Gore again, this time it is about mosquitoes, malaria, and elevation. Some history checking by mosquito epidemiologist Paul Reiter reveals he’s wrong about Nairobi. Turns out that some species can live as high as 10,000 feet. Even as far back as 1927 in this letter to Time Magazine, people knew of mosquitoes at the snow line. A 1960 study shows mosquitoes in the California Sierra Nevada mountains and another shows mosquitoes in the mountains of Africa. Of course those aren’t malaria carrying anopheles mosquitoes, but I’ll point out that Gore was not specific about which mosquitoes were “climbing”. And if there is indeed a mosquito borne malaria problem in Nairobi, there’s this contradictory evidence: In a presentation during the 8th International Conference on Urban Health, held in Nairobi 18–23 October 2009, it was stated that of nearly one thousand Nairobi residents tested, none were positive for malaria.
There has been a resurgence of malaria in Kenya though. It may have something to do with this: Kenyan scientists are embroiled in a deepening controversy over whether Kenya should lift a ban on the pesticide DDT in a bid to reduce deaths from malaria.
UPDATE: E.M. Smith writes in comments:
If you look at this page:
http://www.mosquitoes.org/anopheles.html
you will find a listing for the native Anopheles freeborni listed as a malaria vector and with habitat that ranges at least up to 6000 feet.
From the UK Spectator by Paul Reiter
The inconvenient truth about malaria
Al Gore has made bold claims that climate change is aiding the spread of insect-borne diseases. The science does not support him, says Paul Reiter
Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, was a masterpiece. Like an elder brother to all humanity, he patiently explained the familiar litany of disasters — droughts, floods, hurricanes, sea-level rise and the rest — spiced with heartrending personal stories: his baby son’s near-fatal accident, the agony of losing a sister to lung cancer. It was a science lecture crafted by Hollywood.
In his book — the version for adults, not the one for schoolchildren — he even included a colour photograph of a corpse, a young man, floating face downward, drowned by Hurricane Katrina. I wonder whether the dead boy’s family were consulted.
I am a scientist, not a climatologist, so I don’t dabble in climatology. My speciality is the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. As the film began, I knew Mr Gore would get to mosquitoes: they’re a favourite with climate-change activists. When he got to them, it was all I feared.
In his serious voice, Mr Gore presented a nifty animation, a band of little mosquitoes fluttering their way up the slopes of a snow-capped mountain, and he repeated the old line: Nairobi used to be ‘above the mosquito line, the limit at which mosquitoes can survive, but now…’ Those little mosquitoes kept climbing.
The truth? Nairobi means ‘the place of cool waters’ in the Masai language. The town grew up around a camp, set up in 1899 during the construction of a railway, the famous ‘Lunatic Express’. There certainly was water there — and mosquitoes. From the start, the place was plagued with malaria, so much so that a few years later doctors tried to have the whole town moved to a healthier place. By 1927, the disease had become such a plague in the ‘White Highlands’ that £40,000 (equivalent to about £350,000 today) was earmarked for malaria control. The authorities understood the root of the problem: forest clearance had created the perfect breeding places for mosquitoes. The disease was present as high as 2,500m above sea level; the mosquitoes were observed at 3,000m. And Nairobi? 1,680m.
Read the rest of the story at the Spectator
Further to the mentions of Oliver Cromwell dying from malaria: It is thought he contracted the disease while living in the fenlands of East Anglia!
I don’t think there was a university there at the time………..
Alvin W (11:07:44) :
Thus my redaction of Gore’s
Snow glides from the mountain
Ice fathers floods for a season,
A hard rain comes quickly
to:
Snow glides from the mountain—set off by some villain—;
ice in father’s gin—floods of salt; for a season,
a hard rain comes quickly, for we do like Dylan.
Gore is obviously not au-fait with the saying we have in the UK:
‘When you are in a hole, it is time to stop digging’.
But then the fool is so far up his own keester he doesn’t even know he is in a hole!
Yes I also saw the Plimer-Monbiot exchange on ABC tv.I must admit that Plimer was very disappointing.By ducking Monbiot’s legitimate questions he made himself look less than credible.I cant understand why he was so fumbling.I have not read his book,but now I will just to see if Monbiot has a point.In my view it is imperative that we present the factual science without reservation.Unfortunately Plimer came off looking like he was hiding something.
Off topic … had to post it somewhere.
Limerick
This is the clean version …
That Greenie Grand Poobah, Al Gore,
Scammed the world with fake climate lore.
In Denmark his ass froze blue,
The best he really could do,
Was one free quickie from a whore.
© CAS ☺
I feel a [snip] here… ☺ ☺ ☺
Malaria is caused bt the ‘Plasmodium’ parasite which is manifest in four types:-
There are four different types of malaria parasite: Plasmodium falciparum is the cause of fatal malaria, while Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae cause more benign types of malaria. Falciparum malaria can kill, but the other forms are much less likely to prove fatal.
In Zambia it would appear that there is a particularly virulent strain of falciparum emerging. From the time of infection to the time of death can be as little as 24 hours with the brain being the apparent target. I have no citations for this assertion other than personal observations and the observations of my nephew who runs a safari camp on the banks of the Lower Zambezi in Zambia.
He saw one of his friends die in this way, later proven after an autopsy in Lusaka.
By the way, when I was fourteen years old and living in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) I suffered from blackwater fever which is another manifestation of malaria and which is frequently fatal.
Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth” is not a masterpiece, unless we mean that it is a masterpiece of propaganda.
Yes indeed, some of the worst mosquitoes in Colorado are around the high lakes, marshes and streams near dense forests. They are unbearable in the high country — Until you get well above the tree line. Been there done that, don’t leave home without mosquito netting.
DDT was banned not by science but by an EPA ruling in 1972. And since then, about 35 million Africans, mostly children under the age of five, have succumbed to malaria. Another of the great liberal hoaxes of history.
In 2006 the UN’s WHO who tried for over 30 years to find any truth to the damage DDT was doing, found none and again made DDT available. It is the same bribery corruption industry that drives the CO2 scam, same scammers involved, that makes DDT for the most part unavailable to African nations — Else your grant money will go away.
Some things never change.
“I do not believe that we can wait until next November or next December,”
Wasn’t it just last week that headlines proclaimed “Two Weeks to Save the World”? Now we have until at least until July? Why would anyone, much less a scientist, fall for this over and over again?
there is a correlation here too – though in this case the cause is quite obvious.
The effective banning of DDT by WHO/UN/USA proto ecofascists has resulted in the death of millions of those in poverty; with the 2ndry effect of making it ever harder to reduce poverty. Treatment is simple – re-start DDT spraying campaigns in the malarial areas of Southern Africa
Warmists are also on line to cause millions of deaths through binding people in (energy) poverty. It is always the poor & badly educated who suffer most from these well meaning idiots.
It is not so called deniers/sceptics who need to be on trial for crimes against humanity; it is the warmists along with ecofascists who stopped DDT spraying who are guilty of crimes against humanity – the avoidable malarial death toll is believed to be millions per annum; and have we any idea of the expected mortality from the attempts to destroy western civilization by C)2 reduction – never mind those deaths caused by the bio-fuel scam ?
I’ve been bitten by mosquitos at 12,000 feet above sea level here in Breckenridge, CO.
Thanks for the replies.
Tim Wells (14:50:07) :
“In my view it is imperative that we present the factual science without reservation.”
Indeed.
I’ve received mosquito bites hiking in the flatheads of Colorado at ~10,000 ft. I’ve received mosquito bites in the fall hunting elk near Steamboat Springs at Rabbit Ears pass at ~11,000 ft.
We had a State Senator named (?) Deberard who owned ranchland above 10,000 ft. Locals called it the Deberard mosquito plantation.
This was in the early 1970’s.
Gregory Fegel (15:40:03) :
Sure it was mate .. it got an Oscar, so it must be a masterpiece. Only problem is that it was issued in the wrong category. It should have been best fantasy movie not documentary.
Of course some are saying the Oscar should be retracted…
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/al-gore-oscar-global-warming.html
Well the DMI temperature graph just shot way up, so evidently they are generating a lot of heat in Copenhagen.
I can testify to this fact of mosquitoes living in cold weather. I was stationed in Alaska in 73 & 74 for the Stratigic Air Command (SAC)! I was a security Policeman. It was fall and we had local “war games” on a regular basis. I was sent into some brush that wasn’t far away from a Munitions Dump we had to protect. It really hadn’t froze yet but the night before it got down to 26 degrees. When I went into the brush that day, it was 33 degrees out. When I was in the brush for five minutes, I came out and was covered in mosquitoes..They wouldn’t bite me but I didn’t take any chances, I brushed them off. They were very slow to respond…I couldn’t believe it…These mosquitoes were of good size…and had a bite you really couldn’t get use too….
DDT has little effect on birds, but interestingly enough, avian malaria has huge impacts.
http://westinstenv.org/wildpeop/2008/05/29/the-barred-owl-strikes-again-its-the-avian-bart-simpson/
Blunders seems to be the favourite sport of US Vice Presidents. In this league, Al Gore now beats Dan Quayle 15400:1740.
Malaria (P. vivax) does not need a warm climate to spread. Two centuries ago, it was endemic in Canada!
The construction of the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and the St-Lawrence river in the early 19th century was slowed by an outbreak of malaria that killed thousands. “It is to be noted that malaria on the Rideau, contrary to popular myth, was not brought in by the soldiers working on the canal. It was already prevalent in settled areas Ontario at that time (going back to at least the late 1700s), in areas where the anopheles mosquito was present. In 1826, prior to the start of contruction on the Rideau, malaria was already present in both Kingston and Perth. Today we’ve forgotten that malaria (often known as ague) was endemic in the southern regions of Ontario up until the late 1800s. ”
http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/hist-canal.html
In China’s high mountain basins (filled of course with the little buggers), life has learned to adapt to these insects. If the truth be known, insects rule, humans drool! We are invading their territory! Not the other way around!
Gore and Brown, get lost at Copenhagen.
This stuff just writes itself….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8417520.stm
talking of factual blunders Monbiot vs Plimer – unbelievable!
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2009/s2772906.htm
What? the next Climate shindigg is in Mexico City in July? Them climate experts must be dumber then a fence post. Copenhegan in December and Mexico City in July, Don’t they know anything about the climate of those places?….:-)
As to the mosquitoes of Alaska they are large and slow, mostly just annoying.
The most voracious mosquitoes that I have met were in the Pit river, Modoc county,Ca. quite small, huge numbers and could penetrate my denim shirt and Levies, and a full set of thermo underwear. Modoc is high desert 4000 to 9000 feet, 40 below 0 F winters …………..My favorite place in the world.
p.g.sharrow “PG”
“As to the mosquitoes of Alaska they are large and slow, mostly just annoying.”
No, they have a strong bite. One that you never get use to!!! I lived in a rual area most of my life and after being bit a few times living in the States, I and most people get use to the bite…your body doesn’t respond as bad..unless you are TOTALLY alergic to them! I didn’t get use to the bites up there…I reacted with a large bump every time!