Roger Bate, in depth

Adam Sarvana of the Natural Resources News Service has written a detailed story on the career of Roger Bate:

Call major mainstream environmental groups and ask them for comment on Roger Bate. The reply is always: Who? Like most policy wonks at conservative think tanks, few have ever heard of him. That is why he wins. Anyone who wants to understand the policy battles that lie ahead in this country - not to mention those already past - should study his career carefully. This is true for Republicans looking for an antidote to President Obama, environmental advocates he has consistently outwitted, and health care reformers he is about to confront.

In other news, an anti-malaria program of the kind opposed by Bates' Africa Fostering Malaria organization has reduced child mortality by two-thirds on an island in Equatorial Guinea:

BIMCP intervention activities
were launched in March 2004 with a comprehensive IRS
program spraying all houses initially with the synthetic
pyrethroid Deltamethrin (Bayer Crop Science, Isando, South
Africa) and from January 2005 twice yearly with the carbamate
insecticide Ficam (Bayer), assuming a residual effect of
~6 months. [15,22] By mid-2008, a total of eight rounds of insecticide
had been sprayed. ACT, consisting of oral artesunate
with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), was introduced free
of charge to children < 15 years and pregnant women as the
first-line treatment in March 2005, in association with routine
definitive diagnosis, the training of doctors and nurses in case
management according to the national treatment policy, and
Intermittent Preventative Treatment of pregnant women
(IPTp) with two doses of SP, at least 30 days apart. In October
2007, vector control was intensified through a universal
door to door campaign to distribute and hang long-lasting
insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) to cover all sleeping areas,
free of charge to the user. Adherence to all components of the
intervention was promoted through information, education,
and communications (IEC) campaigns.

Our results show that, for Bioko, the United Nations
MDG 1 of a two-thirds reduction in child mortality by 2015
has already been reached. This study showed how, even in settings
of high transmission intensity, effective malaria control
measures that achieve a high degree of coverage and that are
sustained over time can bring about major improvements in
health and thereby play a key part in the achievement of this
critical MDG.