“Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we will say ‘our work is finished’” (Rachel Carson, A10). This stands today, as people rush to preserve land and get garbage out of the ocean. Rachel Carson brought to light the effect of pesticides, more specifically, DDT. This was not just because she presented facts, but that she presented them in a way that everyone could understand them, in a book called Silent Springs. Rachel Carson was a main contributor too creating ecological awareness.
Rachel Carson grew up on a 65 acre farm close to the Allegheny river (B1). She loved animals, and dreamed of seeing the ocean, but her goal was to be a writer. This was partly because at 10, a story she wrote was published in ‘St. Nicholas’, a magazine that published children’s work sent in by them. The magazine would even pay the children a little money, but it was seeing her story in the magazine that excited Rachel (A11). In 1925, she entered the Pennsylvania Collage for Woman, majoring in English. Halfway through, in a mandatory biology class, she decided to...
To conclude, Rachel Carson is a skilled writer who employs many different rhetorical strategies and formats her information in a deliberate way to maximize the effectiveness of her argument. She appeals to emotion, but supplements her points with facts, examples, and expert opinions. Her book, Silent Spring, surely convinced many of the dangers of poisons like parathion, and inspired some to seek alternatives to aerial
The Baby Boomer generation and the time period has a lasting effect on the economy and the environment. The baby boom for the United States was similar to other countries after World War II. Several economies also blossomed, but overall with very little care for the environment. After World War II the use of industrial made chemicals increased in popularity throughout the United States and the world (The “New Environmentalism” OF THE 1960S). The chemical DDT was originally being used widespread to eradicate disease vectors, such as mosquito carrying Malaria ("The DDT Story."). DDT influenced more than just mosquitoes as it had lasting effects in the environment where it noticeably bioaccumulate in the food chain and caused high mortality in young bald eagles ("The DDT Story."). Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring released to the public in 1962 which is the time period in which environmental health and human health were connected (The “New
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.
In the article "The Obligation to Endure", an excerpt from "Silent Spring", Carson focuses on her major concerns with the environment. For millennia, Mother Nature was the lone modifier that possessed the ability to shape the environment. In turn, this caused species to adapt for survival. However, with the birth of man, the delicate balance has shifted. Humans now possess the ability to alter the makeup of their environment. This is a power that shouldn 't be taken lightly or abused. However, humans are often blind to corruption until it 's too late, and so the inevitable happened. Man abused its power and failed to see the consequences. This is an overarching concern of Carson, "The most alarming of all man 's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials (Carson)." The chemicals dumped into rivers the pollution pumped into the air. The toxic radiation released from nuclear explosions in the form of Strontium 90. The endless pesticides sprayed on crops and trees. All of these are the weapons used in "man 's war against nature
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the Beginning of the Environmental Movement in the United States
In the introduction of “Silent Spring” written by Rachel Carson in 1962, more than 50 years ago the writer attempts to warn us that human beings will end by destroying the earth in the opening quote. She shows that human beings are causing harmful effects to the environment and the environment becomes polluted day by day. First, to lead to the issue, the author starts with a fable. She describes a beautiful natural town, but then the appearance of human beings brought a strange blight and everything began to change. Stillness, illness, disease, and death emerged in the town. Although the town in this story is not a reality, but the events in this town is happening truly around the world. The author uses points through the introduction of the book to explain, support main idea. Time is one of the important themes in this reading. She says that “time not in years but in millennia”, it took a long time to produce the life that now inhabits the earth, for life adjusts and balance has been reached. However, the earth changes rapidly due to the impetuous and heedless pace of man. People bring toxics to the earth that would require time on the scale and life of generations to adjust these things. People create chemicals, synthetics that introduced along with radiation harm the environment and organisms. The toxic productions are introduced to the environment but people hardly know about the devils of their own creation. These productions cause negative effects such as kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and cause the polluted air. People use chemicals to control the insects but this method has had only limited success. Day by day, insects adapt these chemicals to survive, become stronger and more difficult to control. In the end, the chemicals lose. The writer also says that monoculture (single-crop farming system) does not take advantage of the principles by which nature works, people is simplifying the nature that has introduced variety. Rachel Carson suggests using polyculture (grow many crops in a field) 50 years ago. People also have to face with the modern insect problem. Because of the isolation from one continent to another, insect developed many new species. These species began to move out into new territories that is receiving considerable assistance from man. Although people know the necessary knowledge - chemicals, synthetics are harmful for the earth and human beings - but they do not use it.
Rachel Carson’s love for nature started at a very young age and was encouraged and nurtured by her mother, Maria Carson. In fact, it would be Maria Carson who would encourage her daughter in her many academic and scientific interests. From the earliest of ages, Carson wanted to be a writer, and in September 1918 had her first story “A Battle In The Clouds” published in the St. Nicholas League (St. Nicholas Magazine), earning her a silver badge for excellence in prose. The youngest child of three, Rachel Carson was the only chi...
One of the prime ecologists in the world, best known for her book Silent Spring, was Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson’s book caused controversy and a scare for the progression of the environmental movement.
In his short story, “Top of the Food Chain”, T.C. Boyle effectively argues that humans are destroying their planet with chemicals and that the general consensus of the public is that it is okay. He argues this efficaciously through the use of rhetorical and satirical devices, which are used throughout his story. Overall, I agree with Boyle’s argument that DDT is an especially harmful chemical to our planet, and while it may have had a place at one time, there is no need for it any longer.
In August 1945, the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When she began writing Silent Spring in the 1950s, Carson was acutely aware of the short and long term impacts of these events (Carson, 1962). As a naturalist and scientists, she worried about the long term effects of nuclear fallout and the misuse of pesticides. Her work for the U.S. Department of Fisheries gave her unique insight into the rapid ecological system changes due to pesticide use and our own culpability in creating the insect and pest problem to begin with (Biography, 2011).
Sideris, L. H., & Moore, K. D. (2008). Rachel Carson: legacy and challenge. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
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
With every action, there is an opposite but equal reaction, and Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was no different. Carson foretold of what was going to happen when her book was released, and she was correct in her assessment. Carson’s book stood out against the common theme of the day of do whatever you want to the environment, and it is this reason that it drew so many critics when it was published. Attacks were made for the content of her book, attacks on her personally, and attacks on legislation that happened as a result of her book. Rachel Carson knew that this book must be released, as she became the voice of species and the planet that could not defend itself.
“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
Carson was the only environmentalist and the only woman featured in the entire issue. Evidently, her impact in the world of "scientists and thinkers" was a tremendous one, and, as mentioned in Matthiessen's Time article, her book, Silent Spring, is "nearly 40 years later . . . still regarded as the cornerstone of the new environmentalism."1 Matthiessen goes on to write that "one shudders to imagine how much more impoverished our habitat would be had Silent Spring not sounded the alarm."2 This is indeed a worthy claim by Mr. Matthiessen, but he correctly uncovers a bigger and more alarming truth when he says, "the damage being done by poison chemicals today is far worse than it was when she wrote the book."3 In fact, since 1962, pesticide use in the US has doubled.4