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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Parachuting cats into Borneo
  • Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:26:47 -0500


Parachuting cats into Borneo! A Cautionary Tale.

In the early 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered a malarial
outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had a solution: to spray
large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carried the malaria. The
mosquitoes died; the malaria declined; so far so good. But there were
unexpected side effects. Amongst the first was that the roofs of the
people's
houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT had also
killed a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating
caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes, which
were eaten by cats. The cats started to die, the rats flourished, and the
people were threatened by outbreaks of typhus and plague. To cope with
these problems, which it had itself created, the WHO was obliged to
parachute 14 000 live cats into Borneo. Operation Cat Drop, now almost
forgotten at the WHO, is a graphic illustration of the
interconnectedness of
life, and of the fact that the root of problems often stems from their
purported solutions.

(Quoted in Rachel Wynberg and Christine Jardine, Biotechnology and
Biodiversity: Key Policy Issues for South Africa, 2000)




  • [permaculture] Parachuting cats into Borneo, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 12/02/2007

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