The Law of Unintended Consequences Part II

I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and I believed.  I supported the ban on DDT

Now, I’m reading other literature on the sharp rise in deaths in 3^rd World Countries from Malaria.  Another unintended consequence.

Prior to the ban on DDT Sri Lanka’s deaths from malaria had dropped from a 720,000 per year to 1,500 per year, but in 1972 the EPA banned the use of DDT and the rest of the world followed.  Deaths from Malaria worldwide rose to 8.2 million per year.

Experts have discovered that it was not DDT itself, but the overuse of DDT that contributed to so many problems.  So why the total ban.  Part of it was no doubt caused by people like me who read Silent Spring and believed, but was there another more insidious reason.  Population control.  A check of the writings (rantings) of some environmental activitists.give the following clues.     An essay in Earthbound advocates, massive human die offs……"to eliminate 90% of our numbers."  And in 1989 Earth First an environmental newsletter called AIDS a way to bring the human population back to sanity with the possibility to end industrialism, which it says caused the environmental crisis.

So why the push to fight AIDS from the very liberals/environmentalists that belong to the above mentioned groups.  Well, for one thing AIDS kills off people who aren’t likely to reproduce anyway.  Now Malaria.  That’s a disease that kills off the reproducers. 

I know what you’re thinking,  there is a big campaign, “Nothing but Nets” with PSA’s on TV.  Problem.  Nets only work at night.  What about all the kids who go out to play during the day?  While mosquitoes aren’t as prevalent during the day, they’re still around by riverbanks and lakes, in the marshes, places where kids (and adults) go during the day.

You’re also thinking about all the birds that were saved.  Didn’t DDT thin bird eggshells reducing the population of a lot of species of birds?  There are questions about the tests of eggshells, but even if they were accurate there are two answers.  First the new advocates for DDT want to limit the spraying to smaller areas, with less DDT used.  The problem may not have been the DDT, but the massive amounts used.  And, when push comes to shove even if small amounts of DDT make birds shells thinner, if I could save millions of kids, let me think about it. 

Third World countries don’t have that option, though.  Europe especially will not accept products from countries that use DDT.  That’s a big economic impact for someplace like Sri Lanka, India or any country in Africa.  That may be economic blackmail, but it exists and it works.

How does that affect us?  Well, West Nile Virus and Malaria are on the increase in the US and so are bedbugs.  Yes, bedbugs.  DDT wasn’t the sole factor, but it did help wipe out bedbugs, but they’re on the rise again.  Major metro newspapers are reporting stories about people who stay in hotel rooms infested with bedbugs and the worst thing is the little buggers burrow into any wood in the room come out at night and bite you.  And you can bring them home with you.  The problem is even worse in Europe than it is here, but it’s coming to a hotel or motel you may be staying at right here in the USA.

And, on a personal note, my husband’s summer job while in college (years ago) was spraying DDT for a major mosquito control company in the Midwest.  He says he was an “insecticidal maniac” for two years.  The only side effect of the DDT surrounding him 50 years later is mosquitoes (bugs of any kind) don’t go near him.  I wish I had that side effect.

I’ll ask you again.  Do you prefer mosquitoes or kids?  Frankly, I like the kids.  They can be pesky and blood suckers, but they are also cute, cuddly and loving.  I’m weighing it.  The possibility of thinner eggshells or millions of dead people.  Sorry, I still prefer the people.