Rachael Carson was closer to the truth,than she ever realized..the australian army used DDT,Dieldren and other chemicals,to contol weevils and other insects,weekly by spraying,fogging,and washing grains,dried fruit and similar commodities in dieldren,this was done to kill any vermin,that had contaminated the foodstuff,after washing the items,they would be spread to dry,sieved,the vermin removed,then replaced in it's orignal container!this was carried out by all supply depots,and issued to units on a weekly basis!As a member of a Tribunal stated to me,you with a lot of others must have eaten a lot of Anzac biscuits laced with Dieldren!!And I have documented proof that this happened..

I much this assessment of the effects of the countless thousands of toxic chemicals released into the "environment" and the environments of our cells and blood-stream over the past 100 years.
We humans, and indeed all biological life on this planet, have been the unknowing subject(s) of a vast unprecedented experiment in multiple chemical exposure(s).

Pleaase check out http://www.ourstolenfuture.org

And unlike the true believers such as the said Jennifer and her IPA fellow travellers, these people have done their homework by checking the evidence---as any true scientist does.

Thanks for the link Ho Hum. That's an incredible reference source. I've been stuck in there for ages.

How nice of Jennifer to remind us of this great person on her 100th birthday. Good article.

But it seems to fly in the face of her general drift, as presented in numerous articles on this forum.

For example: Beware doomsday forecasts http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2867, The ABC’s environmental statistics reports fail the basic test of rigour http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2098, Drip-fed figures http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3508

“The senator has said that Rachel Carson used junk science and that her “warnings about environmental damage have put a stigma on potentially lifesaving pesticides" like DDT.”

This sounds a lot like the bucketing Ms Marohasy has given several key people and organisations over their warnings of impending environmental damage!

Does this mean she has starting working with us (those who are very concerned about many aspects of looming environmental and social catastrophe) and stopped being a blatant apologist for the business lobby !?

A few years a venerable old sage named Howard Shapiro vistited our shores. There was even a half page article on him in the Oztralian. He is a passionate practitioner of organic gardening and agriculture. He was quoted thus in the Oz. "I will outyield you in any crop you want to grow, in any place. Give me two or three years to build the soil, and I will build paradise, as you build a nightmare."

He also mentioned his farm in New Mexico thus: "It was totally worn out, it looked like a piece of concrete, but in three years it was bountiful. We outyield everybody in the region. Sustainable organic agriculture is the future."

He also pointed out that pesticide use had increased ten-fold in the USA since 1945 and yet we still lose 33% of the crops and have not gained anything.

Preempting an anticipated post by Roskam in the near future re the "benefits" of genetically modified agriculture, Howard Shapiro has no time at all for such hubristic thinking and pracrice.

Shapiro's work can be found via:

1. http://www.seedsofchange.com/cutting_edge/ground_breakers.asp

A site which even features Bill Mollison.

Chemical toxicity is a complex subject. It is not suuficient to state that such and such is toxic. Toxicity depends on such factors as dose,dose rate, mode of administration etc. It is also necessary to discuss metabolites of the compound,the specieces targeted, the genetics of an individual etc.

Jennifer is correct Rachael Carsons failed to provide any convincing eviedence for the toxicity of trace quantities of DDT in particular in the human situation.

As far as I know Rachael did not mention use of DDT in combating typhus in the second world war. Napoleon's Grand Army could have told her about typhus fever.

Surely no reasonable person can doubt the role of DDT in malaria control.