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Silent Spring
Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring is filled with a "hodgepodge of science and junk science," creating a "Disneyfied version of Eden," according to some modern reviewers (Tierney 2007). Such an embittered reaction to one of the most important works in ecology is unwarranted: especially in light of the fact that DDT is the chemical evil that Carson claims it to be and has been banned in most civilized nations. Pesticides promoted by agribusiness has created a litany of problems for human and animal populations, not to mention upsetting the chemical composition of local soils, contaminating drinking water supplies, and causing the creation of superbugs. Carson (1962) might not have gotten everything right in Silent Spring, but she sure comes close, capturing the essence of why agribusiness and the chemical industry conglomerates are failing to make the world a better place. Silent Spring has stood the test of time, although its message still needs to be...
The titles of Carson's chapters are certainly alarmist if not totally hyperbolic. For example, "Elixirs of Death" and "Rivers of Death" seem like unnecessarily doomsdayish until Carson explains that plants, animals, birds, and human beings are dying unnecessarily from the unbridled, unchecked, and unregulated use of chemical pesticides.
Carson portrays the chemical industry in a one-sided way, but the book has a central thesis and Carson sticks to it. In the case of pesticide development, there is little doubt that they have long-term ramifications on human and non-human life. The whole purpose of pesticides is to kill insects; the purpose of fungicide to kill fungi. Rather than being a panacea for human starvation, such chemicals…
References
Carson, R. (1962; 2002). Silent Spring. New York: Mariner.
Tierney, J.M. (2007). Carson's "Silent Spring" fails test of time. New York Times. June 6, 2007. Retrieved online: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/health/05iht-sntier.1.6003787.html
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, 8 years before the birth of the Environmental Protection Agency and more than 50 years before the writing of this essay. At that time, there was little common knowledge about the sometimes terrible effects of chemicals on the environment, plants, animals and humans. Carson's unflinching, educated examination and explanation of these effects helped create a dramatic cultural movement
Kennedy announced the formation of a special government group to investigate the use and control of pesticides under the direction of the President's Science Advisory Committee (Rachel pp). The book caused a firestorm of public outrage and sold more than a quarter million copies by the end of 1962 (Rachel pp). United State Supreme Court Justice William Douglas called it "the most important chronicle of this century for the
As the eel gets closer to the ocean, the water of course becomes salty and there are new dangers (fishing nets) and unfamiliar eels in the water. But true to her style of providing readers with sidebar stories, the eel passes a clay cliff where "the first eels had come in from the sea eons ago" (p. 228). But Carson doesn't just stop there; there are "teeth, bones, and shells"
The 1980s (the period when Ronald Reagan was the U.S. President) witnessed a series of government measures targeting environmental regulations. This resulted in public outrage against the anti-environmental policies of the government leading to a renewed interest in nature clubs and groups and the formation of radical groups who led strong movements to protect the environment. (vii) the post- Reagan resurgence (1990s onwards) - President Bush and President Clinton
Current events of the environmental ethics Some of the major current events concerning the environmental ethics are the issue of global warming. One of the leading researchers (in the causes and effects of climate change; and in the field of allergies) in Europe has discovered that the burning of the fossil fuel that has increased over the recent past has resulted into the increase of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
start of the contemporary environmentalist movement has often been posited with the publication of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring in 1962. Carson's book was about the environmental effects from pollution due to the agricultural pesticide DDT (and several related chemicals). It was discovered that DDT stayed in the freshwater system for a long time and ultimately had a rather severe effect on wildlife: when consumed by birds, it made