(via Instapundit)   Great article in Tech Central on The Eco-Imperialist Backlash brewing in the 3rd world.

First, setting up the problem; at it's core, most (but not all) environmental quality initiatives must be regarded as a Luxury good:

In international trade negotiations, for instance, western governments urge the developing countries to adopt high environmental standards, based on the argument that the playing field of worldwide competition must be level. Developing countries reject these standards as a luxury they cannot afford. In their current stage of economic development, growth comes first.

The article contains the following EXCELLENT analogy  (so good, I wish I had thought of it myself! ;-) :

Deepak Lal, an economist of Indian descent, who teaches development studies in the US, compares the behaviour of western NGOs, such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, with the proselytic zeal of western missionaries in the past. He sees environmental radicalism as a modern secular Christian crusade, which has replaced the saving of souls for the saving of spaceship Earth.

I've heard the story of DDT several times but couldn't find a good succinct set of factoids:

In India, DDT spraying had reduced the number of malaria cases from 75 million in 1951 to around 50,000 in 1961, and the number of malaria deaths from nearly a million in the 1940s to a few thousand in the 1960s. But in the 1970s, foreign aid agencies and various UN organisations began to take a jaundiced view of DDT, and the use of DDT declined. Not surprisingly, the mosquitoes hit back and endemic malaria returned to India. By 1997 the UNDP's Human Development Report 2000 estimates there were about 2.6 million malaria cases.

DDT was banned for pesticide use in the US for several reasons:  1) it caused egg shell thinning in Bald Eagles; 2) it increased the mortality of certain long-lifespanned fish species who were heavily exposed.    NO harmful human impact to DDT has ever been conclusively proven.  It's pretty unfortunate that our Green morality places the lives/interests of first world Bald Eagles and Fish over 3rd world Humans.