Reverberated pesticide abuse

The book "Silent Spring" By Rachel Carson is not by any means a novel. This book examines the assertion of an early environmentalist (Rachel Carson) that the use of pesticides and poisons for agricultural purposes is destroying the earth's environment. To the average reader this book will pose a challenge of comprehension and completion. With no interesting characters and/or exciting plot this book is difficult to read. The redeeming value in this book is that we are made to think about the consequences of our actions with chemicals released to the environment. This is good, as it would not always be considered good to sprout a third arm as did Zaphod Beeblebrox. From a moral perspective the courage of the main character to stick to her story, despite everyone trying to discredit her, is impressive. A more responsible (older) person may even use the word "inspiring." With a name like "Silent Spring" you would think that there would be a story similar to "Tuck Everlasting" where a family drinks from a spring in the forest which gives them eternal life. "Silent Spring" would be like a water spring which turns you invisible or grants you the ability to be absolutely quite no matter what you do. But no, this book is entirely factual with no plot, and not a real cool story.
A word to the wise; do not read this book if you want a good story. If you want a cool story read "Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy" by Douglass Adams. For all you tree huggers out there this story is a good morale booster which should be placed on your tofu table as a conversational piece.

Thank God For Rachel Carson and Her Courage!

The legacy of Rachel Carson's famous work is living on today and is still the nemesis of the chemical industry. It appears that a few chemical snake-oil pushers and/or their apologists have been leaving bad reviews amongst the mostly glowing reviews, confirming the success and timeless message of Carson's work long after her passing in 1964.

Indeed, *Silent Spring* is still one of the most referenced works when it comes to environment and chemical contamination of the environment. One will understand why after reading this monumental achievement.

Ms Carson's work put environment and ecology squarely into our collective consciousness and part of that success is owed, inadvertently, to the chemical manufacturers who ruthlessly attacked her as a person and the integrity of her work. She was called before congress to testify about the dangers of pesticide/herbicide use and to prove her work while simultaneously being challenged by scientists and chemical manufacturer representatives.

The outcome was that chemicals such as DDT, which were wiping-out non-targeted life forms such as the Bald Eagle, were eventually banned from use in the U.S.

The controversy over pesticide use stirred-up another important issue and that was the chemical manufacturers insidious influence of university-level research. Manufacturers have always funded university research with rich grants for which they expect data to support their products success in the market-place. Researchers are often coerced by threat of loosing funding or their credibility challenged if their findings are not favorable to industry. Unfortunately, a few of those researchers are gladly willing to take part in this nefarious pseudo-science and seem not to loose any sleep over it.

After the backlash of government and public outcry caused by Ms Carson`s efforts, chemical manufacturers to this day think twice before attempting to publicly defame decent/honest chemical detractors, indeed, the possibility of being exposed by the dreaded "Silent Spring Syndrome" haunts them in a poetic gesture to the memory and work of Rachel Carson.

After Ms Carson's exhaustive studies and field work, where the damage of pesticides and herbicides showed their insidious bad habits of spreading beyond target areas, polluting and disrupting biomes, her clear message to the public was simply stated:

"Now at last, as it has become apparent that the heedless and unrestrained use of chemicals is a greater menace to ourselves than to the targets (bugs), the river which is the science of biotic control flows again, fed by new streams of thought." (p 279) Indeed!


Carson's legacy is enhanced by a host of dedicated people who keep her work not only referenced, but updated and disseminated through such beautiful books as: Sandra Steingraber's "Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment" and for empathy and understanding of the insect world, there is Joanne E. Lauck's "The Voice of the Infinite in the Small: Re-visioning the Insect-Human Connection".

In 1964, and after Ms Carson died, Robert L. Rudd, a zoologist and expert on the dangers pesticides, published his
study: "Pesticides and the Living Landscape". This work underscored and corraberated the importance Ms Carson's work and showed that many scientists could not be bought or intimidated by the chemical companies.

The sad irony of the chemical manufacturer's dangerous assault on insects is that all bugs have a purpose, but then so do the chemical companies: to make a ton of money selling insanity to an unwitting and uneducated public. This constitutes one of the most irresponsible and insidious snake-oil scams in history.

To learn more about Rachel Carson's legacy and resources for action, go to: www.rachelcarson.org and the Racel Carson Council: http://members.aol.com/rccouncil/ourpage/

Silent Spring

I found Silent Spring to be monotonous and depressing. Carson's 355 page book is filled with 17 different chapters, with the last 59 pages dedicated to footnotes. She draws the reader in, at first, with painting a beautiful countryside, then destroying it. She calls her short story "A Fable for Tomorrow", and then backs up the horror by telling us all the different maladies that overcame her perfect town actually happened in reality.
However, this haunting beginning is followed by a two chapters ("The Obligation to Endure" and "Elixirs of Death") that merely describe what poisons we use and why. They are morbidly interesting, since she follows up each deathly "elixir" with a more potent, more frightening one, up to the most deadly of them all, endrin, which can be up to 300 times more poisonous as DDT to some birds.
Now that the reader has a who's who of poisons, Carson then moves on through the next 6 chapters to show us their effect in water ("Surface Waters and Underground Seas"), soil ("Realms of the Soil"), plants ("The Earth's Green Mantle"), wildlife ("Needless Havoc"), birds ("And No Birds Sing"), and fish ("Rivers of Death"). With each chapter, she shows us a picture of how life was before the pesticides, and then tells us the story of how it was destroyed. She lists example after example of life wilting before the toxins. Birds are found trembling or dead, fish are eradicated from major rivers for miles and miles. I found it to be extremely depressing at first, then, after several chapters, it became numbing and monotonous. I hear about so much death, so many losses, the only comfort I have is to know that laws prohibit the same flow of toxins into our environment, through it is a naiveté that is quickly dissipating. But I digress.
Chapter 10, "Indiscriminately from the Skies", details the effects and cost of aerial spraying with pesticides. The next four chapters ("Beyond the Dreams of the Borgias", "The Human Price", "Through a Narrow Window", and "One in Every Four".) explain the effect of pesticides on humans. The last of the four is upsetting, to say the least. The title is an estimation of how many people will develop cancer, and quotes the American Cancer society in predicting that it will strike two out of every three families. It is within this chapter Carson blames DDT for being a carcinogen.
And just when things seemed they could not get worse, Carson throws two last, depressing chapters at us. "Nature Fights Back" and "The Rumblings of an Avalanche" describe how the pesticides we use today are becoming ineffective as insects adapt, evolve, and resist our battles, and come back stronger than before, now that their predators are poisoned to eradication. This unfortunately results in the use of more powerful chemicals, and then, in time, the cycle repeats itself and even more powerful chemicals are required.
In her last chapter, "The Other Road", Carson gives us a solution. Through sterilization methods, lures, repellants, venoms, bacterial diseases, and biological control (importing their natural enemies), insects can be controlled continuously, and, she adds, some pesticide control is not out of order now and then.
Though Carson's style of writing did not change throughout the book, I found the facts haunting, and understand how this book may have been the stone that started the avalanche that changed how people look at a tree, a forest, and the world.