How greens spread malaria

Until I read this editorial (article truncated)  in today’s Wall Street Journal Europe (published last week in the American edition) I had not realised the close connections between the founder of Earth Day and opposition to DDT.

Evidently Gaylord Nelson, the Wisconsin senator who initiated Earth Day, was also a leading opponent of the cheap and effective anti-malarial insecticide. His intellectual descendants continue to oppose use of the drug despite malaria killing about one million people a year, mainly women and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Such green opponents of DDT grossly undervalue human life while exaggerating the environmental damage caused by the pesticide. The WSJE even refers to Paul Ehrlich, a leading Malthusian and author of the Population Bomb, criticising DDT on the grounds that it contributes to “overpopulation” by saving lives: “every life saved this year in a poor country diminishes the quality of life for subsequent generations.”

For more on the scandalous green opposition to DDT see this article by Roger Bate in the American. He is also the co-author of a new book, The Excellent Powder, on the subject.