3 ms·
> "Silent Spring” is thus likely responsible for 10s of millions of deaths from malaria including that of millions of children. This statement has been debunke
by sammalloy 4y ago
> "Silent Spring” is thus likely responsible for 10s of millions of deaths from malaria including that of millions of children.
This statement has been debunked as nonsense by virtually every reputable, non-industry funded scientist in the field. It’s been a while, but the last time I looked into this, Naomi Oreskes and other historians had documented that the attacks on Silent Spring were invented by public relations agencies who were paid by industrial polluters responsible for manufacturing and distributing DDT to spread this disinformation. For decades, so-called "libertarian" think tanks (think environmental whitewashing and climate denial) helped spread these lies until the paper trail was finally uncovered and exposed in the 2000s, however, some groups have continued to spread this nonsense, most notably people and organizations connected to the Heartland Institute, which is the Alex Jones/Infowars-equivalent of public policy. For these people, anything and everything which improves public health and the environment is a communist conspiracy.
- DigiDigiorno 4y agoThe idea that reduced pesticide use creating more deaths due to malaria was not debunked.... The idea that Carson wanted a complete pesticide ban and that Silent Spring was the main cause of the reduced use may have been debunked. And certainly biased organizations blamed her. Heck, the "Silent spring killed more people than Hitler" quote comes from Michael Crichton in 2004, your timeline seems ridiculously misleading to me, despite there being some truth to your statements
- sammalloy 4y agoThe "Silent spring killed more people than Hitler" line from Crichton, or variations on it, predates him by many decades. Crichton, as it is well known, helped spread much of this old disinformation (most famously the climate denial), in the same way that Scott Adams did after Crichton passed away in 2008 and took up the same cause. How and why Crichton and Adams got roped into this universe of alternate facts is something I can’t explain.
- DigiDigiorno 4y agoThe generalized sentiment predates him, but I have never seen the comparison of banning DDT to causing more death than Hitler anywhere but from post 2000 and originally from Crichton. If it comes from somewhere else can you source it? Note, I'm playing devils advocate in my above comment. So I would like to know if I am wrong about that. (You used the word "variations" so perhaps you just meant the sentiment of Silent Spring causing malaria deaths and not a mass murderer comparison)