Who's Promoting DDT?

DDT advocates used the 100th Anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth to trumpet their call for more DDT use and blame Carson for malaria deaths around the world. In the U.S., Carson’s centenary was marked by a flood of pro-DDT postings on conservative blogs and dozens of opinion pieces critical of Carson in the mainstream press. Learn more about the debate over DDT.

The aggressive advocates who have mounted this pro-DDT campaign are accusing Rachel Carson of causing millions of deaths, calling environmental advocates who support reducing reliance on DDT for malaria control racist, and calling for widespread use of DDT in Africa. Who are they?

Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM): Established in 2000 and based in Washington, D.C. and South Africa, AFM “seeks to educate people about the scourge of malaria and the political economy of malaria control.” Its staff members have current or former links with a range of free-market think tanks critical of the environmental movement, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Institute of Economic Affairs and Tech Central Station. 1,2

Roger Bate: Bate is a founding board member of Africa Fighting Malaria, an adjunct fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He has authored numerous articles calling for DDT use to combat malaria, including "When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story" published by CEI. 3,4,5,6

Richard Tren: Tren is chair of the board of Africa Fighting Malaria. He believes the shift away from DDT use in malaria control programs was driven by political pressure. "I am confident in saying that the anti-DDT crusades harmed malaria control and cost lives." He is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. With co-author Roger Bate, he wrote When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story, which was published in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and India. 7

CFD Banner Campaign for Fighting Diseases (CFD): CFD published a report by Roger Bates on Malaria, and ranks donors regarding their malaria control spending with a Malaria Donor Report Card developed with Richard Tren of Africa Fighting Malaria. The organization's web page features articles such as “Anti-DDT Policies are Deadly” and “Pesticides are Good for You.” Henry Miller (see below) is an advisor for CFD. 8,9

CDFE Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE): CDFE is led by Alan Merril Gottlieb and Ron Arnold, who founded the anti-environmental “Wise Use” movement. Arnold was once a consultant for Dow Chemical, as well as head of the Washington State chapter of the American Freedom Coalition, the political arm of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (which has also shared offices with CDFE). In 1991 Arnold told the New York Times, "We [CDFE] created a sector of public opinion that didn't used to exist. No one was aware that environmentalism was a problem until we came along." Prior to their work opposing environmental regulations, CDFE's main focus had been opposing gun controls. According to the article in the Times, Gottlieb shifted the organization's focus when he realized the fundraising potential of opposing environmentalism: "For us, the environmental movement has become the perfect bogeyman." Gottlieb, who describes himself as "the premiere anti-communist, free-enterprise, laissez-faire capitalist'" has also said, "Facts don't really matter. In politics, perception is reality." Paul Driessen (see below) is a Senior Fellow at CDFE, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death. 10,11

CEI Logo Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI): CEi is a free-market think tank known for, among other things, disputing evidence that human activity is driving climate change. On their website beside a grim photo gallery of malaria victims, the site claims "millions of people around the world suffer the painful and often deadly effects of malaria because one person sounded a false alarm. That person is Rachel Carson." 12

Henry Miller: Miller is an Adjunct for the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a Hoover Institution Research Fellow. He has called for reintroduction of DDT in the U.S. to combat West Nile Virus, as outlined in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “DDT for Health.” He also wrote the article “While the Government Blunders, West Nile Virus Thrives: How Misguided Bureaucrats and Environmentalists Let a Mosquito-borne Disease Spread” for the Hoover Digest. 13,14,15

Steven Milloy: Milloy is an Adjunct Analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He is the "Junk Science" commentator for FoxNews.com, and runs the Web site junkscience.com, which is dedicated to debunking what Milloy labels "faulty scientific data and analysis." Milloy's “Junk Science” web site features The Malaria Clock: A Green Eco-Imperialist Legacy of Death, which he claims counts up the approximate number of new malaria cases and deaths in the world, most of which he says could have been prevented by the use of DDT. A footnote at the bottom of the malaria clock webpage states, "Note that some of these cases would have occurred irrespective of DDT use. Note also that, while enormously influential, the US ban did not immediately terminate global DDT use and that developing world malaria mortality increased over time, rather than instantly leaping to the estimated value of 2,700,000 deaths per year." 16,17

CORE Logo Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): CORE, founded as an advocacy group for African-Americans, played an early leading role in the U.S. civil rights movement. In the late 1960s, CORE moved to the far right of the political spectrum. CORE’s 2005 Martin Luther King celebration honored Green Revolution scientist Norman Borlaug and Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s controversial election strategist. Hugh Grant, Chairman and CEO of Monsanto (the first producer of DDT in the U.S. and one of CORE’s corporate partners) chaired the reception. In 2005 CORE produced a Monsanto-funded video called “Voice from Africa” promoting the use of genetically modified crops in Africa. 18,19,20

Paul Driessen: Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for CORE and for the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (see above). Driessen has consulted as Senior Fellow for several anti-environmental, corporate-funded “think tanks,” including the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and Frontiers of Freedom. He edited the book Rules for Corporate Warriors and authored Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, a 2003 book asserting that environmentalists are directly responsible for poverty in developing countries. He has also received funding from ExxonMobil to spin information as a climate change skeptic. Driessen and Niger Innis are also listed as Directors of the Economic Human Rights Project, '"an initiative of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, in cooperation with the Congress of Racial Equality", which aims to "correct prevalent environmental myths and misguided policies that help perpetuate poverty, misery, disease and early death in developing countries." 21

CORE Uganda Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes: Fiona is the coordinator for the Uganda division of the Congress of Racial Equality. She was quoted saying, "Spraying DDT is like putting a bed net over the entire house, to protect the whole family. Opponents talk constantly about minor, speculative, or imaginary dangers of using DDT." Speaking for all of her country she said, "Ugandans are delighted that DDT is about to return, because they know it will save lives.” 22

Niger Innis: Niger Innis is the national spokesman for CORE. He also serves as an Advisory Committee member for Project 21, an initiative of the National Center for Public Policy Research—a conservative free market foundation with a strongly anti-environmental agenda. He is the son of Roy Innis. 23,24

Roy Innis: A member of CORE since 1963, Innis became national chairman in 1970. In the 1980s he supported Reagan administration policies and was a vocal critic of Jesse Jackson. He is known for controversial stances on racial equality, including hailing as a “bold step” the deportation of 50,000 Asians from Uganda by president Idi Amin in the 1970s. Innis is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association. 25

Bonner Cohen: Cohen is a Senior Fellow for the National Center for Public Policy Research. He co-founded a website with Steven Milloy and is currently the only board member of Miloy's Advancement of Sound Science Center. Cohen has worked for various industry groups, including tobacco industry efforts to discredit EPA. He is the author of The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences, published by the Capital Research Center, which has a chapter critical of Rachel Carson’s push to eliminate DDT. 26,27,28,29

Senator Tom Coburn: A US Senator from Oklahoma, Coburn threatened to block two bills honoring the 100th birthday of Rachel Carson. Coburn called Carson's work "junk science", proclaiming that Silent Spring, "was the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides, especially DDT." He has ties to pro-DDT groups, received funding from a board member of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Don Roberts, a board member of Africa Fighting Malaria, testified to his committee that public health is best protected through the use of pesticides. He also wrote a letter to the European Union urging them to support the use of DDT. 30,31,32,33

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