ttt Silent SpringMy grandpa once owned a t-shirt that read, “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.” As I began to read through the pages of Silent Spring I thought about that powerful message. I wondered what pictures we will have for our future generations? The author Rachel Carson, who was a marine biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service warned back in 1962, over forty-five years ago about the effects of chemical usage on our environment and felt obligated to write and inform people about what is going on around them. In the book, some see it as a struggle for nature and is an historical account of chemicals affecting our environment. Each chapter is organized by an historical account of different toxins, such as DDT, Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, and Alkly, where the chemicals come from laboratories, hospitals, nuclear explosions, and factories. The book also has case studies on how the chemicals affect our wildlife, our food, and us as human beings. Throughout the book the reader today is reminded that it is an old book, but one that is very relevant to today’s a headline. Silent Spring’s success is that it is truly is a cry for help for everyone to get involved to defend nature. One of the most controversial stories was that of the Coho salmon which started in 1955 in the Yellowstone National Park system. An insecticide called DDT was needed to maintain control among the forest insects. In the fall of that year so many fish had been killed that the fish and game administration became alarmed. Many thought that one pound of the chemical DDT would be ok over an acre of land. Not so, as many of the fish that perished had DDT in their tissues. The effects of DDT were seen in many other fish besides the Coho salmon. Of these fish many went blind, others swam erratically, gasped at the water surface, and showed signs of spasms and tremors. Another problem of the Coho salmon was that the salmon liked to return to the same spawning stream every three years and when DDT overtook the salmon, they were nonexistent. The destruction of fish is cause for alarm to the 15 million Americans who fish for their livelihood and to another 15 million who are anglers. Another example of chemical destruction in our environment is the use of wide spread treatments against insects by airplanes. A French scientist, Leopold Trouvelot allowed gypsy moths to escape his laboratory in Massachusetts. The gypsy moth’s caterpillar stage is very light and can be carried with the wind, or by plants carrying the egg masses. The moth kills the oak tree and other hardwood trees. In response to the moths, spraying started and even city areas were not untouched. The spray hit salt marshes, dairy farms, fishponds, and truck gardens. The governments pest control department moved on to finding another insect to prey upon, the fire ant of the south and the spraying continued. I noticed throughout the book the author does not sympathize with farmers. Living on a farm myself I have seen the affects on our families nursery stock and the lingering effects on the plants as chemicals from the air affected them were when nearby fields were sprayed. The human effects are numerous and lie in wait within every aspect of our lives. Symptoms from these dangerous chemicals may not appear until twenty years down the line, in which it may be to late. Many have noticed that there are more cases of memory loss, depression, cancer and even schizophrenia. It was said in 1962 that 45,000,000 would die of chemical related cancers alone, think about the numbers today. Chemicals in some way have afflicted every part of life. All forms of life are alike in some manner and each has a stake in how we treat our earth. Charles Darwin’s principal of survival states; “survive a deadly one, then even a more deadly one” gives cause to the idea of what will the future be like with all these chemicals around in our world. Nature is fighting back constantly shifting and making adjustments. Animal populations have been kept in check by the resistance of the environment. For example insects should be able to keep the numbers sustainable, but because of chemicals all may be irradiated. Nature should also be able to be kept in line through reproduction and animals preying on each other. The ultimate goal is to achieve peace between man and nature in which man has to make a choice, which after all, is ours to make. A great quote made by a Milwaukee, Wisconsin woman in the book was, “can anyone imagine a springtime without a robin’s song?” Think about this profound statement. The statement emphasizes the need for a speedy solution to our environment problem. Rachel Carson would be happy to know that six years after her death we celebrate Earth Day and Congress passed the Natural Environmental Policy to protect our rivers, oceans, the earth’s atmosphere, our wildlife and its streams. The findings in Silent Spring also gave way to the establishment if the Endangered Species Act in 1973. This act is one of the most important pieces of conservation as it has led to the recovery of many animals such as the American alligator and our national bird, the bald eagle. After almost fifty years Rachel Carson still challenges institutions, both physically and scientifically, writing in a way that Silent Spring is still relevant today. Silent Spring has opened my eyes to seek out a way to help in any way to better the world around me. Just like that saying on the t-shirt, we need to follow in her footsteps and allow future generations to have the opportunity to take pictures.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is one of the most informative and enlightening books I’ve read in the past 10 years. A non-fiction account of the horrors of DDT and its effect on our environment. A book that anticipated the creation of the EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Silent Spring is thoroughly researched and filled with some of the most wonderful prose I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. What makes this so striking is that this is a non-fiction account and so one does not expect such flowery language. The book is a sad one in that it explores the many dangers of big business, corporations, & government and their blatant disregard for the environment and human safety. It’s all about money and that trumps everything else.Even more extraordinary discoveries were made later. No trace of DDD (similar agent to that of DDT) could be found in the water shortly after teh last application of the chemical. But the poison had not really left the lake; it had merely gone into the fabric of the life the lake supports. Twenty-three months after the chemical treatment had ceased, the plankton still contained as much as 5.3 parts per million. In that interval of nearly two years, successive crops of plankton had flowered adn faded away, but the poison, although no longer present in the water, ahd somehow passed from generation to generation. And it lived on in the animal life of the lake as well. All fish, birds, and frogs examined a year after the chemical applications had ceased still contained DDD. The amoutn found in the flesh always exceeded by many times the original concentration in the water. Among these living carriers were fish that had hatched nine months after the last DDD application, grebes, and California gulls that had built up concentrations of more than 2000 parts per million. Mean-while, the nesting colonies of the grebes dwindled- from more than 1000 pairs before the first insecticide treatment to about 30 pairs in 1960. And even the thirty seem to have nested in vain, for no young grebes have been observed on the lake since the last DDD application.It seems horrifying to think that we ever allowed such attrocities to be committed by governments and big business, but we’re still living in such times. This book was ground-breaking in the way that it addressed such an issue using reason, science, and passion. Carson does not shy away from delving into the periodic table or the chemical break-down of these pesticides using hard science as evidence for her claims, and yet as I mentioned earlier and can be seen in the passage above: still writes in a the most accessible and and easy to read fashion. Her prose is lovely to me, reads like poetry.I read this book in an Environmental Creative Writing course. A blend of theory and creative writing application. The book was something I went in expecting to dislike. I do not read much non-fiction, and the non-fiction I do read is carefully chosen. This is a must-read for anyone who has any concern about the environment. It is a horrifying and depressing story about a sad chapter in North America, but it’s worth your time.
What do You think about Silent Spring (2002)?
This may have been a "brilliantly written book" when it came out in the early 60s, but time has not been kind to Ms Carson.At times, her dry, overly-scientific approach to her subject makes the head hurt.That said, however, Silent Spring does deserve it's 'classic' tag, and it is as relevant today as it ever was.From detailing man's arrogant bid to rid the world of 'pests' using the new toys found in the chemistry lab, Carson shows just how much damage can be done if we don't pay attention to the world around us - how big man's folly can be if he decides he knows better than nature.The fact Government agencies allowed the wholesale dusting of incesticides and pesticides is bewildering, and leaves the reader both angry and sharing the sense of betrayal felt by those most damaged by the belief that DDT (among many others) could cure all ills.It may not be the lightest of reads, but it is worth the effort as there is light at the end of Silent Spring's dark tunnel.
—Kahn
All I can say is that this book completely rocked my world. Carson's writing is so lyrical, so engrossing, and so compelling it's just impossible not to be mesmerized by the lilt of her sentences. And she presents her arguments with such magnetic conviction you cannot help but be convinced of their legitimacy. I've never been a "science person", but her descriptions of cell life, soil creatures, and even beetles truly had me on the edge of my seat. By the same token her words about pesticides are nothing short of chilling, and since I've read Silent Spring I've evolved into a passionate environmentalist. Fair warning: this isn't an easy book to read emotionally. A few times I had to put it down, wondering if I had the courage to keep going and face the truth of what's happening to our world. But every time I went back, and I'm so, so glad that I did. Read Silent Spring - I promise you'll never be the same, and that you won't regret it.
—Claire
After being in the environmental field for 15 years, I decided it was about time to finish reading the book that started it all, at least what we know as the modern environmental movement (I won't get into what I think is happening in the environmental movement right now). If you are of my generation (thirtysomethings), you will probably start to read this and think "Yea, Yea, I know all of this already" because that's what I thought at first. But then it dawned on me that the reason "I know all of this already" is because of the impact this book had on the environmental culture of this country in the early 1960's, resulting in a greater awareness of how our actions impact our environment and legislation to regulate those actions. This book deals with some pretty technical stuff (e.g. insecticide chemical disruption of the Kreb's cycle in the cells and the cascading effect to other tissues in an organism, not just in insects) and can be a little dry in some parts, but Carson does a good job of making it relevent to our understanding and appreciation of our environment. This is a great read for those who are interested in environmental history.
—Erin
