it's the overuse. Properly managed, DDT is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to battle malaria, which is a terrible disease. There's no reason malaria should still be as widespread as it is, and the hysteria around DDT is partially to blame for that, I have no doubt.
But Carson did raise awareness of many issues (whether or not she was right on everything), for that she should be commended. I don't see why there should be a bill to honor her though -- Congress has better things to do. However, the idea of someone blocking this bill is ridiculous.
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GonzoDon Posted 6:43 am
24 May 2007
Just don't mention Iraq civilian deaths ....
Wow. It's touching to learn that right-wing America expresses such deep, heart-felt concern about Africans suffering from malaria.
Who would have thunk it?
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Biodiversivist Posted 3:19 pm
24 May 2007
Stupid, ignorant, bastards
Here's to you Rachel...
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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caniscandida Posted 4:10 pm
24 May 2007
mistake, to underestimate Carson
GonzoDon, that is very well put. Republicans should always ask themselves: When they seem to be doing good to somebody in trouble, why should anybody believe that they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, and not for some ulterior, profitable, self-serving motive?
The educator Ellie Goldberg, in the "exhausted canary" thread, by way of replacing the hapless canary, wrote this:
<<
Rachel Carson was a "Sentinel Lion." Rachel Carson had the courage, the confidence, the reverence for life, and the sense of responsibility to speak out during a period of widespread pesticide abuse and environmental degradation. Her book, Silent Spring, still has the transformational power to be the touchstone for a new wave of social consciousness and political urgency.
Rachel Carson inspires us to think of ourselves, not as whistleblowers, troublemakers, or canaries in the mine, but as guardians, steadfast sentries, and defenders of our community against the decisions that allow pollution to contaminate our air, water and food.
>>
Whether the "sentinel lion" metaphor has legs, I rather doubt, but I like very much what Ellie is getting at. She is certainly correct to emphasize how inspirational Rachel Carson's writings have been, far beyond the particular issues that Carson was writing about.
First in her articles in The New Yorker, then in her book, Rachel Carson brought home the message that we need to be thoughtful, always: When we thoughtlessly go about our economically profitable activities, such as spraying pesticides on crops, we are ignorantly and foolishly killing many members of our own community of living creatures, whom we love.
Really, I do not see how anyone could deny that this is an important lesson, which no one else was teaching so well just then; and therefore she most certainly deserves some honor, such as the one that Cambridge is bestowing on her.
And we can have no doubt that she would be horrified by the way her anti-DDT message has been abused by US politicians with agendas of their own. She would be moved to laughter, probably, by the ridiculous accusations that she is a mass-murderer, were it not for the fact that she is being bizarrely charged with the deaths of countless victims of malaria.
On Sunday, May 27, the hundredth anniversary of her birth, we must celebrate her and her work, remembering her love for all human beings, and for all the animals with which we share this world.
Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!
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caniscandida Posted 4:13 pm
24 May 2007
major error: wrong antecedent!
Please forgive my momentary abstracted distraction. In the last sentence of my last comment, of course I meant to write "with WHOM we share this world."
Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!
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amazingdrx Posted 11:26 pm
24 May 2007
Ohhh..Oklahoma...
Where most of the meth precursors are available for anyone to purchase without any regulations.
Sing along!
How could this be? And why? Because the chemical industry (that also makes DDT) runs the state. That's world class corruption and industrial bribery.
They want absolutely no impediment to selling their wares, no matter how harmfull they may be.
It's similar to judge Alito's stance on choice. He wants all americans to be able to choose, between semi-automatic and full automatic weapons.
A meth lab and machine gun in every home? Yes that's what the corporatist citizens want for their beloved corporate citizens that manufacture chemicals and machine guns. No pesky regulatory interference between their products and the consumer!
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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atreyger Posted 1:22 am
25 May 2007
Love this:
staggering forward like a hysterical zombie with Tourette's
And amazingdrx: meth precursors are widely available in every state, in every pharmacy. Counties and states with a major meth problem have restrictions on how much cough medicine and such a customer can purchase per visit.
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amc89 Posted 2:03 am
25 May 2007
Great heroine to a nine year old
I did a report on Rachel in fourth grade and she's been an inspiration to me ever since.
Most people don't reaize that she was also an animal protection advocate and condemned factory farming, which was taking off around the time of her book.
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SustainableGreen Posted 2:14 am
25 May 2007
"and history ain't changed...."...Not
Hey, all:
Wow, I just have to unabashedly say that the beauty of some of the things I read here brings me to tears. Others make me laugh and some make me angry, and some make me shake my head in disgust, but seldom do I see such beauty.
Rachel Carson is one of my members of the holy trinity, with Aldo Leopold and Henry David Thoreau being the others. And "Silent Spring" ranks with "Origin of Species" as history changing literature.
I guess one thing I cannot understand is how two more troglodyte-ish Senators (Inhofe and Coburn) could come from the same state in the same century. They should have political targets on their backs for 2008.
Yep, here's to you, Rachel.
Oh, and I apologize to good troglodytes everywhere.
David
Sustainability For Life
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!
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WWAGD?! Posted 2:35 am
25 May 2007
Baby Killer
Reversing its policy, UN agency promotes DDT to combat the scourge of malaria
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19855&Cr ...=
John Bailo, The "Denier Guy"
You Read It Here First
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HealthyKids Posted 2:44 am
25 May 2007
Parachuting Cats in to Borneo
Parachuting cats into Borneo! A Cautionary Tale.
In the early 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered a malarial outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had a solution: to spray large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died; the malaria declined; so far so good. But there were unexpected side effects. Amongst the first was that the roofs of the people's houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT had also killed a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. The cats started to die, the rats flourished, and the people were threatened by outbreaks of typhus and plague. To cope with these problems, which it had itself created, the WHO was obliged to parachute 14 000 live cats into Borneo. Operation Cat Drop, now almost forgotten at the WHO, is a graphic illustration of the interconnectedness of life, and of the fact that the root of problems often stems from their purported solutions.
(Quoted in Rachel Wynberg and Christine Jardine, Biotechnology and Biodiversity: Key Policy Issues for South Africa, 2000)
Ellie Goldberg, M.Ed. www.healthy-kids.info
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WWAGD?! Posted 2:55 am
25 May 2007
Divide That By A Thousand
The truth about the flying cats...
http://thecompasspoint.blogspot.com/2007/04/tthe-truth-ab ...
John Bailo, The "Denier Guy"
You Read It Here First
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eriqa Posted 3:04 am
25 May 2007
Is it really so hard...
...to accept that while small, targeted DDT treatments may in fact be worth the costs in order to treat malaria, Rachel Carson's alerting us to the dangers of spritzing the stuff willy-nilly about the landscape is still an achievement worth celebrating?
This is the trouble with the present crop of Republicans' "War on Nuance."
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WWAGD?! Posted 3:12 am
25 May 2007
A Nuance That Kills Kids
The "nuance" was a kid killer, and a devastator of the African people.
Why can't you Libs accept that in the same manner of colonialists who "knew better", you hero, Rachael Carson allowed millions to die of a disease we already new how to combat???
John Bailo, The "Denier Guy"
You Read It Here First
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lifeisyoga Posted 4:39 am
25 May 2007
DDT and malaria
To be accurate, DDT doesn't really combat malaria, it combats the mosquitoes that transmit the malarial protozoan. DDT was so overused that DDT-resistance has developed in mosquito populations. People must apply more and more, plus it concentrates up the foodchain and degrades poorly.
DDT and associated dioxins bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue of fish, birds, whales, humans. This is bad news. (Apparently Mr. Bailo forgets how American bald eagles and peregrine falcon populations barely returned from oblivion after DDT use was banned here.)
Rachel Carson was a conservative worthy of the name; perhaps more of us should read Silent Spring before making glib comments.
Stephen Brown Sharon, PA
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WWAGD?! Posted 5:43 am
25 May 2007
The UN is not "glib"
It's the UN that's reinstated DDT.
Read the posts below.
They cite "overwhelming scientific evidence" about the usefulness of DDT.
John Bailo, The "Denier Guy"
You Read It Here First
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MarkUK Posted 6:11 am
25 May 2007
Old and tired
Let's see what the real story is with Rachel Carson:
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/05/rachel_carson_kil ...
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/05/this_week_in_the_ ...
How low can you go?
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eriqa Posted 7:11 am
25 May 2007
MarkUK, thanks for the link
I think it's worth reproducing here the excerpt from Rachel Carson's actual words (not a caricature or exaggeration) on DDT and malaria:
"No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story - the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting. ...
What is the measure of this setback? The list of resistant species now includes practically all of the insect groups of medical importance. ... Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes. ...
Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity' ..., Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible."
Sounds like a very sensible Integrated Pest Management strategy to me, not a blanket disavowal of all DDT treatments.
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Biodiversivist Posted 7:17 am
25 May 2007
Jabailo,
Can't quite put my finger on it but you remind me of someone. It is easy to skip past your usual boring prattle but sometimes you just sound so... ah, unintelligent. You were just handed all the links one could hope for to explain the DDT scenario and then you turn right around and post something like that. You are by definition, an idiot.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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natureguru Posted 12:38 pm
30 May 2007
The inmates are truly running the asylum now
Don't tell me -- Republicans from Oklahoma pandering to the tobacco industry? Any other reason would be insane. I'm only relieved that Ms. Carson did not live long enough to see her name dragged across the coals. I loved her book, applaud her forward-thinking, solid science, and choose to ignore the tripe that's being spread by wingnuts like Bailey, et. al. No thinking person would give them a second thought.
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