3 ms·
Reminds me of the gleeful use of DDT as well. It's a common pattern.
by spraak 7y ago
Reminds me of the gleeful use of DDT as well. It's a common pattern.
- crdotson 7y agoProbably a bad example. A lot more people died from malaria than would ever have been harmed by DDT.
- User23 7y agoMost people have no idea malaria was endemic in the USA as far north as New York State. The advantage of the DDT saturation was that it wiped out the disease reservoir completely, precisely because it persisted in the environment. Modern "responsible" DDT usage (treated nets, wall spraying, etc) is just breeding resistant mosquitoes.
- taneq 7y agoWe gleefully use all sorts of new things. Most of them turn out like sliced bread, and we stop thinking of it as "gleefully using them" and just accept them as part of our lives. It's only the odd occasion when things go wrong that confirmation bias kicks in and we think of all the other times that something hasn't worked out.
- hamilyon2 7y agoDDT is a miracle chemical with little downsides. Whole epidemics were shut down thanks to it.