‘Silent Spring’ Summary Paper
Introduction:
Silent Spring is a scientific work of art that explains how humans are indefinitely destroying the environment over time. Rachel Carson uses collected research and first hand examples to present how damaging pesticides are to the environment and human health, the process of bioaccumulation with toxins occurs, and how nature has its own checks and balances that humans are disrupting. Carson felt compelled to write Silent Spring for a number of reasons. She felt that the public was unaware of how dangerous these chemicals were to the environment, that the chemical industries themselves were hiding information, and to help people understand that there are alternative biological solutions available.
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Many different chemicals were presented but the main was DDT which was initially seen as innocent but later found to be extremely deadly to all life. Consistently, chapter 4 accounts how pesticides are toxic and come from many sources. The world’s most valuable resource is water which is constantly contaminated by chemical pesticides. Water transports these pesticides into streams, lakes, rivers, and even drinking water. These become contaminated due to runoff, which in-turn effects many ecosystems and the wildlife that dwells in …show more content…
These chemicals gradually accumulate in one’s body over time, creating long-term health concerns. Even in food there are traces of these chemicals which cannot be destroyed via cooking. Carson also recaps that day by day people may seem fine and don’t worry about the effects, but all of a sudden these chemicals can add up and cause serious illness.
Consequently, chapter 13 roughly explains what happens to cells when they come in to contact with chemicals. Confers how chemicals can disrupt energy productions triggering enzymes to disappear. Therefore, oxidation is unable to occur causing cells to become cancerous. Chapter 14 is similar by describing the rise in cancer percentages. These percentages are due to increasing amounts of deadly chemicals in the environment.
The succeeding two chapters discuss how nature has its own checks and balances. Whenever humans interact with chemicals they offset the natural environment. When this happens the weaker insects die off and the theory of survival of the fittest takes place with the stronger more resistant insects. Thus the final chapter offers several different biological solutions instead of chemical sprays. Carson sympathizes with the reader to become more aware and use these alternative biological solutions.
By the name of “superspecies” we try to change the world feature and control the nature with science. With science, a lot of technology has been invented to support people demand for products. Without anticipation about the bad consequences, sometime the invention is causing more damaged than it provide in later on. In 1930, DDT that use for killing insect was discovered by Paul Mueller, working for the chemical company Geigy in Switzerland. For this reason, the benefits of using DDT became immediately obvious (65). Years letter, the unbelievable side effect of using DDT was found. While Biologists investigated the decline of eagles and hawks, they discovered the hitherto phenomenon of “biomagnification”, which compounds gather as they are ingested up the food chain (67). DDT phenomenon proves that thinking like science is only to understand the world in separate pieces. It is lack of understanding the rhythms, patterns and cycles of the nature. Therefore, we need to think beyond the science to see the connections between us and nature because in the reality this world is the world of
By citing credible organizations and offering her own eco-friendly alternatives, she proves to the reader that she takes a particular interest in the environment and is educated to speak on it. Pairing powerful understatements and hyperboles to contrast with one another show the reader that the practice is both needless and selfish. These rhetorical techniques have a powerful impact on the reader, whose ignorance prior to reading the excerpt can no longer suffices to excuse the lack of action. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is a deeply persuasive book that not only advocates for an end to pesticides but also speaks to the obligation humans hold to protect their
The pesticide DDT banned in 1987 was a detrimental to the environment leading to it to be banned in 1987. DDT remains in the soils for a long period of time. The chemicals affect the ecology of the soil and water run off causing contamination of livestock and native animals and aquatic species. Studies indicated a range of human health impacts from DDT including cancers, infertility, miscarriage and nervous system impairment. The social and economic impact of DDT use in viticulture was significant.
The history of life on earth could be thought of as a record of living things interacting with their surroundings; for most of history, this has meant that life molds over time by the environment it inhabits; however, very recently, humans have become capable of altering the environment in significant ways (Carson 49). Marine Biologist, Rachel Carson, in her environmental sciences book, The Silent Spring, documents the detrimental effects on the environment by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson argues vigilantly in an attempt to persuade her extremely diverse and expansive global audience, under the impression that chemicals, such as DDT, were safe for their health, that pesticides are in fact detrimental for their health. Through
Chemical pollution into the environment can cause both genotypic and phenotypic changes in many organisms, including humans. More specifically, environmental pollutants like BPA can act as xenoestrogens (estrogen imitators), ultimately affecting hormonal activity and production in an organism. This alteration in activity and production can be termed as endocrine disruption. The endocrine system regulates a variety of processes responsible for growth and development, including gonadal formation and function, digestion, metabolism, sex differentiation, and embryonic development (reviewed by Flint et al., 2012). Chemicals that interfere with the function or structure of the endocrine system can be defined as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).
“Carson used the era’s hysteria about radiation to snap her readers to attention, drawing a parallel between nuclear fallout and a new, invisible chemical threat of pesticides throughout Silent Spring,” (Griswold 21). She described radiation as the creation of human’s tampering with nature, and warned that similar dangers would become inevitable with the continued use of pesticides (Carson 7). Carson also knew that a large percent of her audience would be housewives, who she could use as example of those who found poisoned birds and squirrels in their gardens. She angled much of Silent Spring towards this audience, which helped her book become the catalyst for environmental change (Griswold
Silent Spring is one of the most important books of the environmental movement. It was one of the first scientific books to talk about destruction of habitat by humans. As a result, one can imagine that Ms. Rachel Carson needed to be quite persuasive. How does she achieve this? In this excerpt from Silent Spring, Carson utilizes the rhetorical devices of hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions to state the necessity of abolishing the practice of using poisons such as parathion. Carson starts out by using the symbiotic nature of hyperbole and understatement to paint the whole practice as dangerous and unnecessary. She further strengthens her argument by using rhetorical questions to make her readers see the ethical flaws and potential casualties caused by deadly pesticides.
During recent years, numerous newspaper and magazine articles have suggested that humans may be at risk because small amounts of well known environmental contaminants, such as dioxin, PCBs and DDT, can affect hormone levels. Hormones are produced by the endocrine system as regulators of biological function in target organs. Because hormones play a critical role in early development, toxicological effects on the endocrine system often have an impact on the reproductive system. The term endocrine disruptor is used to describe chemicals that can mimic hormones and may either enhance or counteract their effects. It has been suggested that these hormone changes can, in turn, lead to a variety of health problems including cancer, decreased fertility, and abnormalities in newborns.
In 1962, the publication of Silent Spring Rachel Carson captivated the American public. Carson wrote about the harmful effects of chemical pesticides in the environment, and her writing was very reflective of the events occurring at the time. There is a strong connection between Carson’s writing and the Cold War. In fact, if it were not for the war, the American public may not have responded in the same way to Carson’s writing. Carson used tone and content as methods of getting her point across to the public. Silent Spring shined a light on the damage done to the environment as a result of the Cold War, and this issue was finally being recognized by American public.
Pesticides are chemicals that are put on crops but can kill people or make them very sick. In the story “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson she talks about the dangers of a pesticide called DDT. Carson’s writing is helping inspiring people to solve the problem. To begin, the land used to be beautiful. For instance, the land described in the story was described as ‘perfect.’
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring revolutionized the American point of view concerning the environment. It rejected the notion that pesticides and chemicals are the right choice for “controlling” various animals that are seen as an inconvenience. Carson writes about the dangers of pesticides, not only to nature but man himself.
“Excerpts from Silent Spring” is an excerpt of Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962. The history of life on earth is the history of life molded by the environment, except one species—man. “Acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world” (Carson, 1962), this is how Rachel Carson describes human beings. During the past quarter century, human beings have caused irrecoverable, even lethal pollution to the environment of air, earth, river, and sea. It seems like human beings are destroying the environment, whereas we are hurting ourselves.
"Pesticides." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 18 July 2005. Web. 20 May 2011. .
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, (FWS). (2014, January 15). Pesticides and wild life. Retrieved form http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/info/ddt.html
I remember when I first thought about the power one person could have to create change. I was a teenager growing up in the South when I read Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”. This beautifully written book is a powerful indictment of the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson criticized the chemical companies for claiming that pesticides were safe despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And she criticized public officials who accepted the chemical industry’s claims.