SOCA01H3 Lecture : Enviornment part 2
Document Summary
India: 1953-57, infections halved from 10. 8-5. 3% of total population; deaths reduced to zero. Sri lanka: 1946-61: infections fell from 2. 8 million to 110. Taiwan: 1945-69: 9 million infections to 9 infections. Pesticides/insecticides are used for two things agriculture, and preventing disease. We are talking about preventing disease here, i. e. ddt. Ddt as a carcinogen (and generally pesticides as carcinogens). pesticides are used but lifespans keep increasing and cancer rates keep decreasing. Smoking leads to heart problems more than it leads to lung cancer. Paul erlich predicted that by 1980, the average lifespan would fall to 42 years of age. Actually, the life expectancy of women has increased. 20th century, most women who died, died in childbirth because there was no cesarian section. There are some disturbing parallels between the environmental movement and genocide. Silent spring: when this book was published in 1962, there was no environmental movement in the general sense. When published, the environmental movement was in its infancy.
