Beware of scowling greenies bearing dire predictions. An issue
that is widely discussed in the press and in academic circles these
days is the subject of global warming. Actually, we hear relatively
less about global warming these days, and more about
”
climate change.
”
Al Gore and the press coverage afforded a public figure of his
stature is the immediate agent of the present public awareness on
the subject of climate change.
”
There is no longer any debate about global warming
”
is his continuous assertion. As he states in his film
”
An Inconvenient Truth:
”
”
There is no controversy about these facts, out of 925 recent
articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming,
there was no disagreement. Zero.
”
Beware of scowling greenies bearing dire predictions. An issue that is widely discussed in the press and in academic circles these days is the subject of global warming. Actually, we hear relatively less about global warming these days, and more about “climate change.” Al Gore and the press coverage afforded a public figure of his stature is the immediate agent of the present public awareness on the subject of climate change. “There is no longer any debate about global warming” is his continuous assertion. As he states in his film “An Inconvenient Truth:” “There is no controversy about these facts, out of 925 recent articles in peer-review scientific journals about global warming, there was no disagreement. Zero.”
In 1962, Rachel Carlson published the book, “The Silent Spring.” In it, Ms. Carlson made a pseudo-scientific case for the banning of DDT because of the pesticide’s effect, or presumptive effect, on the thickness of bird egg shells. Thinner egg shells in wild birds, particularly raptors, had been observed and the author claimed that this was caused by the spraying of DDT. Thinner egg shells, under the weight of the nesting parent bird, was causing the shells to crack, thus killing the developing baby bird within. Carlson came to the dramatic conclusion that DDT was killing wild baby birds and thus whole species were in danger. Along the way, the author also made the claim that DDT causes cancer and was otherwise dangerous to humans. College students were immediately captivated by the fanciful portrayals contained within. The Nixon administration held high-level hearings to determine the validity of the claim of eggshell thinning due to DDT. On June 2, 1972, William Ruckelshaus, Nixon’s appointee as head of the EPA, against the advice of his own investigators, issued an order banning the use of DDT in the U.S.
J. Gordon Edwards, professor of Entomology at San Jose State University, spent a part of his professional career researching the issues raised by Rachel Carson. His conclusion in a series of scientific papers was that “The Silent Spring” claims about DDT were essentially false, that the research methods employed by Rachel Carson were flawed, and that the banning of DDT has caused and continues to cause millions of needless deaths around the world. Dr. Edwards challenged the claim that DDT is toxic to human beings and the claim that bird deaths caused by eggshell thinning was due to DDT spraying. As to the first claim, Dr. Edwards illustrated his point by consuming a teaspoonful of DDT before each of his lectures on the subject, for many years, to illustrate the benign nature of DDT to humans.
Through actual feeding experiments Dr. Edwards showed that DDT in the bird diet does not result in eggshell thinning. The research that made the original case for thinning due to DDT ingestion was later shown to have been skewed by a decrease in calcium levels in the bird diet from the normal 2.5 percent to 0.56 percent! When normal 2.5 percent calcium was returned to the bird diet, no thinning was observed. (op. cit). Edwards, an esteemed mountaineer, died of a heart attack while climbing at the age of 84.
The banning of DDT on the other hand has produced tragic consequences to humans. In 1970, the National Academy of Sciences stated: “To only a few chemicals does man owe as great a debt as to DDT. In little more than two decades DDT has prevented 500 million human deaths due to malaria that would have otherwise been inevitable.” Sadly, after the banning of DDT, malaria returned. Today the estimate of malaria cases worldwide per year is 300 to 500 million. The third world, primarily Africa, has paid the price of the U.S. environmental movement’s preoccupation with the banning of DDT.
As to the present claim by Al Gore, suffice it to say his statement on the subject of global warming that there is “no disagreement about the facts” is incorrect. For example, Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, disagrees with the “facts” presented by Mr. Gore and the scientists he references. Perhaps history will show that human-produced global warming threatens our future. However, we all need to keep an open mind. Premature political action may turn out to be as deleterious to our future as the short-sighted decision to ban DDT was in 1972. Beware of scowling greenies bearing dire predictions.
Al Kelsch lives in Hollister and writes a weekly column for the Free Lance that appears every Saturday.
