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Re: NFC: endangered species
--- Wright Huntley <huntley1 at home_com> wrote:
>
>
> Fully Prepared wrote:
>
> > I am afraid that the ESA has actually worked for
> > species. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons are now
> in
> > much better shape.
>
> Have you any *actual* figures on the cost in human
> lives of that recovery?
> Don't forget that Rachel Carson and her activist
> followers managed to murder
> far more human beings than any other US mass
> murderer, by getting DDT banned
> (a small part of that particular "solution").
Wright, I am impressed. I have lived a narrow life so
that I have avoided people who think stable
chlorinated pesticides are very good. Mosquitos have
developed resistance to DDT. Many can eat it for
breakfast and be happy. But it bioaccumulates up the
trophic web into predators such as birds and large
fish. There are now ospreys and cormorants common in
eastern North America because they can produce eggs
with shells that do not crumble during incubation.
This is because DDT breakdown products (DDD, DDE) do
not inhibit their shell glands anymore. I think this
is good. DDT was very effective in the 1950s against
mosquitos. But selection pressures (us!) changed that.
This was a very clever demonstration of acquired
resistance. Oh well.
Boo Radley, Saraland, Alabama
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