Silent Spring By Rachel Carson

The health and continue growth of our economy, environment, and society is dependent on the choices our political leaders make. Sustainability can be easily defined as preserving natural resources to meet long term goals, while fulfilling short-term goals. The concept and value of sustainability is a debatable topic which liberal and conservatives cannot come to consensus. The argument put forth by politician attempting to protect the environment and the economy makes both goals incompatible. For that reason, our political leaders are always divided and cannot come to an agreement. So then how is sustainability a political issue? Since sustainability is the idea of limiting our resources, the amount of limitation is fundamentally decide by

This cyclic routine of damaging and later recorreting is not sustainable. Rachel Carson is one of many to point out our unsustainable ways through her book, “Silent Spring.” In carson article, she expresses immensely the dangers of pesticide use and how this dependence of biocides (poison) is not only affecting organic life, but is also altering our ecosystem. In Carson's writing, she explains the initial use of DDT for civil use has made people reliant and has pushed us to develop stronger biocides due to older version being ineffective. The practice of creating a deadlier poison after another has proven ineffectual. We create biocides to eliminate and find solutions to our problems. Yet when a stronger biocide is made, a greater issue surfaces and we end up where we initially started. With a problem in need of a solution, with the exception our environment is plagued with our poison. In Carson’s article she mentions, “I content, furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man himself”(55). This is where Carson’s overall argument is more apparent. We use these chemicals with little knowledge and without limitations. This liberty of using pesticides unlimitedly is one of the reasons why sustainability is a political issue. Our political

Yet there are individuals such as Bjørn Lomborg that are in the middle of the debate. Lomborg acknowledges the reports regarding the environmental crisis, but argues most of the information is being exaggerated and we are improving rather faltering. In Lomborg’s article “The Guardian” he explains we are continually told that our resource and population are inversely proportional. And as lomborg mentions in his article “There is, however one problem: it does not seemed to be backed up by the available evidence”(130). Much of the claims made on the media are not backed up with evidence. There is more evidence of us improving, than any evidence mentioning that we are reaching or currently in a state of privation. We are constantly improving and with our improvements, we find new solution for old issues. We have found new methods of increasing our food production, we have increased our lifespan, and ultimately lifted the pressure on biodiversity. Lomborg’s claim is more evident at this point. Lomborg advises us to look at facts, prioritize, and not let concerns on global environment cause a perception of the issue, than what in reality is occurring. We can not simply allow our minds to race to conclusion and misinterpret the issue of sustainability. Perhaps sustainability is much less of an environmental issue and more of an economic or