Brad Bannon

Obama’s Decision to Resume Deepwater Oil Drilling Is Folly

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October 21, 2010 RSS Feed Print
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With all the election news, nobody paid much attention, which is probably what the administration wanted, but Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced last week that the federal government would allow the oil companies to resume deepwater oil drilling. The secretary made this call even though the investigation into the BP oil spill in the Gulf was still in progress.

[Read more about U.S. energy policy.]

Back in the ‘70s, historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a book, The March of Folly, which catalogued truly stupid decisions that changed the course of world history. The decisions she wrote about were contrary to the self-interest of the people that made them and were so patently stupid that many observers pointed out the folly of the calls before they were made.

Tuchman’s first case study is the fall of Troy. After the town fathers decided to accept the gift of a wooden horse from the Greeks, a blind priest, Laocoön, begged the leaders of Troy to change their minds. Laocoön said, “You can’t bring that thing in here, it might be full of Greek soldiers.” After the municipal elders decided to accept the gift, Laocoön asked them to exercise some caution when he said, “Well if you’re going to bring it in, at least poke it with a spear and see if anybody yelps.”

Well, the city council ignored Laocoön’s advice and the rest is history and so was Troy. American presidents have ignored warnings about America’s dangerous addiction to fossil fuels for years and if we don’t listen to the warnings, we will all pay the price. And not just at the pump.

Tags:
2010 Congressional elections,
Ken Salazar,
Gulf of Mexico,
BP,
energy policy and climate change,
Congress,
oil,
Barack Obama

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"The general use of the pesticide DDT will no longer be legal in the United States after today, ending nearly three decades of application during which time the once-popular chemical was used to control insect pests on crop and forest lands, around homes and gardens, and for industrial and commercial purposes."

EPA Press Release - 1972.

Gee Ed, sounds like "general use" was banned - not just agricultural.

Your source, "Millard FiIlmore's Bathtub". Really?

You may want to check the rest of your "Bathtub" claims out against the DDT reports , at "junkscience.com", or dozens of other sites unaffected by mind numbing Environmentalist Theology.

Pressing on, you are correct that some resistance to DDT took place in selected mosquito strains. However, this was the result of widespread agricultural use - not as a result of vector control. Resistance testing can be done in problem areas and DDT or another pesticide may be used if DDT resistance is found. Pesticides can be use in an alternating fashion to prevent resistance.

Recently, Dr. Samuel Koffi Moise, head of Malaria Control in West Africa's Ivory Coast told news agencies that, nearly 200 children die every day in his country of malaria. He further remarked, that more than nets, "...we need pesticides like DDT."

Furthermore, in his recent book, "An Excellent Powder", Donald Roberts, professor of tropical medicine at the U.S. military's Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and Richard Tren, head of lobby group Africa Fighting Malaria, argue that DDT is the only effective weapon against the deadly mosquito-borne parasite.

Professor Roberts states, "There are an almost endless list of claims that DDT causes one kind of harm or another but ... with each claim, the evidence that the DDT is the cause is simply not there."

It should be noted here that the inventor of DDT, Paul H. Muller , won the 1948 Noble Prize in Medicine. Why? Because DDT has saved more lives than any other chemical invention in history.

During World War II thousands of U.S. soldiers dosed themselves with the "excellent powder" to prevent vector born disease and entire cities in Asia and Europe were spayed to prevent epidemics - millions of lives were saved by this practice. No human harm has ever been noted.

Finally, anyone may go to "The Lies of Rachel Carson" - for further information on the beginnings of the DDT/Environmentalist hysteria that has now grown into the State Religion of Western Civilization.

Now, Ed, go back and play in Fillmore's bathtub.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 11:50AM October 22, 2010

R. L. Schaefer said: "1. The lies of Rachel Carson and the resulting DDT ban have caused the deaths of more than 30 million people - mostly children. The death toll continues to rise as I write this. "

Complete fabrication. WHO had to stop their campaign to eradicate malaria from the planet in 1965, because abuse of DDT by agricultural interests in Africa had bred DDT-immune mosquitoes. The U.S. ban on DDT covered only agricultural use, and only in the U.S., seven years LATER. Mosquitoes from the U.S. do not migrate to Africa.

Today, using Rachel Carson-advocated Integrated Vector Management, malaria deaths worldwide have been reduced to the lowest point in human history (though still too high), at 880,000 per year. This is less than half the annual deaths when DDT use was banned in the U.S., and less than a third the annual malaria deaths when DDT use was at its peak. (You may check the figures, and learn more, at Millard Fillmore's Bathtub.)

Can I trust claims that start out with such a completely inaccurate claim on DDT?

Ed Darrell of TX 6:31AM October 22, 2010

Here's a few more for the parade.

1. The lies of Rachel Carson and the resulting DDT ban have caused the deaths of more than 30 million people - mostly children. The death toll continues to rise as I write this.

2. Trying to "raise" energy through the folly of "ethanol" results in less food produced - again causing thousands to die of starvation in the name of Green Theology.

3. Wind turbines, produced in China and Europe and shipped to America, actually use more energy in their raw materials processing and mining, manufacture, transport, site preparation, road building, trenching for lines, 50 tons of concrete for foundation, transport of work and maintenance crews and erection of towers - than they ever produce! If we discuss storage facilities, transmission lines and more roads the picture gets even worse. Not to mention the tens of thousands of habitat acres destroyed by their placement.

4. The cost of dogmatic Environmentalist regulation is staggering, and that cost is passed on to consumers. Industry often finds it easier to outsource the work - resulting in fewer jobs here and more pollution produced overseas. In many cases, more pollution is again produced by the need to transport the finished product back to America.

5. Obama sent billions to Brazil to finance their deep water, oil platforms - which are situated in deeper water than ours are and with fewer safe guards. We end up losing jobs as well as a measure of energy independence, and the environment is actually less safe! Absolute madness.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 10:55PM October 21, 2010

Brad Bannon

Brad Bannon

Brad Bannon runs Bannon Communications Research, a political polling and consulting firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups, and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. Brad guest hosts Leslie Marshall’s nationally syndicated radio talk show and is a commentator on America’s Radio News Network. Follow him on Twitter @BradBannon.

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