By turning the world against DDT, Rachel Carson caused a humanitarian catastrophe, writes robert matthews
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H
er ideology has led to more deaths than Stalin's purges, and brought misery to hundreds of millions more. But now, over 40 years after her death, her grip on the fate of countless developing nations may finally be at an end. As the founder of the modern ecological movement, the American naturalist Rachel Carson is not an obvious candidate for the pantheon of evil. Her best-selling book Silent Spring, published in 1963, is widely credited with putting the interconnectedness of nature on the political agenda, and led to international bans on the use of the pesticide DDT, which she claimed was causing ecological disaster. Yet while her actions may have been motivated by the best of intentions, the consequences in human terms have been catastrophic. The ban on DDT
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| At least 50 million people have died of malaria since DDT was banned in the early 1970s |
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robbed developing nations of a cheap, safe and effective means of combating malaria, which kills two million people each year. That tots up to at least 50 million deaths since the bans took effect in the early 1970s. And for what? Even at the time, Carson's claims that DDT was responsible for everything from the thinning of eggshells to cancer in humans looked shaky. By the mid-1980s they had been utterly discredited. Yet by then Carson's claims had achieved the status of holy writ among environmentalists - and among right-on officials in government ministries. Third World nations were threatened with trade sanctions if they even suggested using DDT in fields or homes.
Now, finally, the giant US Agency for International Development is supporting the widespread use of DDT in Africa to combat malaria. The effect is likely to be quite simply breathtaking, for DDT is truly a miracle cure for this deadly mosquito-borne scourge. When it was first used in developing nations in the early 1960s the effect was like flicking a switch. In 1948, Sri Lanka had 2.8 million 
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