Recently, the host of the ABC program 20/20 John Stossel said, “Because of America's hysteria about chemicals, much of the world won't use DDT. And by the time this TV show is over, malaria will have killed another hundred children.”

Even the co-founder of the global environmental group Greenpeace is on the record as well: “The environmental movement has lost its objectivity, morality and humanity.”

An old saying goes, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” and some are saying that bad history is repeating itself in the form of similar efforts by U.N. bureaucrats to ban Methyl Bromide (MB), described this way by Dr. Henry Miller, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Biotechnology: “an important pesticide used to control harmful insects, rodents, pathogens and weeds. Used by a large cross-section of the world's agriculture producers, it is an essential tool for pest control. (If you have ever eaten a commercially-grown strawberry from California, chances are you have methyl bromide to thank.)”

Bill Whalen, a Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution sees the issue also in terms of the United Nations habitual hostility to the United States. “And that, in turn, raises the question of which matters more to the UN: the pursuit of political correctness, or America's well-being? One problem with phasing out methyl bromide is there's no reliable fallback for farmers and growers (the U.S. Department of Agriculture has devoted more than $120 million to finding a replacement, with no luck). That's not a reasonable risk either for growers or consumers.”

“Meanwhile, there's economic collateral damage – primarily, the large growing states of California and Florida. The USDA's Agricultural Pesticide Impact Assessment Program estimates that a phase-out for pre-plant soil fumigation would cause $1.5 billion in annual lost production in the U.S – and that doesn't take into account lost jobs and the difficulties in easing other nations' quarantined products into the U.S. market.”

Whalen’s warning may soon be full-blown crisis, with recent reports from Florida and Mississippi indicating possible critical shortages of the product right now that would totally devastate affected crops.

Yes, we are concerned about the health of our environment. But we are even more concerned about the lives of our fellow citizens. Perhaps the new political environment will allow for a more considered approach to understanding that in the name of achieving good, we may continue to hurt people all over the world. Shame on those who are won’t even consider the idea of reforming flawed U.N. guidelines.