Oar Sullen Futons
Our Swollen Future by Steven Milloy is an unusual "book". While billed as satire, there is not much humor or wit. In a send up of Sixty Minutes Dr. "Theo Ree" is grilled, lectured to and belittled by five reporters at the same time. Rather than defend herself or the book (Our Stolen Future), "Theo Ree" readily admits that she is trying to fool the public. Much of the material is devoted to various personal attacks. Among other things, Dr. "Theo Ree" is described as wanting to be the next Rachel Carson, promoting a leftist-environmental agenda, and laughing all the way to the bank. She is even, rather strangely, criticised for having a PhD in zoology. The satire raises a number of objections to Our Stolen Future, but the statements do not hold up when checked against the book. Here is some of the more obvious nonsense.
Milloy: Colburn had "never published any peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature."
OSF (page 270) Colborn is is listed as the lead author of a peer reviewed article published in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Milloy A decline in otters in England could have been from overhunting.
OSF (pages 2-3) The declines were based on the records of the hunters themselves. Any overhunting would have shown up in these records. And on page 156 the book notes that two British researchers found evidence linking the decline with pollution.
Milloy Colborn did not link the decline in captive mink populations with PCBs.
OSF (page 3) The linking was done by researchers at Michigan State University. While Milloy's statement is literally true, it is highly misleading.
Milloy The book omitted two papers critical of the work of Dr. Niels Skakkeback on declining sperm count published in the British Medical Journal.
OSF (page 283) The book does cite two papers critical of Skakkeback's work, including one published in the British Medical Journal. Again Milloy's statement is literally true but misleading
Milloy Colburn claimed that a population explosion in herring gulls was a "sign of a reproductive problem.".
The book says no such thing. On page 14 it notes that many bird populations recovered after restrictions on the use of DDT were imposed. And it states that "Paradoxically, such a population explosion could signal a stressed ecosystem as much as a population crash." A stressed ecosystem could be caused by such things as an increased food supply from garbage or sewage, excess growth caused by nutrients, or from changes in the populations of other species.
Milloy After years of research and reading hundreds of papers, Colborn could only come up with nine examples of chemically caused problems.
OSF These examples are just the first chapter. Did Milloy even read the rest of the book?
Milloy Claims that DES (diethystilbesterol) worked as an estrogen only because it was designed to work as an estrogen.
This is just plain nonsense. Many chemicals have effects they were never designed to have. Viagra was never designed to cure impotence, nor rogane to cure baldness. The book (pages 68-69) notes that the significance of DES was that it acted like estrogen even though there was little structural resemblance to estrogen.
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Written by Jim Norton
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