Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

August 23, 2012

Letters to the editor: The dubious legacy of 'Silent Spring'

Restrictions worldwide on the use of DDT have caused needless deaths from malaria, a reader says.

The World Heath Organization reports that between 537,000 and 907,000 people, mostly children, died of malaria in 2010. DDT drastically reduced human suffering caused by malaria until it was banned.

There is a worldview where children's lives are no more valuable than animal lives. As Ingrid Newkirk, founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has said, "When it comes to pain, love, joy, loneliness and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."

To people like Newkirk, the preventable deaths of children who had little or no hope of a "quality" life are part of nature.

The banning of DDT has questionable scientific and moral validity. When studying statistics, you learn that correlation is not causation. DDT might or might not have been a factor in the bird deaths mentioned in your article "Carson still a force of nature 50 years after 'Silent Spring' " (Aug. 13).

An article by scientist Art Robinson, "USNAS Estimates DDT Saved 500 Milion Lives Before it was Banned," states that "'Silent Spring' is a book filled with deliberate falsehoods and blatantly marketed unreasoning and unjustified fear."

There are enough other articles (i.e., "When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story," by Kendra Okonski, writing for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and "Malaria, Politics and DDT," The Wall Street Journal) that bring into question the DDT ban that we should question the overall impact of the publishing of "Silent Spring."

Finally, we the people have allowed executive-branch agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, to assume power that violates one of the most basic tenets of the Constitution -- separation of powers.

We the people have allowed the EPA to pass law. Every rule the EPA passes has the force of law. Executive branch cannot pass law, but it does, by the thousands.

Rachel Carson did notable work on educating Americans on the value of properly caring for and managing our natural resources. Giving her work credit for bringing about the EPA and banning DDT harms her record, unless Americans now believe that "a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."

Charles Barnard

Portland

Profane, anonymous note example of divisive rhetoric

After enjoying a wonderful bike ride to Bug Light on a sunny late-summer afternoon, we stopped for lunch in Scarborough.

Upon returning to our car, we found a handwritten note on our windshield stating, "Jesus would bomb your car because you have a (expletive deleted) Obama sticker on it."

By way of explanation, we have an "Obama for President" sticker as well as one that says, "What would Jesus bomb?"

This threatening rhetoric exemplifies what is wrong with the political climate in the U.S. today. Earnest debate and respectful discussion have been replaced by unveiled threats and hateful throwaway slogans.

Because we don't listen to one another, we are sacrificing the diversity of our backgrounds, cultures, experiences and wisdom. Positive change can only come about through civil discourse and compromise.

P.S. To the person who left the note, "What would Jesus bomb?" was a rhetorical question, because Jesus wouldn't bomb anything. He would find the nonviolent solution.

William and MaryFrances Frank

Sanford

Technology could prevent another Aurora tragedy

There's been so much talk about ways of preventing the likes of the Aurora, Colo., shootings.  

The commentary in the July 29 newspaper ("Life after Aurora") addresses the issue from the point of view of a psychiatrist (Mark Ragins).  

(Continued on page 2)

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