Personal Reflection

Rachel Carson: The Obligation to Endure (pg. 83)

When Carson cites Schweitzer, she is referring to the “devils”, or harmful, unnatural creations of man that dramatically alter nature, that often go undiscovered or avoided. She is specifically referring to the contamination of air, plants, earth, rivers, seas, and organisms with dangerous lethal materials. Additionally, Carson is referring to the ways in which man physically alters the environment such as importing plants that are non-native, or invasive, and practicing agricultural monoculture. The point Carson is trying to make is that the effects of humans unnaturally altering the environment produces a chain reaction that eventually harms the causes of the damage; humans themselves.

Carson uses scientific and historical facts to support her argument that humans are destroying the natural balance of the earth that took hundreds of millions of years to develop in just a matter of years. Carson makes the available knowledge more useable by emotionally appealing to the reader in order to make an impact to prevent humans from further disrupting the delicate balance of earth's natural systems. Additionally, she makes a point to discuss the fact that humans understand the harm they are causing, but chose to ignore it. Ultimately, the purpose of Carson's paper is to make the reader come to that realization.

Carson's “The Obligation to Endure” is similar to Aldox Huxley's novel “Brave New World” because both pieces mentally paint a picture in the readers mind that depicts the long-term negative affects that humans have on their environment. Additionally, both discuss humans manipulating the environment for the betterment of human kind and not considering the negative effects on the earth's natural processes and components. Basically, both serve a purpose to cause the reader to sympathize in order to make a change in the lifestyles of modern day people.

I definitely agree that the extra expense for organic foods is worth it because health is far more important than finance. Additionally, if more people were to purchase organic foods, the prices for organics would go down and it would result in better health for the world. By people purchasing foods from companies that use pesticides, they are supporting the chemicals that harm organisms and grow a population of “pests” that have built up an immunity to the pesticide anyway and ultimately cause the problem of chemicals in the environment to become even greater.

Jared Diamond : The Ends of the World as We Know Them (pg.