The American Spectator : Marching for Frogs

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Marching for Frogs

By Robert James Bidinotto on 4.27.11 @ 6:07AM

Watch out for "Save the Frogs," the latest eco-scare.

If you don't hear about "saving the frogs" by the end of this week, it's only because you're living under a rock -- like some amphibian or something. Environmental activists have declared April 29 to be "Save the Frogs Day," and they're going to do everything possible to enlist you into their crusade.

Their cause has an official website, announcing international events, seminars, classroom propaganda, poetry and art contests, and an obligatory demonstration on the steps of the Environmental Protection Agency -- all to alert you, Joe Citizen, to the looming "amphibian extinction crisis."

For several years, researchers have warned about the threat of extinction among certain frog and amphibian species. And to the extent that a problem does exist, biologists have managed to isolate the main culprit: disease.

In 2007, a major scientific study concluded: "The global emergence and spread of the pathogenic, virulent, and highly transmissible fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, resulting in the disease chytridiomycosis, has caused the decline or extinction of up to about 200 species of frogs." The biologists characterized this disease's impact on frogs as "the most spectacular loss of vertebrate biodiversity due to disease in recorded history," and they concluded: "In the absence of supportive evidence for alternative theories despite decades of research, it is important for the scientific community and conservation agencies to recognize and manage the threat of chytridiomycosis to remaining species of frogs."

However, blaming the extinction of any species on a mundane natural explanation only frustrates environmentalist groups. After all, they survive and thrive by blaming human beings for every problem on the planet in apocalyptic fundraising letters. And "Save the Frogs" activists are doing just that.

You would think that if frogs need protection from some menacing fungus, then those best suited to address the issue would be research biologists. But no: This grand cause demands your direct participation. "The frogs are depending on you," warns the "Save the Frogs" website. "Your children and their children are depending on you. The future of the planet lies in your hands and in your actions. SAVE THE FROGS!"

You might also believe, naively, that promising lines of research to combat a virulent fungus might lead to developing appropriate fungicides and breakthroughs in biotechnology. But again, no: In fact, the amphibian alarmists are actually blaming the frog extinctions on pesticides -- not on the fungus.

"An abundance of scientific literature," they insist, "has demonstrated the negative effects of an array of commonly used pesticides on amphibians: delayed metamorphosis, immunosuppresion [sic], hermaphroditism, sex reversal, and outright mortality." The worst offender, they declare, is atrazine -- an important, widely used agro-chemical that the campaigners single out on their website and which is the focus of their April 29 protest demonstration at the EPA.

I have written previously about the environmentalist campaign against atrazine and other agro-chemicals. From a public health standpoint, thousands of studies, including lengthy reviews by EPA scientific advisory panels, the World Health Organization, and other international bodies, have rejected as spurious the environmentalists' charges against atrazine. Recently the New York Times reported: "deformities in frogs in the northeastern United States are far more common in suburban and urban areas, not in and around farmlands, a Yale ecologist's research shows. The findings upend the conventional wisdom that agricultural pesticides are largely responsible for the abnormalities."

But such facts mean little to green fundraisers, of course. Nor do they mean anything to others who profit directly by spreading such falsehoods.

Consider "Frog TV," a YouTube-and-web-based series of videos whose purpose is to show "how chemical pesticides are threatening our health." Aimed in cartoon form at impressionable children, the show features "Triball," a three-eyed mutant frog who raises their fears about "strange things happening in our bodies" due to pesticides.

After first terrifying mothers and their kids about pesticides on food, the website tells them to do the following: "Flex your financial muscle and choose organic for the best personal and planetary health possible. Why is organic best? No harmful pesticides." Then follows a link to a site touting the benefits of organic food.

What you are not told is that this website is the creation of the Organic Valley Cooperative -- one of the largest organic farmer cooperative businesses in the United States, with sales exceeding a half billion dollars annually. That's right: Organic Valley is a profit-making business, trying to frighten consumers about the safety of their competitors' farm and dairy products. Like their website cartoons aimed at children and parents, another of Organic Valley's propaganda efforts is a "Farm Friends Kids Activity Flyer," which teaches tykes to fear "Pesticides, hormones, and drugs, oh my!" -- and, of course, to buy Organic Valley's products instead.

So if you hear a lot of noise this week about "saving the frogs," please understand that those yelling into the megaphones and microphones are not just scientifically deficient. They also aren't the selfless, disinterested consumer watchdogs they pretend to be. When these fear-mongers claim that pesticide makers and users profit by peddling poison, what they won't tell you is that they profit by peddling panic.

About the Author

Robert James Bidinotto is a freelance editor and writer in Maryland.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment

Stuart Koehl| 4.27.11 @ 7:10AM

Frogs survived the Triassic die-off that saw the extinction of half of all species on earth. They survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary event that killed off the dinosaurs, pterosaurs and large reptilian sea life. They survived the ice age. They survived the Medieval Optimal and the Little Ice Age. Frogs are not that fragile.

Melvin| 4.27.11 @ 7:24AM

We can thank Jim Henson for this fine amphibian mess. There are millions of Liberals out there that think Kermit is real and frogs are bilingual.
Come to think about it, have the Chinese taught Pandas Kung Foo?

FastJohnny| 4.27.11 @ 8:03AM

I was under the impression that amphibians were in an evolutionary decline. They have been around for over 100 million years and as far as I remember from my Jr High and High Scool biology classes, they have been in decline since humans have been able to notice.

Another interesting point is that these tree huggers do the same thing that they accuse everyone else of doing: intervene further in the balance of the natural world.

JimH| 4.27.11 @ 8:22AM

It’s not scientific by any means but there are certainly far fewer frogs around my community outside of Tampa now then there were 10 years ago. This has been variously attributed to construction (the place is far more built up now), use of insecticides, fertilizers and weed killers. One would need to see what the frog population is like in isolated areas.

TaxedTexan| 4.27.11 @ 8:52AM

Hey- the folks in Hawaii are being overrun by non-indigenous frogs- perhaps I see a solution- or - wait - am I recalling a Simpson's episode???

JimH| 4.27.11 @ 9:37AM

You could import some Frenchmen.

PJ| 4.27.11 @ 9:43AM

Or Chinese.

Denver Todd| 4.27.11 @ 8:53AM

This won't work. Frogs aren't a sympthetic species. Nobody likes them. You can't make sushi from frogs.

Seapuss| 4.27.11 @ 9:29AM

I say let them all croak.

PsychoDad| 4.27.11 @ 8:00PM

Boo!

David W| 4.27.11 @ 9:44AM

And do not forget about Lousianna and other southern states - they eat frog legs, and they taste like chicken (or do chickens taste like frogs)??

And color me surprised that an "organic" business is trying to scare little children into buying more organic stuff. Surely that would be something that an evil corporation would do, not something a nice and innocent organic and healthy business would do.

PJ| 4.27.11 @ 9:44AM

Does this mean I can't eat frogs' legs anymore?

Dan Hirsch| 4.27.11 @ 10:01AM

Well, I live in the woods near a swale that's wet year round, except when frozen. The frogs are very noisy, thank you.

And how can we protect the frogs from this fungus? Will they need treatment, will they require vaccinations? Where will they get this treatment? Should they be clogging up our emergency rooms? Who will insure health care practitioners against frog malpractice liability?

Hey, why not leave the damn frogs alone - God got them here from the Triassic times, or whatever, if He wants them around, He'll take care of them.

Fuggeddabowdit!!!

Why don't you do something about $5 gasoline?

I like the Dodge commercial with the bowhunter silencing the irritating cricket, when the dumb frog starts after the cricket meets its demise....

John Navratil| 4.27.11 @ 11:37AM

Frogs have been in the environmental play book since the hole in the ozone a generation ago. Perhaps this is the next scare they will tee up. They've got a million of them which they play around with to see what will resonate with the hoi polloi.

The rain forest lingers, acid oceans from C02 is still in incubation along with third-hand smoke. Rising oceans and the global warming scare seem to have run their useful course, as did the coming ice age, lead paint and the spotted owl. Asbestos paid off handsomely, so they do have some reward.

Rest assured that the game is never over.

Padoux| 4.27.11 @ 12:38PM

These nuts would have no problem with a mass extinction of humans due to famine if we quit using pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc. They have no credibility and next they will blame earthquakes on man.

Just Sayin'| 4.29.11 @ 8:13AM

Atrazine has been banned in several European countries...I'm not aware of a famine there.

Froghater| 5.2.11 @ 2:46AM

Come on Just Sayin. That was the first intelligent thing anyone on this page has said. Smart people are not allowed on this site. Please go away. Next thing you're gonna do is tell people you actually read http://savethefrogs.com/atrazine none of us know how to read, so we just assume that syngenta must care about us enough to tell us the truth. You know there revenues were 11 billion dollars last year. They've got nothing at stake if atazine gets banned so none of us use brains and think for ourselves we just believe them when they tell us that a chemical that got banned in Europe and has -cide in it's name ( like suicide or genocide) is actually not bad for us at all. So please go to a different site if you actually think for yourself and care about the cleanliness of your water supply or the health of our planet. Thanks

kiltmaker| 4.27.11 @ 1:29PM

As always: Follow the money. It's the fastest way to the truth.

Holly| 4.27.11 @ 1:35PM

The frogs are in decline because of the birth control pill. Women take the pill and then void the hormones (which the pharma industry designed not to degrade in water-as opposed to natural hormones which degrade immediately in water) into the water supply. The consequence is that the amphibians and fish are all becoming female due to the superabundance of female hormones in our fresh water supply. I guess the CAtholic Church was right, contraception is always an evil and now we are going to start paying the consequences.....

Bill| 4.27.11 @ 4:41PM

Is there any causative relationship between the pesticides and other chemicals and that tongue-twister of a disease that's killing off entire species of frogs?

If not, the environmental police ought to shut up.

Stan Redmond| 4.27.11 @ 5:30PM

I've never had frogs' legs before. Now I have the PERFECT date to try them first. Little bit o' bbq sauce and wing sauce oughtta do 'em up just fine.

darlene lofgren| 4.27.11 @ 6:08PM

Well said, Bidinotto. Astute observations. Good peeling away of the onion skins. (We need to clone you.)

PsychoDad| 4.27.11 @ 8:02PM

Was that business with the frogs growing 25 legs because of pesticides/fertilizer runoff/George W. Bush all a dead end?

Dee See| 4.27.11 @ 11:10PM

---EVEN AS what's now undoubtedly the greatest
nuclear disaster in history --(Fukishima and its
GE flawed reactors) is completely buried by world
globalist media, right beside the ever unfolding
RED Chinese 'eugenics friendly' Halocaust.

Listen! --turn off the radio and TV! ---LISTEN!

----You really can hear Yuppie giggles!----

REALLY!--------------------------------------------

Bill| 4.28.11 @ 8:57AM

Where does the yuppie giggling come from, that you can hear?

Agnes| 4.29.11 @ 6:54PM

Shall we dig a little deeper. Consider organic food from this perspective.
April 26, 2011 — Prenatal exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides that are widely used on fruit and vegetable crops throughout the United States has been linked to IQ deficits in school-age children, according to 3 new studies published online April 21 in Environmental Health Perspectives.
http://www.medscape.com/viewar.....src=mpnews