FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), one of the most interesting magazines out there, has a new article on the “Rachel Carson is evil/DDT will save the planet” insanity in the media.
I think they pretty much sum up why an idea that is unsupported by facts has such staying power:
“At one level, these articles send [...]
For those of you following the attempts to resurrect DDT as the saviour of mankind, Ed at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub has a great new post in which he links an old TV drama to DDT and it’s apologists. Check it out!
I have been AWOL lately in my writings on DDT–it’s just been the semester [...]
Hurray! I’ve posted the results of several recent studies showing that bed nets can be extremely effective at preventing malaria in the past. The WHO has now publicly stated a policy of free distribution:
“NAIROBI, Aug. 16 — Long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets should be distributed free, rapidly and widely in malaria-endemic areas, World Health [...]
Oh, found this at Mother Jones, via Bootstrap Analysis:
Global Warming Mathematics
I re-labeled it “conservation math” since so much of it applies to topics other than just global warming. One I especially liked:
Waste = Want – Need
And this one especially seemed to describe some of the responses I’ve gotten to my writing about [...]
I and a whole bunch of other bloggers were contacted this week by the Astroturf group Africa Fighting Malaria. They wanted us to know a new paper had been published about DDT:
“This information was distributed to global media today. We are sharing it with you now because we hope, regardless of your predisposition, that [...]
Ugh. He’s back. In a way, it’s actually quite a flattering indication that I must be having an effect with my little campaign to point out the (many) inaccuracies in the “DDT is safe, Rachel Carson is the AntiChrist” campaign. I’ve been singled out for not one, but TWO posts on how wrong I [...]
Ed at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub caught someone blindly repeating the “Rachel Carson is the antichrist” dogma that’s making the rounds. Check out his post.
Here’s some interesting background on the overly positive National Geographic DDT coverage that I didn’t know: Michael Finkel, the author of the malaria piece, was fired from the New York [...]
Just for the heck of it, one of my NetVibes widgets is the Buddhist Quote of the day. Most of them are koans that just make my head hurt, but today’s I really liked:
“No matter what one does, whether one’s deeds serve virtue or vice, nothing lacks importance. All actions bear a kind [...]
Aphid “Chemical Weapons”
Cabbage aphids have developed an internal chemical defense system which enables them to disable attacking predators by setting off a mustard oil ‘bomb’, says new research.
Butterfly recovery from bacterial infection
An international team of researchers has documented a remarkable example of natural selection in a tropical butterfly species that fought back – genetically speaking [...]
There was an interesting interview over at Wired with the Yes Men, a corporate ethics activist group. They were spot-on when talking about the way dissent is manufactured using science out of context:
“Scientists depend on doubt, on not knowing for sure until a certain point. It’s part of the language of science to say [...]
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