Articles by Geoff Dabelko

The North knows best?

DDT is very effective at killing the mosquitoes that carry malaria.  Malaria kills 2 to 3 million people a year.  These people, the bulk of whom are children and the elderly, live in the global South, the tropics of the developing world.

DDT doesn't just hurt mosquitoes. The United States and most Northern countries have banned its usage because of its threat to animal and human health.  These bans are extended to the foreign assistance that flows North to South.

Is the ban the "best" thing for those facing the imminent threat of malaria in developing countries?

Blair keeps warning of warming

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is keeping up attempts to push climate change at the next G8 meeting. His latest high profile statement is a by-invitation piece in the Dec. 29 issue of The Economist. He sets out the rationale for tackling climate change and African poverty and health challenges as Britain assumes the chair of the G-8 this month.

I fear he goes off track in dealing with the United States, however, when he says, "Through the G8, we have the opportunity to agree on what the most up-to-date investigations of climate change are telling us about the threat we face."

It is not about the science with the Bush administration. It is hard to conceive of an IPCC consensus that would change minds on Pennsylvania Ave. It will be the states, the private sector, and/or the faith-based communities that produced a changed policy. International conferences to debate what we know and what we don't know just offer more opportunities for opponents of action to emphasize scientific uncertainty.

Blair needs to adopt the winning U.S. election strategy of getting out the bases -- red states, big money, and the faithful.

A fearful state

To all of you greenies plotting intentional, catastrophic natural disasters to call attention to climate change, your caper has been uncovered. Prepare to be exposed for the scheming revolutionaries you are in Michael Crichton's new novel State of Fear. Crichton sets out to debunk all this global warming nonsense. Michiko Kakutani shreds the book in a New York Times Books of the Times feature.

The fictitious treatment isn't enough apparently. Kakutani quotes Crichton from the book's "Author's Message" saying:

"I suspect the people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them." And: "I blame environmental organizations every bit as much as developers and strip miners" for current failures in wilderness management.

More links: Andrew Revkin asking "Is it Science?"

UPDATE: The invaluable folks at RealClimate take on Crichton's book here. It ain't pretty.

New blood at EPA

Current EPA head Mike Leavitt was just tapped to head the Department of Health and Human Services according to the AP. The appointment was a surprise so no word yet on likely successors.