re: #272 ObserverArt

Are you forgetting the amount of damage DDT did to birds and wildlife…and that it is a carcinogen?

That had a lot to do with its banning I believe.

No, I’m not forgetting it. It wasn’t germane to my point, which was that the DDT story the Right likes to tell ( DDT is a totally safe pesticide that nearly eradicated malaria until Rachel Carson banned it and tens of millions died she’s worse than Hitler!!) is bullshit, that its overuse in agriculture rendered it nearly useless, and that malarial mosquitoes had already acquired resistance and were rebounding to pre-DDT levels when its agricultural use was banned.

BTW, it isn’t totally banned. It’s still used for some limited disease prevention purposes, like spraying walls of dwellings, where it stays put and remains toxic to mosquitoes, thus protecting the inhabitants. But no more carpet bombing swamps and crops with the stuffl.