Creative Reuse Toronto
30 September at 17:33 ·
I was thrilled to watch the climate strike actions across the globe, but really unhappy to observe the blaming of the older generations by the younger. The only way to succeed is to work together for change. Not to allow economic and political decision makers to divide us.
For those who think all older people have destroyed the planet: some of us have been bucking the trends and warning the world for a long time.
I first read this book at 14, after seeing the results in our environment as a child whose grandparents were naturalists and organic farmers/beekeepers and artists in the 1940’s and earlier. I watched the creek and every living thing in it die after dyes from a factory were dumped into it, watched beautiful songbirds die when Agent Orange was sprayed at the sides of country roads in Ontario - a labour saving way to cut down foliage beside the roads. I was in a classroom right beside Highway 401 in North York when the same substance was used on the weeds less than 50 feet from our school’s open windows in the 1950’s. I watched my parents spray DDT to kill flies and mosquitoes, spraying it on us to keep bugs away.
Why? Because industries told them it was safe, that bugs carried diseases. That we needed to control nature. These were the same industries that had made huge profits from WWII, and many of the chemicals had been developed for war use. Propaganda became media and advertising.
Before we started to require emission control from vehicles, from chimneys and industry, our urban skies were black with smoke and thick yellow haze.
There has been a lot of work over the years to protect the environment, unsung work that has made a difference.
If you are young, don’t rush to blame older generations. Look for the real causes for climate change. Open discussion welcomed, but keep it civil please.
Helen
BBC.CO.UK
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published #OnThisDay in 1962
Franny Armstrong looks at the explosive impact of Rachel Carson's book.
9 comments

Richard Sexton Worse: RoundUp. There is both correlation (W.H.O) and causation (Seneff 2018) that it causes cancer.

Richard Sexton "Agent Orange was sprayed at the sides of country roads in Ontario " I didn't know this:
The U.S. military, with the permission of the Canadian government, tested herbicides, including Agent Orange, in the forests near the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.[125] In 2007, the government of Canada offered a one-time ex gratia payment of $20,000 as compensation for Agent Orange exposure at CFB Gagetown.[126] On July 12, 2005, Merchant Law Group LLP on behalf of over 1,100 Canadian veterans and civilians who were living in and around the CFB Gagetown filed a lawsuit to pursue class action litigation concerning Agent Orange and Agent Purple with the Federal Court of Canada.[127] On August 4, 2009, the case was rejected by the court due to lack of evidence. The ruling was appealed.[128][129] In 2007, the Canadian government announced that a research and fact-finding program initiated in 2005 had found the base was safe.[130]
On February 17, 2011, the Toronto Star revealed that Agent Orange was employed to clear extensive plots of Crown land in Northern Ontario.[131] The Toronto Star reported that, "records from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s show forestry workers, often students and junior rangers, spent weeks at a time as human markers holding red, helium-filled balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed toxic herbicides including an infamous chemical mixture known as Agent Orange on the brush and the boys below."[131] In response to the Toronto Star article, the Ontario provincial government launched a probe into the use of Agent Orange.[132]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
Agent Orange - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Helen Melbourne There is more to the Agent Orange use than you found. At one point a number of years ago, an Ontario govt website posted about the usage of the substance for widespread defoliant use along 401, hydro corridors and rural roads. Then the information disappeared from the internet and can no longer be found - by me, at any rate. I can understand why - the lawsuits would have been overwhelming.

Richard Sexton If you think DDT was harmful, I'm sorry, that was a political and not scientific deal. While it was banned, upon another look at the evidence it was determined it was not harmful and that she was wrong and it's back on the shelves.
Two million people died because she didn't understand science.
The Truth About DDT and Silent Spring
Robert Zubrin
We have discovered many preventives against tropical diseases, and often against the onslaught of insects of all kinds, from lice to mosquitoes and back again. The excellent DDT powder which had been fully experimented with and found to yield astonishing results will henceforth be used on a great scale by the British forces in Burma and by the American and Australian forces in the Pacific and India in all theatres.
—Winston Churchill, September 24, 1944[1]
My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. In Guyana, within two years it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time the birth rate had doubled. So my chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it has greatly added to the population problem.
—Alexander King, cofounder of the Club of Rome, 1990
1
Richard Sexton https://www.thenewatlantis.com/.../the-truth-about-ddt...
The Truth About DDT and Silent Spring THENEWATLANTIS.COM
Richard Sexton "Carson claimed that insect resistance would quickly reduce DDT's effectiveness. But DDT is largely a mosquito repellent, not a toxicant. Repellent resistance has not yet emerged, whereas toxicant resistance is widespread.
Contrary to Dunn's claims and Carson's predictions, the bald eagle had become rare long before DDT, and American robins increased during the 1960s.
At the time of the DDT ban in 1972, 1 billion people were almost malaria-free. Within a few years, malaria cases had risen 10–100-fold. Over 40 years, estimates suggest that there have been 60 million to 80 million premature and unnecessary deaths, mainly children, as a result of misguided fears based on poorly understood evidence."
https://www.nature.com/articles/486473a
Carson no 'beacon of reason' on DDT NATURE.COM
Richard Sexton Carson's "Silent Spring" fails test of time
By JOHN M. TIERNEY
JUNE 6, 2007
https://www.nytimes.com/.../05iht-sntier.1.6003787.html
Carson's NYTIMES.COM
Richard Sexton https://21sci-tech.com/articles/summ02/Carson.html
The Lies of Rachel Carson 21SCI-TECH.COM
Helen Melbourne Interesting information, thank you Richard. The information has evolved, as has misinformation. What I admire most about her work was her willingness to challenge the norm of the time. Her ability to speak out at the height of cold war propaganda. There will always be shifts in thinking and in science, always more knowledge gained. And I have personally seen and experienced environmental degradation and improvement. The magnitude of the changes we as a species have created cannot be denied any longer. I admire those who challenge us to think beyond a narrow view, as Rachel Carson did in her day. This book led to people learning to observe more closely, and to ask the difficult questions. 3