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Article: Not so fast with the DDT: Rachel Carson's warnings still apply.
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- June 22, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Phi Beta Kappa Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What the World Needs Now Is DDT" read the headline in The New York Times Magazine early last year. If you need more proof that the current decade is dedicated to driving a stake through the heart of the 1960s, those seven words ought to do it. The story itself, by Times editorial writer Tina Rosenberg, lives up to the stridency of its headline. As she surveys the alarming incidence of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, Rosenberg builds the case that Western environmental sensibilities about DDT use are handicapping the battle against this deadly disease. She writes more than 2,000 words before she gets to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the 1962 book credited with spurring ...