Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (23360)	1/7/2004 4:51:28 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793709

Which was the publication of the lies of Rachel Carson in "Silent Spring." I'm quite sure I never heard that book called lies before. Most of those hostile to eco-warriors give her and the early pioneers credit and merely object to more recent hyperbole and zealotry. I had no idea you were such a hard case. I shall tread carefully. <g> I'm having lunch this weekend with two former colleagues who are still at EPA. You've given me an anecdote to share. Hope I don't get food spewed all over me when I tell it.

To: LindyBill who wrote (23360)	1/7/2004 5:54:28 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793709

"the publication of the lies of Rachel Carson in "Silent Spring." That was required reading in Jr. High. It was presented as science fact. There were no other viewpoints presented.

To: LindyBill who wrote (23360)	1/7/2004 7:08:43 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793709

DDT was demagogued out of use. Rachel Carson sounded the initial alarm against DDT, but represented the science of DDT erroneously in her 1962 book Silent Spring. Carson wrote "Dr. DeWitt's now classic experiments [on quail and pheasants] have now established the fact that exposure to DDT, even when doing no observable harm to the birds, may seriously affect reproduction. Quail into whose diet DDT was introduced throughout the breeding season survived and even produced normal numbers of fertile eggs. But few of the eggs hatched." DeWitt's 1956 article (in Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry) actually yielded a very different conclusion. Quail were fed 200 parts per million of DDT in all of their food throughout the breeding season. DeWitt reports that 80% of their eggs hatched, compared with the "control"" birds which hatched 83.9% of their eggs. Carson also omitted mention of DeWitt's report that "control" pheasants hatched only 57 percent of their eggs, while those that were fed high levels of DDT in all of their food for an entire year hatched more than 80% of their eggs. junkscience.com