Devastating Effects of Synthetic Pesticides in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
Rachel Carson was a biologist, ecologist, and a writer. She was an advocate for environmental awareness and published a book to help the populous understand the effects of harmful substances like DDT. Her book, Silent Spring, explained to the public the dangers of synthetic chemicals to the environment and to the human race. She advocated that humanity should learn to coexist with the environment, not always trying to dominate it. Her book increased environmental awareness and allowed people to understand the delicate balance of the ecosystem.
Rachel Carson’s central argument was based upon the fact that synthetic pesticides were destroying the delicate balance of the ecosystem. She explained that the toxic chemicals did not disappear but instead would build up over time up the food chain, eventually leading into the bodies of the upper tiers. She also used the destruction of life as a way to convince people that synthetic pesticides are bad. These specific examples of destruction, such as the death of lake fish and robins, had occurred in actually places. By linking all the occurrences of destruction, she was able to put together an argument able to change the way people think about chemical pesticides. Her argument and support made people understand that the spread of synthetic chemicals was a serious issue.
In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s audience was not just the US government that she had been working for, but the regular people using these pesticides. She needed to reach every person and spread knowledge of the serious dangers that pesticides could inflict on the environment. She simplified the specifics and scientific processes in order for simple people to understand what these harmful chemicals were doing to them and what they were doing to the places they lived. People understood that she was writing not to discredit the chemical pesticide industry but to look out for everyone else’s well being.
The rhetorical triangle was a significant part of Silent Spring‘s argument. Rachel Carson wanted to persuade people of the serious danger of this chemical threat. She used the appeal to emotion, or pathos, the most in her argument. She used the peoples fear in order to persuade them of the dangers. She compared the chemical pesticide to nuclear fallout and she explained the concentration and build up caused by the natural food cycle. She wanted everyone to understand that they would eventually be affected by the high concentration of toxic material.
Now that I am halfway through Sandra Steingraber’s book, Living Downstream, I feel that I have a pretty strong idea as to what her main point is (or the theme): there are many pesticides and chemicals that are in our environment that are linked to cancer many health issues, but more specifically cancer. Furthermore, her main message is to say what we don’t know about our environment and the chemicals in the air could be killing us. She focuses on the changes between back then and now, and the different carcinogens that have been put into the environment over time.
The rhetorical occasion of this excerpt is to inform others about the dangers of chemicals on earth’s vegetation and animal life.
War finds success and failure inescapably linked to how well the Combined, Joint, and Multinational Commander ensures the Joint War Fighting Function “Sustainment” planning is linked to strategic, operational and tactical objectives. General Eisenhower’s Operation OVERLORD, the Allied cross channel, air, and seaborne invasion of France during World War II provides an excellent case study to show successful integration of the principles and the spirit of the Joint War Fighting Function “Sustainment.” OVERLORD required synchronizing, coordinating, and integrating the logistics capabilities of coalition forces, their equipment as well as civilian manufacturing capabilities to meet the strategic end state (e.g. the defeat of Germany). This article will review the purpose and definition of Joint Sustainment, its imperatives and logistics planning principles and examine how Eisenhower and his planners incorporated these imperatives and principles into Operation OVERLORD.
Silent Spring is an environmental science book written by Rachel Carson and published in 1962. The book documented the harmful effects on the environment—particularly on birds—of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation and public officials of accepting industry claims unquestioningly.
The author describes each chapter with a surreal narration. It begins with “A Fable for Tomorrow”, which starkly declares a bleak future of every U.S village if they erred to use pesticides. “The Obligation to Endure” describes the lack of public awareness and how it would become grievous. She justly reasons that if the public might suffer from long-term misfortunes due to insecticides usage, they have a right to know the facts. Felicitous “Elixirs of Death” describes the nature of insecticides in three apt words. Chemical structures of common biocides are explained in an uncomplicated fashion. A series of three successive chapters is dedicated to Earth and its components. These chapters include the closely inter-connected ecological cycles, existing in the water, mantle and soil horizons. Pesticide dispersal in soil followed by its access into the ground water table and the waterways is an inconceivable process. The book promulgates the escape of biocides from their place of application, and their integration into natural bodies. All her chapters thereafter revolve around the various short-term and long-term effects of biocides on the biosphere. Rachel Carson had stated countless dire cases wherein complete ecosystems faced annihilation. The influx of detrimental chemicals extended their reach over animals and plants, and were causing human mortalities as well. Humans are a part of
In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson seeks to persuade the readers to open their eyes to a serious problem: the careless spraying of poison. Her purpose in writing the book is to protect plants, animals, and humans from poisons that never had to be sprayed. Carson uses invective, the ad hominem argument, and punctuation to attack the people responsible for the sprayings and yield an emotional reaction from the reader. Through the use of those strategies, her argument becomes stronger and more effective at revealing the horrors of species control.
Health, C. (2009). The Continuity of Care Changing the Landscape of Healthcare Information. Corepoint Health, http://www.corepointhealth.com/sites/default/files/whitepapers/continuity-of-care-document-ccd.pdf.
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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.
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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.