#130 – DDT, how did we get here?
The League of Nerds
DDT is banned for agriculture in most of the globe (India still routinely using it). There are serious thing to consider when dealing with DDT and it does have draw backs. But the foundation of why DDT was banned is built on terrible research. The nerds talk about DDT and its application and Rachel Carson’s book the Silent Spring.
Myles Power 
“I can tell you some facts. I know you haven’t read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don’t report them. I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn’t carcinogenic and banned it anyway I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn’t give a damn.”
-Michael Chrichton
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