One of my childhood memories is watching my sister make her daily supplement shakes. She had to drink up to 62 ounces of this think liquid every day. My sister was allergic to almost everything; eggs, beef, milk, strawberry, yeast and the list can go on and on to fill a piece paper front and back. She eventually grew out of majority of her allergies but still has to take some supplements for vitamins and minerals that she is missing due to her restricted diet.
Why am I making this correlation to Rachel Carson and her unfortunate successful fight to end the use of DDT in the fight against disease carrying mosquitoes? It is because what she forgot to do was to supplement the removal of DDT with another safe and effective pesticide. Her book, which is full of beautifully written metaphors and rhetoric grounded in possibilities and not fact, helped to push for the end of the use of DDT. Yes mosquitoes could have developed immunity to DDT similar to the roach and chlordane; but, it had not been proven yet. She forced the removal of the main source of protection from an entire group of people, without concern on how they would survive the next step with no protection. She was more concerned about nature instead of human life and not concerned enough about the effects it would have on a community of people. Her narrow view of life caused the lives of millions in Africa.
Some African countries, like South Africa continued to use DDT until the late 1990s, and then once they stopped using DDT they experienced devastating outbreaks from Malaria. Some South American countries are still using DDT to help control Malaria outbreaks with no known harmful effects on human life. Even with no actual proof of the ambiguous information in the Silent Spring, many countries are no longer using DDT and over 1 million people are dying from Malaria each year.
Where is the daily supplement to help extend life?
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