Not-so Silent Spring

Fear not, for I am back!

Now we're going to talk about DDT. Now when I say we, I really mean "Me". I do, however, enjoy hearing how retarded you think I am, so feel free to comment. DDT is the worlds first, and best known organic pesticide. It was created in an effort to combat mosquitoes that spread malaria and other diseases.

In the mid-50's the WHO(World Health Organization) started a campaign to eradicate malaria. Barring some remote locations, this program was a huge success worldwide. Thanks to DDT, the mortality rates for malaria dropped almost 85%. However, efforts to completely rid the world of malaria morphed into a desire to merely control and treat the disease.

In the late 50's-early 60's, doubts began to arise as to the environmental effects of this pesticide. Most people in opposition to the use of DDT claim some maternal connection with a few birds that might not like the smell of the chemical. According to research from the International Development Research Center, malaria kills roughly 8000 Brazilians yearly. With that in mind, do we really value the life of a few birds over 8000 people a year? That's just one country out of the entire world. And besides, they invented the Brazilian Bikini Wax! What guy isn't happy about that? I digress. Just to throw in another stat for ya, WHO claims over 1 million deaths per year from malaria.

A writer named Rachel Carson hears some grumblings about DDT and is urged to write a book about it. And she does. The book toys with the idea of the bird population being drastically reduced to nigh extinction(because of DDT), and chaos ensues. Oh yeah, and it gives people cancer, too.

Evidently, contrary to what everyone thinks, some Democrats read books(besides Mien Kampf by the ever so misunderstood Hitler), and they happened to read this one. After reading the book, somehow, fiction morphed into fact and they took up the cause of getting this horrible doomsday chemical banned. So a group was started called "EDF" or the Environmental Defense Fund, whose first goal was to get DDT banned. They were successful.

Now, more than 40 years after "Silent Spring", the world has come to it's senses. Evidently we realized a few robins dying every once and a while from eating a chunk of DDT wasn't worth MILLIONS of people dying all around the world every year. I wonder how they came to that conclusion?

I know this post wasn't as funny as Barak Obama's ears, but who can compete with them? They're like satellites on the side of his head. I wonder if he can hear in Dolby Digital 5.0 surround sound...