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Save Africans, kill mosquitoes
The Washington Times ^ | May 5, 2006 | TODAY'S EDITORIAL

Posted on 05/05/2006 5:40:16 AM PDT by .cnI redruM

The yawn that greeted the announcement this week -- reported on by Joyce Howard Price -- that officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development are now vigorously endorsing and funding the use of DDT in Africa is representative of the world community's general lack of concern over the hundreds of millions of people who suffer from malaria every year. We applaud USAID's decision, even if we regret how long it's taken to reach it.

Put bluntly, malaria's killing spree -- believed to be somewhere in the realm of 50 million people since 1972 -- is worse than AIDS. Of the 500 million annual victims, 90 percent live in Africa. In the sub-Saharan nation of Uganda alone, malaria is responsible for the deaths of 100,000 children under the age of 5 every year. In dollar amounts, the United Nations says malaria costs Africa about $12 billion annually, or about 40 percent of its health expenditures.

-------------------Break--------------------

First, study after study have found no evidence that DDT has any negative effects on human health. Second, concerns over its environmental impact are exaggerated at best, and could be controlled easily with regulated spraying in homes instead of on crops.

(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ddt; enviroidiots; malaria
>>>>Closer to home, environmental groups are already lining up against USAID's decision to end three decades of human-inflicted epidemic.

Apparantly Greenpeace believes that germs are people too.

1 posted on 05/05/2006 5:40:18 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
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To: .cnI redruM
If anyone has seen the newest videos of the stopping/holding areas at the US southern borders they would agree that plane loads of DDT needs to be dropped there immediately and continuously until all the vegetation has been eliminated.
2 posted on 05/05/2006 6:00:58 AM PDT by SR 50 (Larry)
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To: SR 50

DDT is not an herbacide.


3 posted on 05/05/2006 6:01:57 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

Take a look at the videos and you will get the message.


4 posted on 05/05/2006 6:04:20 AM PDT by SR 50 (Larry)
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To: SR 50
What videos?

From post WWII till 1964, DDT was used in the US as an agricultural pesticide.

I don't think farmers would like to use something that will kill their crops. They're funny that way.
5 posted on 05/05/2006 6:07:53 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

Try this one to start with:

http://www.minutemanhq.com/~video/mcdc_crossing.mpg


6 posted on 05/05/2006 6:22:27 AM PDT by SR 50 (Larry)
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To: HEY4QDEMS; SR 50

I guess he's trying to make the analogy between illegal aliens and insects. Cute. It's a line of thinking that leads to pretty evil consequences. I imagine OBL referred to US citizens as vermin a few times himself, while his organization trained suicide bombers to carry out 9-11.


7 posted on 05/05/2006 6:27:19 AM PDT by .cnI redruM (Watching the Left turn on Senator McCain amuses me somehow....)
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To: .cnI redruM

Yes I do believe that a "Sar-Chasm" was formed between us that I failed to notice.


8 posted on 05/05/2006 6:34:30 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: .cnI redruM

Maybe 10 years ago I took my kids to the museum of Natural history in Wash DC. I was disturbed to see that it was full of politically correct envirowackoism and they had an exhibit devoted to Rachel Carson (Silent Spring, DDT etc). I was explaining to my kids how this woman was responsible for the deaths of millions of people by vilifying a chemical that reduced malaria cases by <90% and that was essentially harmless to humans. The look on the faces of other parents and kids who overheard me was priceless.


9 posted on 05/05/2006 6:45:06 AM PDT by BadAndy ("Loud mouth internet Rambo")
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To: BadAndy

Nice....
As the commercial goes, "Bad Andy, Good Pizza!"


10 posted on 05/05/2006 6:57:31 AM PDT by .cnI redruM (Watching the Left turn on Senator McCain amuses me somehow....)
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I dont know what "study after study" this article is refering to, but I ran a Pubmed seach and found some studies saying otherwise.


11 posted on 05/05/2006 6:58:25 AM PDT by Szent_Adam_Kiraly ("google maps is the best! " "true that, Double true!")
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To: .cnI redruM

I'm surprised to learn that DDT is still been using used so widely.

While the environmental impact is probably greatly exagerated, DDT has one big problem in that it is very persistent. Mother Nature does not break this chemical down.

Even today, after DDT was banned in the US in the 1970s, it is still the most common pesticide found on vegetables in grocery stores.

Malaria, mosquitos and insects are huge problems that we should solve. But we should use other insecticides instead of DDT.


12 posted on 05/05/2006 7:04:12 AM PDT by JustDoItAlways
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To: .cnI redruM

Eco-fascists have killed more people, mostly women, children and babies, than Hitler.


13 posted on 05/05/2006 7:07:03 AM PDT by sergeantdave (And though getting up in the world attracts attention, it does not establish solid worth.)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: JustDoItAlways

As a college student in Appalachia in the 50's I witnessed the reverence in which rural people held DDT. "Ain't no flies on Jesus, 'cause He's sprayed with DDT" was a popular radio tune. Mountain people would eat DDT and feed it to their children to kill parasites such as intestinal worms. The plague of mosquitoes was all but eradicated.
The environmental movement in the 60's was flexing its muscles by opposing DDT. It did not matter that DDT was then and remains today the greatest blessing to the health of poor people. They proved that they have the clout to destroy the most beneficial resources available to mankind.
Anti-humanity crusaders have always opposed all technologies that benefit humans. Their terrorist screeds in support of the environment are nothing more than an immoral oposition to free enterprise and property rights.


15 posted on 05/05/2006 8:06:06 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Here come I, gravitas in tow.)
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To: .cnI redruM

More liberalism in action... Since Rachel Carson's book and the banning of DDT, it's estimated that millions of children have died from malaria... and it continues to this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT

Just another straw in the liberal's hat of evil, death, and destruction.


16 posted on 05/05/2006 8:47:23 AM PDT by American in Singapore (Bill Clinton: The Human Stain)
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To: .cnI redruM

Africa is such a basket case, including overpopulation in relation to food supply, that it is debatable whether saving Africans is a benefit or curse.


17 posted on 05/05/2006 9:26:34 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (North American distributor for Mohammed Urinals. Franchises available.)
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To: .cnI redruM
Apparantly Greenpeace believes that germs are people too.

Actually, Greenpeace thinks people are germs, not the other way around. When you are a population Nazi, malaria is a solution, people are the problem.

18 posted on 05/05/2006 8:32:12 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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