Dear Friends: What time is it? Take a look and see for sure. I’ll tell you later why. About a decade ago one of my sons, just turned nineteen, spent eight months assisting Christian missionaries in Ethiopia and Uganda. He saw how some of the world’s poorest people suffer—yet also how they can experience joy through knowing Christ. He actually saw a witch doctor converted. He saw people healed of terrible diseases by medical missionaries, children learning to read and write in mission … [Read more...]
How Do I Protect Myself from Insect-borne Diseases?
Having recently moved from a suburban area nestled in a major metropolitan region to a semi-rural area amid forests, farms, a nature preserve, and even a swamp, I’ve become a little more conscious of the need to take proper precautions against insect-borne diseases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, “Disease cases from mosquito, tick, and flea bites tripled in the US from 2004 to 2016. Nine new germs spread by mosquitoes and ticks have been discovered or introduced since … [Read more...]
Insect-borne Diseases Spreading in the United States? Blame EPA, Not Exxon
Last fall Politico ran a special feature on global health that featured a graphic presentation of increased incidence of insect-borne diseases in the United States from 2004 to 2013, blaming the increase on global warming. "Warming global temperatures are changing the range and behavior of disease-carrying insects like mosquitos and ticks and extending the seasons in which they are active. As a result, incidence of the diseases they carry---including Lyme, spotted fever, West Nile and … [Read more...]
DDT and Malaria: Why India has a lower rate of Infection
Is Global Warming to Blame for Spread of “Tropical” Diseases?
The New York Times has just published an article claiming that global warming is (partly) to blame for the spread of various "tropical" diseases to the U.S. and other areas where previously they had been eradicated or had never existed. Donald G. McNeil Jr. begins his article titled "U.S. Becomes More Vulnerable to Tropical Diseases Like Zika" thus: Tropical diseases---some of them never before seen in the United States---are marching northward as climate change lets mosquitoes and ticks expand … [Read more...]
Testimony delivered before the U.S. Senate
Download the Annotated Testimony or the Short Version (pdf) Oral Testimony of Dr. E. Calvin Beisner to the Environment and Public Works Committee of the United States SenateWednesday, October 20, 2006 Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, and distinguished guests, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. Having never before this year been significantly involved in politics other than to vote in elections, it is strange to find myself here. But my moral convictions as a … [Read more...]
New Religious Coalition Brings Balanced Biblical Perspective to Environmental Issues
Washington, DC – In a marriage of environmental concern and religious faith, the launch of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation* was announced by Ugandan Ambassador Edith Ssempala, along with a distinguished group of Alliance organizers, at a press conference at the Embassy of the Republic of Uganda. The Cornwall Alliance adds a powerful voice to some of the most prominent environmental and developmental issues worldwide. The coalition promotes the principles of the Cornwall … [Read more...]
Get Out Your Bed Nets:
We must let Africans fight mosquitoes and disease the same way we do: with pesticides Gulf Coast residents are slowly recovering from Katrina’s winds, floods, anarchy, and tardy local, state and federal disaster responses. Now they face yet another peril. Millions of acres of brackish, polluted water could become fertile breeding grounds for billions of mosquitoes. Some fear the hordes could infect survivors with West Nile virus and encephalitis – or even malaria and yellow fever. They point … [Read more...]
