Idol Gives Back -- Malaria

On Wednesday, American Idol spent nearly two and a half hours raising money for charities here at home and around the world.

I think it's a wonderful effort, truly life-altering for so many in need.

One of the most heartbreaking segments to me is the one highlighting the scourge of malaria.

Millions and millions have died. These lives could have been saved. While Idol Gives Back focuses on mosquito nets and medical care, there's another solution.

DDT

Once again, I'm reminded of environmentalism and politics run amok. I think of Al Gore and his hero, Rachel Carson.

The banning of DDT wasn't a victory. It was a death sentence for millions of people. Literally.

It was bad science. It was bad politics.

From the 1998 PBS Frontline report, "Fooling with Mother Nature":

On the walls of the US vice president's office, you might expect to see framed photos of political giants past and present. Amidst his collection, however, Al Gore cherishes a picture of a biologist from Western Pennsylvania - Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring." Why does an unassuming scientist lay claim to this space? "For me personally," says Gore in his introduction to the 1992 edition of her book, "Silent Spring had a profound impact ... Indeed, Rachel Carson was one of the reasons that I became so conscious of the environment and so involved with environmental issues ... Carson has had as much or more effect on me than any, and perhaps than all of them together."

Carson's Silent Spring killed and continues to kill.

So many of Carson's claims have been refuted.

Read a sampling of the debunking of Silent Spring.

Why The Insecticide DDT Should Never Have Been Banned

Killing People - The banning of DDT and radical environmentalists

Malaria Foundation International

The Lies of Rachel Carson

Bring Back DDT, and Science With It!

The latter is a 2002 piece by Marjorie Mazel Hecht. It provides a concise overview of Carson's illegitimate assertions and the consequences of the hysteria that she launched.

The 1972 U.S. ban on DDT is responsible for a genocide 10 times larger than that for which we sent Nazis to the gallows at Nuremberg. It is also responsible for a menticide which has already condemned one entire generation to a dark age of anti-science ignorance, and is now infecting a new one.

The lies and hysteria spread to defend the DDT ban are typical of the irrationalist, anti-science wave which has virtually destroyed rational forms of discourse in our society. If you want to save science—and human lives—the fight to bring back DDT, now being championed by that very electable candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., had better be at the top of your agenda.

Sixty million people have died needlessly of malaria, since the imposition of the 1972 ban on DDT, and hundreds of millions more have suffered from this debilitating disease. The majority of those affected are children. Of the 300 to 500 million new cases of malaria each year, 200 to 300 million are children, and malaria now kills one child every 30 seconds. Ninety percent of the reported cases of malaria are in Africa, and 40 percent of the world’s population, inhabitants of tropical countries, are threatened by the increasing incidence of malaria.

...The campaign to ban DDT got its start with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962. Carson’s popular book was a fraud. She played on people’s emotions, and to do so, she selected and falsified data from scientific studies... .

Does that sound a bit extreme?

Are you thinking that I'm citing sources that lack credibility?

Do you need a source that you can identify as enlightened, sophisticated, and acceptable to the liberal mindset?

OK.

Read "What the World Needs Now Is DDT."

It's by Tina Rosenberg and was published in The New York Times on April 11, 2004.

It appears that Rachel Carson, Al Gore's inspiration, sparked a movement that cost millions of lives.

What the world needs now is DDT.

And look at the topic of Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl's April 21, 2010, e-mail message:

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans paused for a day to celebrate our planet and press for the urgent actions needed to preserve and protect it. As we observe this 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, we once again reflect on the necessity of a clean and safe environment, celebrate the successes of the last four decades, and consider the long way we still must go to achieve the goals laid out that day.

In Wisconsin, we also stop to remember and honor one of our most prominent citizens.

Earth Day was born out of the passion of Gaylord Nelson. His life was one of service – from the Pacific theater during World War II, to the State House as a State Senator and Governor, and to Washington D.C. where he served Wisconsin as a U.S. Senator for nearly 20 years.

When Gaylord came to Washington, he did so with a mission to bring environmental causes to the forefront of the national debate. He believed that the cause of environmentalism needed as much attention as national defense. For his first years in the Senate, his cause was lonely. In 1966, his bill to ban the pesticide DDT garnered no cosponsors.

Gaylord knew that only with the grassroots support of regular Americans, could the environmental agenda rise to prominence. His idea for Earth Day came from the student teach-ins of the 1960s, but his cause inspired people across boundaries of age, race and location. This year, more than one billion people around the world will come together in the same way they did 40 years ago.

In a speech on that historic day in 1970, Gaylord noted that his goal was not just one of clean air and water, but also “an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.” He told the crowd that America could meet the challenge through our technology. The unanswered question was, he said, “Are we willing?”

That question was answered with a resounding yes. That year saw the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air Act. In 1972, six years after Gaylord Nelson stood alone on his proposed DDT ban, its use was ended. Later years would bring better protection of drinking water, emissions and efficiency standards for cars, programs to cleanup brownfields sites, and the protection and preservation of our forests, rivers, mountains and oceans.

Despite that progress – and I imagine Gaylord would be the first to note this – we still have much work ahead of us. We must use this anniversary to commit to another environmental decade. The needs of 40 years ago – cleaner water, cleaner air, more protection of our lands – are still here, but the next challenge we must face is climate change.

From lower lake levels, to more invasive species, the consequences of unchecked climate change could be devastating to the people of Wisconsin. Climate change isn’t just a threat, it is also an opportunity. Structured correctly, the solutions to slowing climate change can also speed up our economic recovery.

Remarkable research and development is happening today in Wisconsin – on products for cleaner water, advanced battery technology, and using waste from farms and forests to make advanced biofuels. We have companies developing products to harness the power of the sun to replace traditional interior lighting, retrofitting heavy-duty trucks into hybrids, and manufacturing energy-efficient hot water heaters.

In Congress, legislative work to address climate change is ongoing. With the right mixture of requirements and incentives, we can achieve a policy that reduces our dependence on foreign oil, cuts greenhouse gas emissions, lowers prices at the pump and on the electricity bill, and creates good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced.

We do not have to choose between the environment and the economy; between jobs and solving climate change. Gaylord Nelson made this point over and over again. He once wrote that “all economic activity depends upon the…air, water, soil, forest, minerals, wetlands, rivers, lakes, oceans, wildlife habitats, and scenic beauty.” These, he said, “are the accumulated capital resources of the nation. Take them away and what you have left is a wasteland.”

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, while we remember the pioneering sprit of Gaylord Nelson, we must honor his legacy by turning words into action.


Sincerely,


Herb Kohl

Good grief, Herb.

While Nelson did many worthy deeds, working to ban DDT was certainly not one of them.

I have no problem with Earth Day.

I believe that we should be good stewards of God's creation. We should take care of the environment. We're morally obligated to take care of each other.

Properly using DDT would help us to ease so much suffering and spare so much pain and save so many, many precious lives.