Systems thinking: a cautionary tale (cats in Borneo)

[Music] in the 1950s the Dak people of Borneo an island in Southeast Asia were suffering from an outbreak of malaria so they called The World Health Organization for health the World Health Organization had a readymade solution which was to spray copious amounts of DD around the island with the application of DDT the mosquitoes that carried the malaria were knocked down and so was the malaria there were some interesting side effects though the first was that the roofs of people's houses began to collapse on their heads turns out the DDT not only killed off the malaria

carrying mosquitoes but it also killed a species of parasitic wasp that had controlled a population of thatch eating caterpillars thatch being what the RS that the Dak people's homes were made from without the Wasps the caterpillars multiplied and flourished and began munching their way through the Villager roofs that was just the beginning the DDT affected a lot of the Island's other insects which were eaten by the resident population of small lizards called geckos the biological half-life of DDT is around 8 years so animals like geckos do not metabolize it very fast it stays in their

system for a long time time over time the geckos began to accumulate pretty high levels of DDT and while they tolerated the DDT fairly well the Island's resident cats which dined on the geckos did not the cats ate the geckos and the DDT contained in the geckos killed the cats with the cats gone the Island's population of rats came out to play we all know what happens when rats multiply and flourish pretty soon the daak people people were back on the phone for the World Health Organization only this time it wasn't malaria that was the

problem it was the plague and the destruction of their Grain Stores both of which were caused by the overpopulation of rats this time though the World Health Organization didn't have a ready-made solution and had to invent one what did they do they decided to parachute live cats into Borneo operation cat drop occurred courtesy of the royal Air Force and eventually stabilized the [Music] situation if you enjoyed this video please subscribe and consider becoming a patron by making a pledge of $1 or more for each new video we create thank you to our patrons we cannot

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