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A review by kevin_shepherd
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
5.0
“It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we’ve put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We’ve subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons without their consent and often without their knowledge.”
It has been pointed out that Rachel Carson’s evidence for the harmful effects of certain chemical pesticides and herbicides (substances she rightly refers to as “biocides”) was largely circumstantial and anecdotal. At the time of her writing, there were few scientific analyses positively linking the increased incidences of disease (read: cancer) and the localized extinction of bees, birds and various other wildlife species to the systematic spraying of so-called “safe chemicals.” Her alarm calls were deemed unsubstantiated and premature. One detractor went so far as to label Silent Spring as the “imaginings of a pessimist.”
I will say this, as a writer Carson had a flair for the dramatic…
“The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man… It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.”
In hindsight, the last sixty years have arguably upheld Rachel Carson’s concerns. Studies have shown that, in many cases, her “unscientific assumptions” were in fact correct. Indeed, she may have underestimated the long term detrimental consequences of pesticides (read: DDT) rather than overestimated them as some of her critics presumed.
“…all this is not to say there is no insect problem and no need of control. I am saying rather that control must be geared to realities, not to mythical situations, and that the methods employed must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects.”
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“Those of us who are now in our 40s and 50s are carrying the legacy of DDT’s reckless use…” ~Ellen Silbergeld, Toxicologist, Johns Hopkins University
“We have the highest levels of DDT and PCB in our blood ever recorded. Our kids are not growing to normal height. We have more cancer than normal, rare cancers, like cancer of the liver and spleen… Having people [ingest] DDT for a generation is the same thing as taking a gun to their heads and pulling the trigger.” ~Clyde Foster, Chemist, speaking about Triana, Alabama
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My Further Reading List:
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story, Theo Colborn, 1996
How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT, Elena Conis, 2022
It has been pointed out that Rachel Carson’s evidence for the harmful effects of certain chemical pesticides and herbicides (substances she rightly refers to as “biocides”) was largely circumstantial and anecdotal. At the time of her writing, there were few scientific analyses positively linking the increased incidences of disease (read: cancer) and the localized extinction of bees, birds and various other wildlife species to the systematic spraying of so-called “safe chemicals.” Her alarm calls were deemed unsubstantiated and premature. One detractor went so far as to label Silent Spring as the “imaginings of a pessimist.”
I will say this, as a writer Carson had a flair for the dramatic…
“The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man… It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.”
In hindsight, the last sixty years have arguably upheld Rachel Carson’s concerns. Studies have shown that, in many cases, her “unscientific assumptions” were in fact correct. Indeed, she may have underestimated the long term detrimental consequences of pesticides (read: DDT) rather than overestimated them as some of her critics presumed.
“…all this is not to say there is no insect problem and no need of control. I am saying rather that control must be geared to realities, not to mythical situations, and that the methods employed must be such that they do not destroy us along with the insects.”
____________________________________
“Those of us who are now in our 40s and 50s are carrying the legacy of DDT’s reckless use…” ~Ellen Silbergeld, Toxicologist, Johns Hopkins University
“We have the highest levels of DDT and PCB in our blood ever recorded. Our kids are not growing to normal height. We have more cancer than normal, rare cancers, like cancer of the liver and spleen… Having people [ingest] DDT for a generation is the same thing as taking a gun to their heads and pulling the trigger.” ~Clyde Foster, Chemist, speaking about Triana, Alabama
____________________________________
My Further Reading List:
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story, Theo Colborn, 1996
How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT, Elena Conis, 2022