Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Rachel Carson: Environmental Savior or Doombringer to Africa

Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" brought environmental concern to the American public like never before.  It explained the consequences of the overuse of synthetic pesticides.  While it was good to bring concern of overuse to the public it also brought panic.  The result was the disbanding of the use of DDT for pesticide control.
With DDT out of the picture, arguably one of the most effective chemicals to get rid of mosquitoes, diseases carried by mosquitoes continue unchecked in third world countries.  Around 2 million people in Africa die every year from malaria.  I think that her raised awareness for the environmental cause showed the American people that we need to preserve our planet.  But at what cost?  Millions of deaths could be prevented if DDT were put in use.

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