Environmentalist spurned

Utah's State Congress has just voted overwhelmingly not to honour environmentalist Rachel Carson by naming a post office after her, something that is "one of the most mundane actions of Congress and ... usually unanimously approved." Not this time. Carson, explains Utah's Salt Lake Tribune, is "the woman who in many ways spawned the modern environmentalist movement with her book Silent Spring... which led to a ban on the chemical DDT used to kill pests."

A letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Tribune succinctly explains the reason for the spurning:

Sir, Regarding the May 2 article "Utah reps vote against honoring naturalist," environmentalist opposition to DDT has never had any basis in science.
For half a century, DDT use has been proved safe to humans and deadly to mosquitoes. The use of DDT against malaria-carrying mosquitoes could prevent the infection of hundreds of millions of people every year and save millions of lives.
The fact that environmental activists have opposed - and still oppose - the use of DDT indicates that they have little, if any, concern for human life.

David Holcberg, Irvine, Calif.