Silent Spring Dead

Q: What's more silent than a Silent Spring?
A: The millions of dead human beings who have succumbed to malaria, dengue and other mosquito-borne illnesses over the nearly forty years since DDT was outlawed.

Outbreak of Dengue Fever Is Reported in Florida

Dengue fever, a growing scourge in the tropics, has established itself in a popular American tourist destination, federal health officials reported last week...Dengue — a mosquito-borne virus that causes joint pain so severe it is nicknamed “break-bone fever” in Latin America and Asia. According to last week’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida health authorities have since found 27 more cases, all in Key West, the last in April. Most victims had a fever and pain in the head, body and eyes, and some had a rash.

The C.D.C. advised doctors to consider a dengue diagnosis in patients with similar symptoms who have been to subtropical parts of the United States. Although there have been outbreaks along the Texas-Mexico border since 1980, the disease had not been seen in Florida since 1934.

Unlike malaria, which is caused by a parasite, dengue is a virus, and there is no cure.

Rachel Carson was not available for comment...


Every action has consequences. Rachel Carson's classic environmentalist screed, Silent Spring, was the kind of hysterical misinformation which led to the demise of DDT, the single best means of controlling the mosquito population ever invented. As a result, millions of people have gotten sick and died of malaria, dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases over the last forty years, most of them the equatorial poor. In other words, Rachel Carson is the classic liberal success story, fighting for the birds and fish at the expense of poor human beings. Celebrated for the acknowledged positive results, while the much more serious negative ramifications are unacknowledged and ignored. A hero to utopian do-gooders everywhere!