re: #427 Charles

You have got to be kidding. Yes, DDT is very good at killing mosquitoes that carry malaria. And it’s also very good at persisting in the environment and killing all kinds of other creatures.

And it’s also very good at training insects to become resistant to pesticides.

But hey! Let’s use DDT as an example of the evil agenda of the science tyrants too!

I did not originate the “science tyrants” term nor do I think it was anything other than totally stupid. People say totally stupid things all the time (on all sides). I do not support apply those quotes to people who did not say them.

Banning DDT was a huge, tragic mistake. Yes, it is a persistent pesticide and thus must be used properly or it will do serious damage. The Bald Eagle population was already recovering in the US when DDT was banned.

Indoor spraying of DDT has resumed in parts of Africa and malaria rates in those areas are plummeting by orders of magnitude. Had DDT not been banned, the battle against malaria would have gone vastly differently in the last 3rd of the 20th century. I doubt malaria would have become extinct but with the numbers vastly lower, the WHO might have seen this as a reachable goal. There’s no telling what might have happened.

I care about nature — I live in want is virtually a nature preserve. I get Bald Eagles in my back yard.