After watching the two hour premier of “24; Redemption”, two things became more apparent; 1) watching bad people die is fun and 2), seeing Jack Bauer beg for mosquito nets is the real story of redemption. That short sound bite where Jack asks for donations to pay for what looks like old bridal veils to save people from malaria should awaken everyone to the catastrophe caused by political legislation driven by populace emotion rather than intellect.
The mosquito nets slash wedding veils are needed today to help stem the epidemic spread of malaria by mosquitoes. DDT which was the reason malaria was all but eradicated in third world nations, was banned based entirely on emotion and politics. In 1962 a woman named Rachael Carson wrote a book titled “Silent Spring”. A friend had written her a letter telling tales of dead birds on her farm and attributed their deaths to the spraying of DDT. Carson wrote her book filled with flowing diatribes denouncing the use of the pesticide saying it would kill everything. From there things got out of hand and 60 million needless deaths were caused in the name of saving the environment. Reality gave way to emotion and emotion drove the politics that has led to the suffering of hundreds of millions each and every year;
“…since the imposition of the 1972 ban on DDT… hundreds of millions have suffered from this debilitating disease. The majority of those affected are children. Of the 300 to 500 million new cases of malaria each year, 200 to 300 million are children, and malaria now kills one child every 30 seconds. Ninety percent of the reported cases of malaria are in Africa”- http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ02/DDT.html
All the side effects supposedly attributed to DDT use were proven to be false. From the thinning of wild bird’s egg shells to the development of liver cancer in men and breast cancer in women, studies showed none of it was true;
“As a result of the propaganda and lies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency convened scientific hearings and appointed a Hearing Examiner, Edmund Sweeney, to run them. Every major scientific organization in the world supported DDT use, submitted testimony, as did the environmentalist opposition. The hearings went on for seven months, and generated 9,000 pages of testimony. Hearing Examiner Sweeney then ruled that DDT should not be banned, based on the scientific evidence: “DDT is not carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic to man [and] these uses of DDT do not have a deleterious effect on fish, birds, wildlife, or estuarine organisms,” Sweeney concluded.”- www.21stcenturysciencetech.com
But did that stop the politics of emotion? No, DDT was to be used as a political tool for those in power to stay that way, even at an unprecedented cost of human life like no other in history;
“Overruling the EPA hearing examiner, EPA administrator Ruckelshaus banned DDT in 1972. Ruckelshaus never attended a single hour of the seven months of EPA hearings on DDT. Ruckelshaus' aides reported he did not even read the transcript of the EPA hearings on DDT.”- http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm
Common sense was thrown out the window and extreme environmentalists were given a power like no other group in America.
“The environmental movement used DDT as a means to increase their power. Charles Wurster, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, commented, "If the environmentalists win on DDT, they will achieve a level of authority they have never had before... In a sense, much more is at stake than DDT."- http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm
Back in the day of only three TV networks, propaganda was easily spread with no one to counter the lies put forth for political reasons. With only the negative aspects of DDT mentioned night after night on the 6 o’clock news, and even though those negatives were based on false studies and information, the banning of the pesticide became a cause célèbre’;
“EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus overruled the EPA hearing officer and banned DDT. He later admitted that he made the decision for “political” reasons. “Science, along with economics, has a role to play. [but] the ultimate decision remains political,” Ruckelshaus said.
The U.S. decision had a rapid effect in the developing sector, where the State Department made U.S. aid contingent on countries not using any pesticide that was banned in the United States. The U.S. Agency for International Development discontinued its support for DDT spraying programs, and instead increased funding for birth control programs.”- http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ02/DDT.html
A death sentence was passed on hundreds of millions of people by politicians swayed by the pressure from an emotion driven constituency.
The electorate of America has voted for their new president because of how he makes them feel. A vast number of Americans believe in global warming because of their feelings based on emotional movies and pictures of cute animals that are said to be suffering because of the inconsideration of mankind toward the environment. Who knows what the consequences will be when common sense is forgone for feelings and politicians follow the emotions, rather than lead with reason. Will it be a ruined economy or will it be hundreds of millions of more needless deaths? Maybe both.