Museum of unintended consequences/How not to solve a malaria problem

From CSWiki

Dr. Robin DeRosa, Associate Professor of English, Plymouth State University reported this example.

Amory Lovins was the convocation speaker at school today. This is from the speech he gave.

In the early 1950s, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered from malaria. The World Health Organization had a solution: it sprayed 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 side effects. Among the first was that the roofs of people's houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT was also killing a parasitic wasp that had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckos, which were eaten by cats. The cats started to die, the rats flourished, and the people were threatened by potential outbreaks of typhus and plague. To cope with these problems, which it had itself created, the World Health Organization was obliged to parachute 14,000 live cats into Borneo. (See "How Not to Parachute More Cats.")

The true story of Operation Cat Drop--now nearly forgotten at WHO--illustrates that if you don't know how things are interconnected, then often the cause of problems is solutions. On the other hand, if you understand the hidden connections between energy, climate, water, agriculture, transportation, security, commerce, and economic and social development, then you can often devise a solution to one problem (such as energy) that will also create solutions to many other problems at no extra cost. Crafting solutions so that they multiply is the Rocky Mountain Sintitute’s credo and the basis of its success."