On Apr 6, 2005, at 1:48 PM, Dan Minette wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Warren Ockrassa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Because DDT thins birds' egg shells. The biggest reason bald eagles are
endangered is DDT -- it thinned the birds' shells so drastically that
many embryos never survived to full development.
Is that a sufficient reason?
It depends on priorities. We already eliminated malaria in the US. Using
DDT, one can greatly reduce the risks of brain damage and death in Africa.
See, this is a good example of missing communications. I thought the topic had to do with DDT usage in the States, not worldwide. I'm inclined to agree that mosquito/malaria abatement is *crucial* to health in the world, and from that perspective the use of DDT in some places, particularly developing nations, can be justifiable.
Overuse is a problem, but so is disease. If there's a way to strike a reasonable balance between DDT usage and broader environmental concerns, I'm for it.
A few years back there was some PBS special or other on the usage of GMOs to improve crop yields in parts of the world that desperately need it. This was another thing opposed by environmental activists, most of whom didn't really seem to know what they were really protesting or what the fallout might be. Result? Research was stopped. That's really crappy.
This is fascinating, because it's the rich white conservatives *now*
that are ignoring the status of poor brown people, such as those in the
Sudan,
Well, my Zambian daughter Neli said she hated to admit it but Bush pushed
more than anyone else in power in the world to do something about it. Much
beyond what was done, the only possibility was an even more unpopular
unilateral war against Arabs. The US was regularly thwarted at the UN when
they tried to push for stronger actions.
The other side of that is that if the US had not been so engaged in Iraq, we might have had some extra troops to spare to stop the slaughter, UN be damned.
or the thousands dead in Iraq because of a misbegotten war pressedelectively on verified-false data.
Why are you so sure that Bush does not believe in the vision he proclaims.
From my perspective it's because the administration's focus kept changing. Once the "slam dunk" of WMDs was disproved, there were fallback stories. When the multiple excuses for the Iraqi invasion were first proposed, I saw them -- possibly cynically -- as a safety net. I remember thinking, if the WMD thing doesn't pan out, they'll have these other convenient ready-made excuses.
There are other examples of ethically questionable -- at best -- behavior from the current administration. And when GWB goes from wanting bin Laden dead or alive to saying he doesn't even really think about where he might be any more, it's hard for me to believe his commitment to anything else he claims to be true to.
I just don't think there's a lot of credibility in the administration in general. It's not just GWB -- it's apparently endemic to the administration.
Of the public stands on this, Tom Friedman's comes closest to mine, although we weighed the factors differently and came to different conclusions. What's amazing to me now is how well things are going, considering the fact that we might not have been able to bungle things worse if we tried.
I'm inclined to agree with that as well. If Iraq becomes democratic, the US won't be justified in taking any credit for it.
I guess what really struck me was how Bush was criticized for going the UN
route in Sudan and not going it in Iraq. On a practical basis, I could see
the criticism...but it seemed to me that your argument wasn't a nuts and
bolts argument about the details of each, but an argument that you put
forth as one of basic principals.
Fair enough. Hopefully I've elucidated my reasoning enough to let you see it's not as arbitrary as one might suppose.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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