Epistles from the Apostles
Credit where it's due, THR! Beck has contributed to public discussion of important issues with a very timely book review. Sure, he took forty years to read Carson's book... He did actually read it, right?
Ouch. That was embarrassing for "JF".
He should stick to sniping anonymously at other bloggers and their partners.
Stick to what you're good at, mate.
Beck claims that Carson suggested that DDT is the product of WW2 weapons research but he is lying. What Carson actually wrote was this:
"DDT (short for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) was first synthesized by a German Chemist in 1874, but its properties as an insecticide were not discovered until 1939. Almost immediately DDT was hailed as a means of stamping out insect-borne disease and winning the farmers' war against crop destroyers overnight. The discoverer, Paul Muller of Switzerland, won the Nobel Prize."
See here for proof that Beck was aware of what Carson actually wrote.
Thanks everybody.
Tim, the comment here is particularly enlightening as to the depths of Beck's dishonesty:
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/...#comment-
438787
No. It is Lambert who is lying. Beck provides extensive documentation and links.
Annabelle, documentation doesn't mean much when it's bullshit.
Beck says that Carson links pesticides with the weapons industry. This is correct. He then says that Carson links DDT specifically to the weapons industry, and thereby creates a 'false impression' in the minds of readers. This is a lie, and has been refuted in the above link. It doesn't stop the dishonest Beck from repeating it.
Well, it seems the primary source for Beck's claim that a splash of ddt is safer than a morning coffee is one Bruce Ames, whose work (the ''Ames test') has been to prove that tobacco causes no harm.
What Beck is too dishonest to mention are the various deleterious health effects of DDT, such as:
Pre-natal problems
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/healt...lth/
5145450.stm
CNS problems:
http://www.thelancet.com/journal...4249-5/
fulltext
Increased infant mortality
http://www.thelancet.com/journal...7182-6/
fulltext
And, in the study to which I linked initially, higher incidences of breast cancer and diabetes. Obviously, this product isn't safe for use in developed countries, but Beck is quite happy for the children of poor nations to die if it helps to discredit an environmentalist somewhere, anywhere.
'Bruce Ames, whose work (the ''Ames test') has been to prove that tobacco causes no harm.'
Does it hurt to be this dumb, THR? A cursory examination of Ames work shows this to be completely false.
Annabelle, I've expanded upon and clarified my remarks re: Ames in the post above.
No, I don't think Beck's read the book yet. I wouldn't bet he had, anyway.
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