8 ms·

70 years ago (roughly, may be inexact), everyone who also "knows anything about it" said it was a fantastic idea to spray our kids with DDT. I wish I could pin

70 years ago (roughly, may be inexact), everyone who also "knows anything about it" said it was a fantastic idea to spray our kids with DDT. I wish I could pin down the reasoning to explain why I feel this is wrong, but intuition is the only thing I have to go on, even as heavily discounted that is in this day and age. Mosquitos are horrible little devils, and we swat every one we can and destroy their habitats when we find them. Glad to see you at least have a seed of skepticism in you. Humans are notoriously bad at playing god.

tick_tock_tick 5y ago
I feel like you are are ignoring the fact DDT is still commonly used around the world as it does more good then harm.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jacobolus 5y ago
  > it does more good then harm This is an oversimplification. If used as a limited last resort it can do more good than harm (which is why e.g. the WHO still recommends using it). DDT is very effective and has certainly saved a lot of lives by preventing malaria infections. But if used carelessly it can do a lot of harm, and various groups of experts who have studied the question have come to the conclusion that its use should be dramatically curtailed, and replaced where possible by other methods of malaria control. DDT causes fertility problems, birth defects, cancer, etc. to humans, as well as environmental damage. (Malaria also kills a ton of people, and we should be investing more resources in fighting it, ideally without resorting to heavy DDT use.)
  - garmaine 5y ago
    DDT is not known to have reproductive effects or cause cancer in humans. Please do your research and be careful about sources because there is a LOT of misinformation out there.
    - jacobolus 5y ago
      Here’s Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Human_health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Human_health I am not a medical expert, just passing along what I have read.
      - duskwuff 5y ago
        Moreover: we know from observation that DDT has severe effects on numerous wildlife species -- some of them intended, many not. It would be highly surprising for humans to be immune to these effects.
    - WarChortle18 5y ago
      Sounds like you did the research care to share your sources for that. Otherwise I'm sticking with my sources that day DDT does cause cancer and birth defects. See Wikipedia article on DDT linked by someone else.
pembrook 5y ago
Humans are in fact, really good at playing god over long periods of time. You can look at any metric of human wellbeing over the past 1000 years and the results are dramatic. Take child mortality for example. In the 18th century, the average family suffered the deaths of 3-4 of their children before they reached adulthood. Then, from 1800 to 1950, global childhood mortality dropped from 43% to 22%. Accelerating further, from 1950 to 2015, global child mortality dropped again by nearly 5X to just 4.5%. And it's still going down. [1] The reasons for this are numerous. Reductions in famine through agriculture, beating disease with medicine, reducing War through economic interdependency, expanding education and access to information through digital technology, etc. While we make mistakes in the short term , in the long term, we tend to get stuff right. The problem is, we're also really good at getting distracted by bad news stories while missing the big picture. And we LOVE the idea of humans being the cause of the end of the world for some reason. It's the basis of most of our religions. Of course, the arc of progress is paved with setbacks. But before getting pessimistic and cynical because you read some bad news stories, it pays to zoom out a little. [1] - https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality#:~:text=Across%20the%20entire%20historical%20sample,died%20before%20they%20reached%20adulthood.&text=On%20the%20very%20right%20of,rate%20is%20now%20is%202.9%25 https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality#:~:text=Across%20....
- artificialLimbs 5y ago
  I suppose if we love the idea of humans being the cause of the end of the world, it is because we are the only thing on the planet capable of causing the end of the world, such as it is. This is the result of science. Maybe you could call it scientism, if one needs something to which to ascribe a bogeyman or create division. I am not ungrateful for our current actualization. Getting here took (and continues to take) tremendous sacrifice.
  - stickfigure 5y ago
    > capable of causing the end of the world I really think you give humans too much credit here. The world has been here for billions of years, and will be here for billions more. Even if we bombed ourselves to extinction, in another million years there'd be little more to mark our passing than some fossils and a few hunks of concrete.

tick_tock_tick 5y ago

I feel like you are are ignoring the fact DDT is still commonly used around the world as it does more good then harm.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jacobolus 5y ago
> it does more good then harm This is an oversimplification. If used as a limited last resort it can do more good than harm (which is why e.g. the WHO still recommends using it). DDT is very effective and has certainly saved a lot of lives by preventing malaria infections. But if used carelessly it can do a lot of harm, and various groups of experts who have studied the question have come to the conclusion that its use should be dramatically curtailed, and replaced where possible by other methods of malaria control. DDT causes fertility problems, birth defects, cancer, etc. to humans, as well as environmental damage. (Malaria also kills a ton of people, and we should be investing more resources in fighting it, ideally without resorting to heavy DDT use.)
- garmaine 5y ago
  DDT is not known to have reproductive effects or cause cancer in humans. Please do your research and be careful about sources because there is a LOT of misinformation out there.
  - jacobolus 5y ago
    Here’s Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Human_health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Human_health I am not a medical expert, just passing along what I have read.
    - duskwuff 5y ago
      Moreover: we know from observation that DDT has severe effects on numerous wildlife species -- some of them intended, many not. It would be highly surprising for humans to be immune to these effects.
  - WarChortle18 5y ago
    Sounds like you did the research care to share your sources for that. Otherwise I'm sticking with my sources that day DDT does cause cancer and birth defects. See Wikipedia article on DDT linked by someone else.

pembrook 5y ago

Humans are in fact, really good at playing god over long periods of time. You can look at any metric of human wellbeing over the past 1000 years and the results are dramatic. Take child mortality for example. In the 18th century, the average family suffered the deaths of 3-4 of their children before they reached adulthood. Then, from 1800 to 1950, global childhood mortality dropped from 43% to 22%. Accelerating further, from 1950 to 2015, global child mortality dropped again by nearly 5X to just 4.5%. And it's still going down. [1] The reasons for this are numerous. Reductions in famine through agriculture, beating disease with medicine, reducing War through economic interdependency, expanding education and access to information through digital technology, etc. While we make mistakes in the short term , in the long term, we tend to get stuff right. The problem is, we're also really good at getting distracted by bad news stories while missing the big picture. And we LOVE the idea of humans being the cause of the end of the world for some reason. It's the basis of most of our religions. Of course, the arc of progress is paved with setbacks. But before getting pessimistic and cynical because you read some bad news stories, it pays to zoom out a little. [1] - https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality#:~:text=Across%20the%20entire%20historical%20sample,died%20before%20they%20reached%20adulthood.&text=On%20the%20very%20right%20of,rate%20is%20now%20is%202.9%25 https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality#:~:text=Across%20....

artificialLimbs 5y ago
I suppose if we love the idea of humans being the cause of the end of the world, it is because we are the only thing on the planet capable of causing the end of the world, such as it is. This is the result of science. Maybe you could call it scientism, if one needs something to which to ascribe a bogeyman or create division. I am not ungrateful for our current actualization. Getting here took (and continues to take) tremendous sacrifice.
- stickfigure 5y ago
  > capable of causing the end of the world I really think you give humans too much credit here. The world has been here for billions of years, and will be here for billions more. Even if we bombed ourselves to extinction, in another million years there'd be little more to mark our passing than some fossils and a few hunks of concrete.