Green Colonialism

[Cort Haus]

"We are fighting the same battle, for the liberation of black people. In the past that meant taking on old racists and colonialists – now it means challenging environmentalists too."
...
"It is a colonialist mentality. Making decisions for other people from one’s own perspective rather than from the perspective of the people being affected – that is my definition of a colonialist mentality and that is the approach taken by some officials and green activists to the Third World."

- Roy Innis, national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality

Roy Innis argues that green policies on DDT and GM technology are harming Africans. I agree.

Read the whole article : 'The greens want to do right, but they are so wrong'

[DRoseDARs]

Following that logic to its conclusion, why don't we just let them use Agent Orange to completely eliminate malaria once and for all? I can't say much about GM, but the risk of such products contaminating the natural biosphere with unknown and potentially uncontrolable results is definitely too great to ignore and dismiss.

[Cort Haus]

As the article points out, DDT eradicated Malaria in Europe before Rachal Carson's book caused the banning of the pest-killer - which has subsequently been shown not to harm humans.

If the precautionary principle of today had been used in the past, they'd have banned the transmission of radio waves. After all, who knows what the harmful effects on unborn babies might be?

[DRoseDARs]

Europe was largely deforested from many centuries of deforestation. Where would malaria hide in bulk before DDT finished off what little remained?

Edit: Gaa, 5:30am?! Damn it... going to bed. Shoulda' looked at the clock before posting...

[CerberusIV]

European malaria, the variety Cromwell contracted, tended to be debilitating rather than fatal, unlike African malaria. What exactly killed Cromwell isn't clear but it wasn't simply malaria. Anyway, land drainage had severely reduced the habitat for mosquitos in Europe and hence the occurence of malaria long before DDT was invented.

DDT in Europe and North America was used as a general insecticide, not exclusively to combat malaria. It is a very efficient insecticide, so efficient it kills off a lot of pollinating insects and reduces the food supply for insect predators such as birds. Granted that's not the use the article is on about but there is no guarantee that if DDT is made widely available in Africa it won't start being used in this way.

As for GM foods, there is nothing to stop African farmers putting themselves in Monsanto's power. However, rightly or wrongly, Europeans are generally unwilling to eat GM foods so African grown GM crops won't be welcome in the EU - just like American grown GM crops aren't.

If there is a simple reason why Africans lose out it is because their politicians and bureaucrats are even more corrupt, arrogant, stupid, selfish and incompetent than the European and American variety - hard though that may be to believe.

[BeBMan]

Afaik there wasn't much Greek colonialism in more recent times......

[Gangerolf]

only of macedonia

[SlowwHand]

Use agent orange? I had high hopes I'd never see that raise it's ugly head again.

[DanS]

I agree with much of the article. If our policies are condescending, then at least they should be science-based rather than belief-based.

In the case of DDT, AFAIK there is little science to back up the worst health and safety claims against it. That's not to say that DDT's not a bad actor when all broad uses are considered, and that in the US, we may prefer to use other more expensive insecticides. In Africa, they need a cheap insecticide for a narrow use.

GM crops have increased yields very substantially in the US in the past 10 years. There might be some GM crops that 3rd world countries would not prefer (Monsanto's Roundup-Ready seeds), but it seems foolish for Africa to forgo this increase in yields.

Anyway, calling condescension "colonialism" seems rather like an imprecise use of language.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by DanS
In the case of DDT, AFAIK there is little science to back up the worst health and safety claims against it. That's not to say that DDT's not a bad actor when all broad uses are considered, and that in the US, we may prefer to use other more expensive insecticides. In Africa, they need a cheap insecticide for a narrow use.

DDT, while poisoning insects, cause the eggs of birds that ate those insects to become extremely thin and brittle. Just the weight of the parent bird sitting on them caused eggs to break.

Fish also ate those insects, which concentrated DDT in their tissues. So fish-eating birds were even more at risks. The bald eagle almost became extinct.

The Africans do not need products which are too dangerous to use in U.S. and European ecologies.

[notyoueither]

Don't you think that's sort of up to Africans?

[DanS]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
DDT, while poisoning insects, cause the eggs of birds that ate those insects to become extremely thin and brittle. Just the weight of the parent bird sitting on them caused eggs to break.

Fish also ate those insects, which concentrated DDT in their tissues. So fish-eating birds were even more at risks. The bald eagle almost became extinct.

I know that you think you know what you're talking about, but I don't believe you. Which specific studies proved these things?

[Combat Ingrid]

http://www.google.se/search?hl=sv&q=dde+eggshell&meta=

[Tim_Augustus]

http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/ddt.htm

The effects of DDT seem to me to be quite well documented - highly toxic nonspecific organochlorine insecticide, negligible effect on mammals but highly toxic to fish and invertebrate aquatic animals, fat soluble (so difficult to eliminate from the body), long half-life in soils (up to 15 years, according to that article), evidence of a negative effect on reproduction in birds (especially birds of prey, and especially when combined with OP and PCB pesticides).

Sounds okay to me.

[Tim_Augustus]

Nonetheless, as long as DDT is used in such a manner that prevents it from getting into waterways, it may have a use still. Alternatively, perhaps western countries could chip in and help the third world use safer, less harmful pesticides to control mosquitoes and malaria?