Defending Rachel Carson

It's a shame pieces like this even need be written, but for those wondering, no, Rachel Carson is not a mass-murderer. Indeed, those blaming her demonization of DDT -- which mosquitoes were growing resistant to anyway -- for the continuation of malaira in developing nations might want to check the record a bit closer:

Overseas, DDT was being phased out of the fight against malaria, but Carson and budding environmentalists were not the reason. In the 1950s, when the Global Malaria Eradication Program was launched, the U.S. had been a major financier of it. But as the years ticked by, eradication remained a distant dream, says Litsios, the retired World Health Organization scientist. (His book, "The Tomorrow of Malaria," was published in 1996.) He explains that the global program "oversold the possibility of eradication" and Congress tired of its promises. By the early '60s, the money Congress had pledged to the program dried up. In 1969, the WHO officially abandoned the eradication effort.[...]

Through the '70s and '80s, most countries, on the advice of the WHO, "changed their approach to malaria control from insecticide treatment to treating people with chloroquine" -- which kills the parasites that cause malaria -- "because that was a way they could impact the mortality of the disease," Shiff says. "I don't think the ban of DDT in the U.S. had any impact on malaria control programs in Africa, certainly not in southern Africa where I was working."

According to Snow's research, malaria was responsible for 18 percent of deaths in Africa before 1960 and 12 percent of deaths between 1960 and 1989. In other words, deaths from malaria decreased during the period that treatment shifted from insecticides to medicine.

Of course, the demonization of Carson has nothing to do with malaria death -- the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is supporting the effort, certainly isn't agitating for increased foreign aid and public health projects. It's about discrediting environmentalists, and environmentalism, more generally. DDT has a place in malaria-prevention efforts, but it's not a silver bullet, or even an irreplaceable weapon. And when groups like the CEI are spending their time lamenting the switch to other chemicals and treatment methods rather than the absence of basic sanitation or a useable public health infrastructure, it's time to wonder about motives.