OPINION/COMMENTARY

...The State of Frogs

There is no better sign that you have a strong argument than when your opponents attack your motives rather than your evidence. I'm hoping for the same response to my new report exposing the massive waste of time and money spent chasing chemical phantoms in the so-called "global amphibian crisis." Ecologists have been stuck in a pesticide rut ever since DDT was railroaded out of polite society by a Rachel Carson-led media manipulation campaign eerily similar to today's global warming "debate." Science was ignored in favor of emotion and dogma. After DDT, every time something has appeared to go wrong in nature, ecologists have leaped to pesticide conclusions. Take the case of the deformed frogs in Minnesota. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency held a press conference in 1997 -- covered by ABC News Nightline -- saying that they had "proof" that a chemical in the water was causing the frog deformities. Within months, other researchers (including Environmental Protection Agency scientists) would embarrassingly demonstrate the MPCA had instead flubbed the tests. The true culprit turned out to be a natural parasitic worm - although you'll not find many frog scientists publicizing this. Nor have any newspaper or magazine articles been written to tell the public that pesticides are off the hook....