Letters to the Editor

Rachel Carson's birthday bashing The right has revved up its claim that the environmental pioneer who criticized DDT was responsible for the spread of malaria that killed millions. The facts say otherwise. By Kirsten Weir [2007-06-29]

• You forgot to mention the tobacco industry's role in this scam

  First, this isn't the usual conspiracy theory; all the documents are publicly available in the tobacco lawsuit archive.

  In short, the tobacco industry had long been interested in attacking the World Health Organization, because they fear international regulation of their deadly product more than just about anything.

  So in the late 1990s, Roger Bate, the founder of the astroturf (fake grassroots) group Salon quotes, "Africa Fighting Malaria", pitched his organization to the tobacco companies as a way of forcing the WHO to defend itself.

  See the links from the article at:

  http://crookedtimber.org/2007/05/30/ddt-tobacco-and-the-parallel-universe/

  Especially the blog "Deltoid" which has long had excellent coverage of this story.

  It's all such a fraud. Rachel Carson didn't oppose DDT spraying for malaria control, she favored it. The idiots in the South African government (you know, the same one that thinks HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and opposes AIDS medication) were the ones responsible, not Carson.

  Predictable contrarians like Crichton and Tierney are so hilarious, because they go around acting like they've caught on to some conspiracy, when they're swallowing (and regurgitating) bucketloads of tobacco and oil company disinformation.

  -- teho
  [Read teho's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:35 PM
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