Originally Posted by
jungle
Threats to withhold American foreign aid swiftly spread the ban across the world...Those who were initiated into the higher mysteries of environmentalism saw the reduction of the human population as a benefit...
There wasn't a worldwide ban on DDT. The ban on DDT in the US however is credited for getting, among others, the Bald Eagle off the endangered species list.
Maybe Doctor Zero is a Monsanto employee.
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Criticism of restrictions on DDT use
Critics claim that restrictions on the use of DDT in vector control have resulted in substantial numbers of unnecessary deaths due to malaria. Estimates for the number of these deaths range from hundreds of thousands, according to Nicholas Kristof,
[107] to much higher figures. Robert Gwadz of the
National Institutes of Health said in 2007 that "The ban on DDT may have killed 20 million children."
[108] These arguments have been called "outrageous" by former WHO scientist Socrates Litsios, and May Berenbaum, an entomologist at the
University of Illinois, says that "to blame environmentalists who oppose DDT for more deaths than Hitler is worse than irresponsible."
[81] Investigative journalist Adam Sarvana and others characterize this notion as a "myth" promoted principally by
Roger Bate of the pro-DDT advocacy group
Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) in service of his anti-regulatory,
free market ideology.
[109][110]
Criticisms of a "ban" on DDT often specifically reference the 1972 US ban
(with the erroneous implication that this constituted a worldwide ban and prohibited use of DDT in vector control). Reference is often made to
Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring even though she never pushed for a ban on DDT.
John Quiggin and Tim Lambert have written that "the most striking feature of the claim against Carson is the ease with which it can be refuted."
[111] Carson actually devoted a page of her book to considering the relationship between DDT and malaria, warning of the
evolution of DDT resistance in mosquitoes and concluding:
It is more sensible in some cases to take a small amount of damage in preference to having none for a time but paying for it in the long run by losing the very means of fighting [is the advice given in Holland by Dr Briejer in his capacity as director of the Plant Protection Service]. Practical advice should be "Spray as little as you possibly can" rather than "Spray to the limit of your capacity."
DDT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia