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October 11, 2005
DDT: Don't It Always Seem to Go that You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone? By Gail Heriot Yesterday, my fellow Right Coaster Tom linked to an article in the Washington Post that dealt in part with the terrible human cost of banning DDT. According to the article, a million people die from malaria each year, mainly in Africa, as a result of the DDT’s unavailability. It’s a tragic story of regulatory excess. Last night I found I couldn’t get the old Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi," out of my head. (According to my assistant Sarah, the song was sung more recently by Amy Grant.) Events seem to have come full circle. Joni Mitchell repeatedly asks in the song, "Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?" But she wasn't defending DDT in 1970, of course, she was attacking it: Hey farmer, farmer Put away that DDT now Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees. Please! Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot In view of world events since then, it’s clear that Joni was correct–sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone--but not quite in the way she thought at the time. Perhaps, therefore, a new version of the song should be written. I figure the rhythm needn’t be perfect, since this is, after all, a Joni Mitchell song. I offer the following as a start. Perhaps Joni herself has had a change of heart on DDT and would be willing to complete and polish it (or maybe one of our Gentle Readers would like to try it). They Banned DDT Then People Got Sick A Lot With Yellow Fever, Typhus And 500 million battles with malaria fought Hey Joni, Joni, Give us back our DDT now. You can have your apples, but leave Ugandans free of disease. Please! Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? They banned DDT, then people got sick a lot The last verse requires very little modification to fit the modern context: Late last night I heard the screen door slam And a big yellow ambulance took away a Tanzanian man Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone They banned DDT, then people got sick a lot. Hmmm ... not ready for Prime Time yet. |