Warping Good Ideas

Nicholas Kristof writes an interesting column (registration required) about the problems of extremism for environmentalists.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: 'I Have a Nightmare': "This record should teach environmentalists some humility. The problems are real, but so is the uncertainty. Environmentalists were right about DDT's threat to bald eagles, for example, but blocking all spraying in the third world has led to hundreds of thousands of malaria deaths."

I have heard this before about DDT. If this is true, can't we find a balance between saving people's life and killing animals? Surely some level of animal death is worth saving "hundreds of thousands" of human lives?

The same distorted priorities and "sky is falling" mentality applies to PETA . Penn & Teller have a TV show on Showtime that investigated PETA that showed how a valid concern (lets not harm animals unnecessarily) can be warped into an organization that makes the following statement with a straightface 'Violence or non-violence is not a moral issue, it is a tactical issue". The PETA episode is contained on P&T's second season DVDs.