Among all the other conservative claims about how climate change isn't really happening, or if it is happening, humans have nothing to do with it, I've both witnessed and felt a very strong anti-scientific sentiment from conservatives. On balance, it seems to be because the investigations of climatologists and other scientists are reaching conclusions that conservatives don't like AND because the proposed solutions lack a certain freewheeling free market capitalistic bent to them. That's not to say that free market capitalism won't or can't play a role in the solutions since I'm sure it will. But it seems as if the hostility is because of conservatives ire that governments (not just ours) would be playing a central role in helping to change (some would say forcing a change) in the energy and consumption habits of average citizens. And since conservatives hate government involvement from an ideological perspective, they only way conservatives can see to forestall any further gov't involvement is to try to discredit the science.
Enter Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring, which was published 50 years ago. Now, seemingly overnight, there seems to be a renewed assault on both Carson and the book and how it led to DDT being banned in the US. I've heard conservative radio host and Landmark Legal Foundation President, Mark Levin, say many times that Carson wrote a book that was alarmist in nature, and that DDT wasn't the danger she made it out to be. Furthermore, according to Levin, Carson is and was responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans because of the ban on DDT.
Really?
Well, it just so happens that I already knew something about DDT when I heard Mark make that statement which isn't the only time I've heard him say it. It's the fact that the use of DDT was not banned overseas. In fact, the US didn't have the legal authority to ban it's use anywhere other than here at home. But it wasn't even entirely banned within the US. Its use was merely severely restricted here in the USA. Furthermore, DDT continued to be used in Africa for many many years. What actually happened is that the efficacy of DDT was severely diminished from overuse once the insects that survived it's use multiplied. Had DDT been used more sparingly in the spraying of walls inside homes and other buildings instead of being used in a wholesale fashion in fields and farms, it could have been used for years. It was the OVERUSE of DDT which led to it becoming ineffective. But the point is that DDT wasn't banned by the US, and the book didn't lead to it being discontinued.
Now, it wouldn't take much work to learn this. So, whey do Mark Levin and other conservatives lie about Rachel Carson and her 1963 book, Silent Spring? Could it be because of a greater overall effort to discredit the environmental movement which is at the heart of the climate change debate?
Enter Rachel Carson and her book, Silent Spring, which was published 50 years ago. Now, seemingly overnight, there seems to be a renewed assault on both Carson and the book and how it led to DDT being banned in the US. I've heard conservative radio host and Landmark Legal Foundation President, Mark Levin, say many times that Carson wrote a book that was alarmist in nature, and that DDT wasn't the danger she made it out to be. Furthermore, according to Levin, Carson is and was responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans because of the ban on DDT.
Really?
Well, it just so happens that I already knew something about DDT when I heard Mark make that statement which isn't the only time I've heard him say it. It's the fact that the use of DDT was not banned overseas. In fact, the US didn't have the legal authority to ban it's use anywhere other than here at home. But it wasn't even entirely banned within the US. Its use was merely severely restricted here in the USA. Furthermore, DDT continued to be used in Africa for many many years. What actually happened is that the efficacy of DDT was severely diminished from overuse once the insects that survived it's use multiplied. Had DDT been used more sparingly in the spraying of walls inside homes and other buildings instead of being used in a wholesale fashion in fields and farms, it could have been used for years. It was the OVERUSE of DDT which led to it becoming ineffective. But the point is that DDT wasn't banned by the US, and the book didn't lead to it being discontinued.
Now, it wouldn't take much work to learn this. So, whey do Mark Levin and other conservatives lie about Rachel Carson and her 1963 book, Silent Spring? Could it be because of a greater overall effort to discredit the environmental movement which is at the heart of the climate change debate?