Somewhere in the world, every 12 seconds, a child dies of
malaria.
The fight against malaria does not receive hundreds of
millions of dollars in donations, thousands of free broadcast minutes and
gallons of printers ink for a variety of reasons.
Yes, it affects primarily racial minorities. Yes, it exists
halfway around the world. Yes, its victims are primarily poor.
But that hasn’t stopped the United States from pledging
200 million dollars to a 7-billion dollar UN project to combat AIDS in the
third world.
No, the fight against malaria is not a star-studded one. And
it’s not politically correct on two fronts.
Malaria is not spread primarily through an
"in-your-face" lifestyle that the Bible refers to as sinful…
homosexuality, promiscuity and illegal drug use...and the primary weapon in
the fight against this age-old scourge makes the green blood of
hyper-environmentalists run cold.
We’re talking about DDT.
Until a report arrived at my office this week, I hadn’t
seriously considered this banned pesticide in years. All I knew about the
chemical was that the EPA outlawed it following the release of Rachel Carson’s
book, Silent Spring, decades ago.
As a child, growing up in suburban Milwaukee, I remember
warm summer evenings and city vehicles towing spraying units that shot giant
plumes of this arboreal preservative into the air, coating the branches of
the stately elm trees that lined our Wauwatosa parkways.
The city was trying to stop the spread of Dutch Elm disease,
caused by the imported beetle of the same name.
Then DDT went away…and so did our Elm trees.
The neighborhood was never the same.
To say the information contained in the Access to Energy
newsletter angered me is an understatement.
It turns out that DDT saved more than just trees. According
to the United States National Academy of Sciences, DDT also saved more than
500 million lives during its all-too-brief lifetime. A scientific review
board of the EPA showed that DDT is not harmful to the environment and
showed it to be a beneficial substance that "should not be
banned." In fact, its discoverer was awarded the Nobel Prize.
The report says 250 million adults now suffer from malaria,
worldwide. It kills an estimated three million children every year…kids
that do not have to die.
There are those who care more about Mother Earth than her
children. Incredibly, they shed no tears at the widespread loss of innocent
human life because, in their minds, the deaths of multiple millions relieve
the pressures of "overpopulation." I suspect the goal of these new
Adams and Eves is to restore the world to a pristine "memorial
garden" with themselves as the chosen, few caretakers.
I say, "a pox on all their houses."
Now, for a little good news.
Certain conservative political groups have decided the fight
against malaria is worth it, after all. Recent articles in Environment and
Climate News and CEI on Point, published by the Competitive Enterprise
Institute of Washington D.C. are shedding new light on this tragically
unnecessary harvest of human life.
If only we could convince our "finger in the wind"
politicians to reconsider the scientific data with an open mind.
Unlike children in the Congo and Bangladesh, misconceptions
and preconceptions die hard.
Return
to WebToday