Comments on: Rachel Carson’s Environmental Dogma

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:02:29 +0000

I didn’t know you dedicated a whole post to Rachel Carson bashing. I still honor her work regardless of the propaganda surrounding her as of recently. She was one of the only heroes I had growing up and when I was more into environmentalism. This planet doesn’t stand a chance with people second guessing her and global warming and you obviously haven’t seen what DDT and other harmful pesticides can do to wildlife and the ecosystem firsthand. Oh wait you have…my hand!! Good thing it’s finally ok.

By: Mosley

Mosley — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:40:25 +0000

Thanks for the link i will check it out.

By: Reasic

Reasic — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:32:28 +0000

http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/06/15/rachel-carson-vindicated/

By: Reasic

Reasic — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:31:56 +0000

FYI, I wrote this post at Celsias, which summarizes the issue.

By: Reasic

Reasic — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:38:24 +0000

I can understand that. There is a lot of hostility toward her. I just want to be sure that it’s not based on misinformation.

I’d love to do a podcast. I can’t guarantee anything about this week, but I’ll try. Email me and I’ll keep in touch and update you on how things are looking. If you don’t still have my email address, email me via the form on my blog.

By: Mosley

Mosley — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:07:29 +0000

Yes, I would love to have a podcast with you! How about next week?

Also I will read your links this week too, once I get some time. Thanks for keeping me in check but I still hate Carson!

By: Reasic

Reasic — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:15:34 +0000

Ouch. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding this Rachel Carson issue. I am going to supply you with some links that I hope you will read. Please make sure to check both sides of the issue before blaming someone for millions of deaths.

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/06/bug_girl_has_discoveredhttpmem.php

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/06/john_tierneys_bad_science.php

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/06/raw_story_follows_the_money_on.php

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/05/who_put_out_the_contract_on_ra.php

I’ve only provided links to Deltoid because Tim Lambert has done such a good job of countering much of the misinformation about Carson. Here’s a very good quote from Carson:

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.

So, as it turns out, Carson did not advocate the complete withdrawal of DDT spraying. She was only concerned about the unlimited and careless spraying that was taking place at the time, not only because it was dangerous to the environment, but also because mosquitoes were developing a resistance to it. Therefore, her work was aimed at PREVENTING malaria deaths in addition to helping the environment. The arguments against her are unfounded.

I still want to do the podcast with you guys. Are you still up for that?