The environment vs. human life
by Andrew Adams
Columnist
Time for a quiz. Which of the following individuals in history has killed the most people either directly or indirectly?
A. Adolf Hitler
B. Mao Zedong
C. Joseph Stalin
D. Rachel Carson
E. George W. Bush (for my liberal audience)
The answer is Rachel Carson. I know many of you out there are scratching your heads, but stick with me. You will see for yourself. The environmentally savvy readers will remember Rachel Carson for her 1962 bestseller “Silent Spring” which attacked the pesticide industry. In particular she wrote about a pesticide called DDT(Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) which was discovered to prevent malaria in the early 1940s. Originally designed to kill head lice, DDT went on to be one of the most important discoveries for mankind in the twentieth century.
By the 1950s, DDT was everywhere. The extremely inexpensive pesticide was being used in poor areas of Africa, Asia, South America and in almost every country in between. In America, farmers were spraying it on their crop, and housewives were spraying it in their homes. Throughout the world, Malaria was disappearing. In Sri Lanka, there were three million Malaria cases in 1946. After spraying DDT in their homes, that number dropped to 27 in 1964. India went from 75 million cases down to about 50,000 thanks to DDT.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good news. In the late 50s and early 60s, Carson and other environmental researchers noticed that DDT when used in massive amounts as a farming pesticide created a small drop in nearby animal populations. The main animal was the bald eagle which landed on the endangered species list. Patriotic Americans all over the country were shocked that DDT, a chemical that many of them used in their homes, was actually slowly killing one of our national symbols. This led to the creation of environmentalism in America, which led to the EPA, which led to global warming, which led to Al Gore, which led to the Internet.
In 1972, DDT was ruled as an illegal pesticide and the U.S. government forbid its use. There were numerous other, slightly more expensive but just as effective, pesticides out there, so it didn’t have a huge impact on the nation. If only that were true for the rest of the world. Most nations in the world, especially in Africa and areas of Asia and South America, aren’t as wealthy as America is. To us, pesticides are cheap, but to them, it’s unaffordable. Since then the U.S. and almost every industrialized nation had ended the production of DDT and no longer provided it to third world countries. Additionally, the U.S. and Europe have pressured every country currently using the inexpensive pesticide to stop or risk losing foreign aid. Unfortunately, many third world nations have succumb to the environmentally demanding West and have paid for it dearly with their citizens’ lives.
So how damaging is America and Europe’s DDT ban? The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are between 300 and 500 million malaria cases in the world each year. Of those, an estimated 2.7 million people die as reported by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. That is equivalent to one malaria death every 12 seconds. This has been going on for over 35 years, so there are over 97 million people estimated to be dead because of this terrible ban. To put this in perspective, there have only been about 25 million total AIDS deaths. Even if you look at the deadliest war the world has ever seen, World War II, there were only about 24 million military casualties. This means that the ban on DDT has killed about the same number of people as AIDS and the total military casualties of WWII combined, times two.
We may not think about this too much. Malaria hardly ever strikes an American citizen, whereas Americans do die of AIDS and die in war, but that doesn’t make it any less sorrowful. UNICEF reports that the vast majority of malaria victims are children under the age of five and pregnant women, because their bodies are less immune to this deadly disease.
The irony in the situation is that DDT really isn’t that poisonous, especially to humans. Kenneth Mellanby, a professor of ecology and entomology, would give lectures on why DDT isn’t bad. Before every lecture Mellanby would consume DDT in front of his class. He did this for forty years and died of natural causes at the age of 85.
I love the bald eagle, as I hope every patriotic American would, and I can understand if the EPA wishes for DDT to be banned in farming. But why should we use our economic might to be forcing third world, developing nations to choose between our aid and the lives of their citizens? As despicable as it is, the U.S. and international organizations like the U.N. and WHO have played a large role in the deaths of those 97 million innocent victims. I’m sure that Rachel Carson and her environmentalist followers had no idea that their opinions of DDT would send close to 100 million people to their graves. It’s not too late. There are millions of lives that can be saved if our nation can take the decidedly pro-human stance on DDT, instead of our current pro-environment stance.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 22 2008. Filed under Opinion.
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