>Return-path: <trdegreg at UH.EDU>
>Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 20:57:56 -0500
>From: Tom DeGregori <trdegreg at UH.EDU>
>Subject: Re: How Environmentalism Kills the Poor - reply to John Hart
>X-Sender: trdegreg at pop.uh.edu
>To: JHart at UH.EDU
>Cc: TOBrien at UH.EDU, SMintz at UH.EDU, BUZZANCO at JETSON.UH.EDU
>Original-recipient: rfc822;BUZZANCO at JETSON.UH.EDU
>
>
>Jaunito
>
>It may be a dead issue in the U.S. but not in developing countries that
>have problems with malaria and it never has been. Given your Mexican
>expertise, I need not tell you anything about Belize except that they have
>been experiencing a rising incidence of malaria, dengue fever and
>Leishmaniasis. The U.S. has publically told Belize that they cannot use DDT
>even though it is generally recognized to be the most effective vector
>control for most insect (and other vectors except rats) borne diseases.
>Click onto my webpage below and check out my Rockwell lecture (there are
>two forms posted, get the longer more documented one), "DDT Saves Lives"
>and then come and hear my lecture (one of three that afternoon) as part of
>the C.L.A.S.S. lectures which will probably be on November 1st, 3 to 5PM in
>the Brown room of the library (wine and cheese served after). I think that
>you will find that imperialism can come in many different forms. Or stated
>differently, there are far more ways than one to screw the poor.
>
>I will probably be going back to Southern Africa sometime this semester and
>then to Asia at the end of November. I will be working on a speech which
>will be given in Cape Town in early December by one of Africa's first
>ladies speaking for the others as a mother defending the children in
>opposing the attempted global ban on DDT. I discussed this with them
>earlier in August and early September in Mozambique. They see their
>children dying of malaria and they are very much aware of the international
>pressures that keep them from using DDT. A couple of countries in addition
>to South Africa are defying the pressures and they do not wish to have a
>ban which would deny them its use. If you check my webpage, take a look at
>my sources, the National Academy of Sciences, WHO, peer reviewed journals
>etc.. Then check with Steve Mintz. I have occassionally sent out articles
>on topics to some Email addresses of a few friends. Steve can testify to a
>significant number that I have sent out on DDT showing that it is still a
>very live issue of public health. What I have sent him is but a small
>fraction of what I sent to a list that I have for Africa. The issue of harm
>to wildlife is debated but most of us are willing to concede that point.
>But there is simply no evidence of harm to humans and I can massively back
>this up.
>
>So we agree that the rich and powerful controling the lives and destiny of
>the poor and weaker is wrong but I probably have yet to convince you that
>many of the worst forms of this exploitatation comes under strange
>disguises and that faculty who honestly and sincerely believe themselves to
>be radical (or even Marxists) defenders of the poor may actually be
>supporting agendas which cause great harm to the poor and vulnerable. What
>I find frustrating is that, unlike you, many are simply unwilling to even
>listen to another side of the issue.
>
>Tomas
>
>P.S. - Come by this Wednesday noon, Roy Cullen 107 for a free sandwich and
>drink and another attack by me against conventional academic wisdom, this
>time on "organic" agriculture.
>
>At 07:01 PM 10/9/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>Dear Tomasito;
>>
>>I study the expansion of U.S. influence, the search for profits and power
>>in Mexico. I thought DDT was that powdery white stuff they put on my
>>pancakes that I don't like. I also though it was a dead issue! Is it
>>making a
>>comeback like nuke power?
>>
>>Juanito
>
>
>Thomas R. DeGregori, Ph.D.
>Professor of Economics
>Department of Economics
>University of Houston
>Houston, Texas 77204-5882
>Ph. 001 - 1 - 713 743-3838
>Fax 001 - 1 - 713 743-3798
>Email trdegreg at uh.edu
>Web homepage http://www.uh.edu/~trdegreg