“There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings… Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change” (Carson 2). This allusion, set at the beginning of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, detailed a town where pesticides disturbed the balance of life. The government’s blind support of DDT, a human-synthesized pesticide, after its successes in World War II led to an expanding market for the insecticide and widespread public use. All the while, Rachel Carson had been devoting her life to her studies and was becoming an avid biologist as well as an environmentalist. The increasing uncertainty and the disturbing reports arising about DDT convinced Carson that change
…show more content…
The first chapter of the book, “A Fable for Tomorrow”, opens with a beautiful town where the wildlife and townsfolk live in harmony when suddenly a mysterious blight strikes the area. As the animals die and birds disappear, Carson ends the chapter with, “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson 3). She alludes to the environmental consequences that humans could eventually bring upon themselves if DDT and the usage of other pesticides are not controlled. In the following chapters, she describes the process of evolution to diversify all life that exists today and how the world has come to a balance where humans could live peacefully with nature. However, human’s attempt to yield nature to their own will is disrupting the balance that took millions of years to establish. Rachel makes a convincing case that DDT and other synthesized creations should not be called “insecticides” but rather “biocides” because of the effects that they have on the entire interconnected food chain (Carson 8). Speaking to her average reader, Carson explains in great detail how DDT in the food chain can transfer to living organisms not intended. Through the process of biological magnification, DDT accumulates in greater amounts in the tissue of animals higher and higher in the food chain. These high concentrations can wind up in …show more content…
Following the creation of DDT, its widespread use for war purposes influenced the public 's opinion of the product. Rachel Carson’s book, which illustrated the problems and solutions to pesticide destruction, was the spark that ignited the environmental movement in the United States and abroad. The Environmental Protection Agency as well as other legislative successes that followed the publishing of her book are often considered Carson’s “extended shadow” (Lewis 1). The person who is most grateful for Rachel Carson’s book is Mother Nature as she has recovered to a spring full of singing
The first chapter of the book, “A Fable for Tomorrow”, opens with a beautiful town where the wildlife and townsfolk live in harmony when suddenly a mysterious blight strikes the area. As the animals die and birds disappear, Carson ends the chapter with, “No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson 3). She alludes to the environmental consequences that humans could eventually bring upon themselves if DDT and the usage of other pesticides are not controlled. In the following chapters, she describes the process of evolution to diversify all life that exists today and how the world has come to a balance where humans could live peacefully with nature. However, human’s attempt to yield nature to their own will is disrupting the balance that took millions of years to establish. Rachel makes a convincing case that DDT and other synthesized creations should not be called “insecticides” but rather “biocides” because of the effects that they have on the entire interconnected food chain (Carson 8). Speaking to her average reader, Carson explains in great detail how DDT in the food chain can transfer to living organisms not intended. Through the process of biological magnification, DDT accumulates in greater amounts in the tissue of animals higher and higher in the food chain. These high concentrations can wind up in …show more content…
Following the creation of DDT, its widespread use for war purposes influenced the public 's opinion of the product. Rachel Carson’s book, which illustrated the problems and solutions to pesticide destruction, was the spark that ignited the environmental movement in the United States and abroad. The Environmental Protection Agency as well as other legislative successes that followed the publishing of her book are often considered Carson’s “extended shadow” (Lewis 1). The person who is most grateful for Rachel Carson’s book is Mother Nature as she has recovered to a spring full of singing