DDT Wars

DDT Wars PDF Author: Charles F. Wurster
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190219424
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
DDT Wars is the untold inside story of the decade-long scientific, legal and strategic campaign that culminated in the national ban of the insecticide DDT in 1972. The widespread misinformation, disinformation and mythology of the DDT issue are corrected in this book. DDT contamination had become worldwide, concentrating up food chains and causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that broke in the nests. Populations of many species of predatory and fish-eating birds collapsed, including the American Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Brown Pelican. Their numbers recovered spectacularly in the decades following the ban. During the campaign DDT and five other insecticides were found to cause cancer in laboratory tests, which led to bans of these six pesticides by international treaty in 2001. This campaign produced lasting changes in American pesticide policies. The legal precedents broke down the court "standing" barrier, forming the basis for the development of environmental law as we know it today. This case history represents one of the greatest environmental victories of recent decades. DDT is still "controversial" because it has been deceptively interjected into the "climate wars." This campaign was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), founded in 1967 by ten citizens, most of them scientists, volunteers without special political connections or financial resources. Their strategy was to take environmental problems to court. There were many setbacks along the way in this exciting and entertaining story. The group was often kicked out of court, but a few determined citizens made a large difference for environmental protection and public health. Author Charles Wurster was one of the leaders of the campaign. The first six years of EDF history are described as it struggled to survive. Now EDF is one of the world's great environmental advocacy organizations defending our climate, ecosystems, oceans and public health.

DDT Wars

DDT Wars PDF Author: Charles F. Wurster
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190219424
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
DDT Wars is the untold inside story of the decade-long scientific, legal and strategic campaign that culminated in the national ban of the insecticide DDT in 1972. The widespread misinformation, disinformation and mythology of the DDT issue are corrected in this book. DDT contamination had become worldwide, concentrating up food chains and causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that broke in the nests. Populations of many species of predatory and fish-eating birds collapsed, including the American Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Brown Pelican. Their numbers recovered spectacularly in the decades following the ban. During the campaign DDT and five other insecticides were found to cause cancer in laboratory tests, which led to bans of these six pesticides by international treaty in 2001. This campaign produced lasting changes in American pesticide policies. The legal precedents broke down the court "standing" barrier, forming the basis for the development of environmental law as we know it today. This case history represents one of the greatest environmental victories of recent decades. DDT is still "controversial" because it has been deceptively interjected into the "climate wars." This campaign was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), founded in 1967 by ten citizens, most of them scientists, volunteers without special political connections or financial resources. Their strategy was to take environmental problems to court. There were many setbacks along the way in this exciting and entertaining story. The group was often kicked out of court, but a few determined citizens made a large difference for environmental protection and public health. Author Charles Wurster was one of the leaders of the campaign. The first six years of EDF history are described as it struggled to survive. Now EDF is one of the world's great environmental advocacy organizations defending our climate, ecosystems, oceans and public health.

The Fire Ant Wars

The Fire Ant Wars PDF Author: Joshua Blu Buhs
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226079848
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
Sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, a coterie of fire ants came ashore from South American ships docked in Mobile, Alabama. Fanning out across the region, the fire ants invaded the South, damaging crops, harassing game animals, and hindering harvesting methods. Responding to a collective call from southerners to eliminate these invasive pests, the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a campaign that not only failed to eradicate the fire ants but left a wake of dead wildlife, sickened cattle, and public protest. With political intrigue, environmental tragedy, and such figures as Rachel Carson and E. O. Wilson, The Fire Ant Wars is a grippingly perceptive tale of changing social attitudes and scientific practices. Tracing the political and scientific eradication campaigns, Joshua Buhs's bracing study uses the saga as a means to consider twentieth-century American concepts of nature and environmental stewardship. In telling the story, Buhs explores how human concepts of nature evolve and how these ideas affect the natural and social worlds. Spotlighting a particular issue to discuss larger questions of science, public perceptions, and public policy—from pre-environmental awareness to the activist years of the early environmental movement—The Fire Ant Wars will appeal to historians of science, environmentalists, and biologists alike.

DDT Wars

DDT Wars PDF Author: Charles F. Wurster
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190219416
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
DDT Wars is the untold inside story of the decade-long scientific, legal and strategic campaign that culminated in the national ban of the insecticide DDT in 1972. The widespread misinformation, disinformation and mythology of the DDT issue are corrected in this book. DDT contamination had become worldwide, concentrating up food chains and causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that broke in the nests. Populations of many species of predatory and fish-eating birds collapsed, including the American Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Brown Pelican. Their numbers recovered spectacularly in the decades following the ban. During the campaign DDT and five other insecticides were found to cause cancer in laboratory tests, which led to bans of these six pesticides by international treaty in 2001. This campaign produced lasting changes in American pesticide policies. The legal precedents broke down the court "standing" barrier, forming the basis for the development of environmental law as we know it today. This case history represents one of the greatest environmental victories of recent decades. DDT is still "controversial" because it has been deceptively interjected into the "climate wars." This campaign was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), founded in 1967 by ten citizens, most of them scientists, volunteers without special political connections or financial resources. Their strategy was to take environmental problems to court. There were many setbacks along the way in this exciting and entertaining story. The group was often kicked out of court, but a few determined citizens made a large difference for environmental protection and public health. Author Charles Wurster was one of the leaders of the campaign. The first six years of EDF history are described as it struggled to survive. Now EDF is one of the world's great environmental advocacy organizations defending our climate, ecosystems, oceans and public health.

Nature Wars

Nature Wars PDF Author: Mark L. Winston
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674605428
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A compelling book about ethics and choices, Nature Wars shows us the difference between protecting ourselves from real pests and poisoning ourselves and the planet.

War and the Environment

War and the Environment PDF Author: Charles Edwin Closmann
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603443800
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Eleven scholars explore, among other topics, the environmental ravages of trench warfare in World War I, the exploitation of Philippine forests for military purposes from the Spanish colonial period through 1945, William Tecumseh Sherman's scorched-earth tactics during his 1864-65 March to the Sea, and the effects of wartime policy upon U.S. and German conservation practices during World War II.

DDT and the American Century

DDT and the American Century PDF Author: David Kinkela
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807869307
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Praised for its ability to kill insects effectively and cheaply and reviled as an ecological hazard, DDT continues to engender passion across the political spectrum as one of the world's most controversial chemical pesticides. In DDT and the American Century, David Kinkela chronicles the use of DDT around the world from 1941 to the present with a particular focus on the United States, which has played a critical role in encouraging the global use of the pesticide. Kinkela's study offers a unique approach to understanding both this contentious chemical and modern environmentalism in an international context.

War and Nature

War and Nature PDF Author: Edmund Russell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521799379
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This 2001 book shows the intersection of chemical warfare and pest control in the twentieth century.

Feather Trails

Feather Trails PDF Author: Sophie A. H. Osborn
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1645022439
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The story of one woman’s remarkable work with a trio of charismatic, endangered bird species—and her discoveries about the devastating threats that imperil them. In Feather Trails, wildlife biologist and birder Sophie A. H. Osborn reveals how the harmful environmental choices we’ve made—including pesticide use, the introduction of invasive species, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction—have decimated Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows, and California Condors. In the Rocky Mountains, the cloud forests of Hawai’i, and the Grand Canyon, Sophie and her colleagues work day-to-day to try to reintroduce these birds to the wild, even when it seems that the odds are steeply stacked against their survival. With humor and suspense, Feather Trails introduces us to the fascinating behaviors and unique personalities of Sophie’s avian charges and shows that what endangers them ultimately threatens all life on our planet. More than a deeply researched environmental investigation, Feather Trails is also a personal journey and human story, in which Sophie overcomes her own obstacles—among them heat exhaustion, poachers, rattlesnakes, and chauvinism. Ultimately, Feather Trails is an inspiring, poignant narrative about endangered birds and how our choices can help to ensure a future not only for the rarest species, but for us too. "An intimate look at the wonder and effort needed for working with endangered species in the wild. [Osborn's] matter-of-fact writing style and wry humor make the reader part of the action."—Booklist (starred review)

New Wars and Old Plagues

New Wars and Old Plagues PDF Author: Katherine Hirschfeld
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031311434
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
This Open Access book uses Mary Kaldor’s concept of “New Wars” to explore how ethnic conflict reshaped the social and environmental landscape of the Southern Caucuses following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It relies on remote sensing data and qualitative historical research to explore how armed conflict between non-state actors generated the region’s largest epidemic of P. vivax malaria since the 1960s. This book is an important addition to the literature on the Karabakh conflict and conflict studies more broadly because the infectious disease outbreaks associated with warfare often kill more people than the armed conflicts themselves. Warfare itself has also changed dramatically since the collapse of the USSR, and the Karabakh conflict provides an excellent case study of the way “New Wars” transform the natural and social environment to facilitate outbreaks of preventable disease. This extended case study will be useful to researchers from a variety of academic disciplines, including medical anthropology, geography, conflict studies, disease ecology, global health and public health. It also reveals the fragility of twentieth century malaria control in temperate regions and will assist in predictive modeling for future outbreaks.

Solvable

Solvable PDF Author: Susan Solomon
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226827933
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
"In this convincing book, MIT climate scientist Susan Solomon argues against the hopeless passivity we too often feel when confronted with dire predictions about the future of our planet. Her antidote is to provide the inside story of past environmental victories, to extract from this neglected history the essential elements of what works, and to show that we have not just the popular will but the specific means to save the planet. In each case, she demonstrates the path to success begins with researchers and activists who make an environmental problem--smog, DDT, ozone depletion, lead, climate change--both perceptible and personal. Lawmakers, diplomats, and international agencies then take up the cause. But real change takes place when legislation and regulation lead to "technology-forcing," in tandem with consumer pressure, which co-ops manufacturers of environmentally sensitive products, turning presumed culprits into allies. It's not just polemics; it's also pragmatism. The heroes in these stories range from angry mothers; to gangs turned social activists; to upset Long Island bird watchers; to iconoclastic scientists (often women); to brilliant legislative craftsmen, among whom the almost forgotten Edmund Muskie stands supreme. Solomon's fundamental message is that doom and gloom get us nowhere, and idealism will only take us so far. As she ably demonstrates, healing the planet is a long game, won not only with marches and soul-stirring speeches, but with pragmatic maneuvering that moves beyond moral suasion to apply economic pressure and regulatory action which signals to industry the imperative to innovate and compete. Solomon's authoritative point of view is an inspiration, a reality check, a road map, and a dose of optimism that can lead to sustained commitment from all stake holders. Healing our Planet is Solvable. Solomon shows how"--