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Silent spring rachel carson paper
Dangers Of Industrialisation To The Enviroment
Dangers Of Industrialisation To The Enviroment
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In this introduction part of the book, “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, the author describes the destruction of the delicate balance of nature by human interference, especially by the wholesale use of insecticides. She carefully explains what is the balance of nature and how it is maintained naturally. Further, she informs the reader of the ways chemical poisons upset that balance and thereby kill life. She constructed her argument with the help of a fable having an initial state of harmony and productivity, then a drastic and profound fall silencing rebirth of new life with the introduction of chemical poisons. Then, she dramatically exposes the culprit behind the destruction, humans. However, it is just a story; she explains it has a thousand counterparts all over the world. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon nature is the contamination of air, earth, rivers and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. It took eons of time to produce, to develop, to evolve and to diversify life and reach a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. However, the situati...
Silent Spring is one of the most important books of the environmental movement. It was one of the first scientific books to talk about destruction of habitat by humans. As a result, one can imagine that Ms. Rachel Carson needed to be quite persuasive. How does she achieve this? In this excerpt from Silent Spring, Carson utilizes the rhetorical devices of hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions to state the necessity of abolishing the practice of using poisons such as parathion. Carson starts out by using the symbiotic nature of hyperbole and understatement to paint the whole practice as dangerous and unnecessary. She further strengthens her argument by using rhetorical questions to make her readers see the ethical flaws and potential casualties caused by deadly pesticides.
The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.
Quinn made it clear that human behavior and culture are root causes of their increase in unsustainability. He describes that the story in which mankind is enacting is one that makes them the enemy of the world. Ishmael pushes the narrator to provide an explanation of how things came to be this way. How humans were able to cause so much destruction. The explanation given was that The world was created for man, man was made to conquer and rule it and turn the world into paradise under human rule. However, the paradise cannot be achieved because man is flawed (Quinn, 47). Ishmael compares the implication that humans are above any law to an airman who has built a flying contraption that does not obey the law of thermodynamics. He explains that man is on this craft and completely unaware of the law that must be complied to achieve civilizational flight (Quinn, 63). The first craft went well and they felt as if the flight was never going to end. However, they were in freefall because their craft was simply not in compliance with the law that makes flight possible. Their ignorance to the law continuous use of the same unstable craft will accelerate rate that which they are falling. This comparison is a metaphor to how humans live without considering the law of living which is what has brought them to the brink of catastrophe. The culprits for the biodiversity loss include climate change, habitat loss,
The rhetorical occasion of this excerpt is to inform others about the dangers of chemicals on earth’s vegetation and animal life.
Saukko , Linnea.“How to Poison the Earth.”The Brief Bedford Reader. Bedford/St.Martin’s Boston: 9th edition ,2006.246-247.
He delves into the history of the word “environmental” as well as the history of environmental activism. He pinpoints the beginning of the movement to Rachel Carson. According to Quammen, she began the revolution by publishing her book Silent Spring. He says the negative connotations of the word began with her book, pairing “environment” and “the survival of humankind” as if they go hand in hand. This played a major role in the distortion of the word and the intentions of environmentalists.
One of the biggest problems facing the world today is global warming. The main reason behind it is the production of carbon dioxide from our cars, factories, power plants and other greenhouse gases, which is having a heating effect on the atmosphere, and this affects our ocean weather and agriculture, thereby dangerous to human life. “In Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork “Anna Lappe gives her views on how global warming can lead to many problems, what are its probable causes and potential solutions to it. Whereas in “Research and Development on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases in Support of Climate Smart Livestock Production and a Vibrant Industry” Scholtz discusses the impact of global warming and continued, uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases on the livestock industry and consequently food security as well as
In the poem “Cascadilla Falls” by A. R. Ammons, the poet writes about an evening where the narrator visited a stream below the falls. Although, man’s role in nature has always been questioned, humans have always been the center of the universe revolving around us. In the poem, Ammons makes a strong statement against humanism by relating natural occurrences in nature to human beings. The universe is a vast place with endless possibilities and we live on a planet that is teeming with life. Humans, however, have taken over this world and view other life forms as inferior and abuse nature for resources.
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.
No one really knows the long-term effects of these substances, individually or in unpredictable combination, either on human health or on the health of the ecosystems upon which we, and all life, depend. The chemicals are not the same as the ones Carson indicted in Silent Spring, yet they are produced, sold, and used on an unsuspecting public by the same interconnected complex of profit-driven companies and government authorities. Carson’s words in her “Fable for Tomorrow” still apply, as if we lived in the future that she imagined: “No witchcraft, no enemy action” had produced our “stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (Carson, 1962,
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
“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
Rachel Carson, a marine biologist who wrote Silent Spring, is considered to be very much influential in the cause for the environmental movement. It is however important to note that she was not the proprietor of this revolution. Prior to Carson and her best-selling Silent Spring in 1962, there were numerous other authors, activists and organizations that spoke out about the issues that plagued the environment. Examples of this include John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club in 1892), Gifford Pinchot (the first head of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905), Fairfield Osborn, author Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt, who penned Road to Survival (Sale 1993).
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.
I remember when I first thought about the power one person could have to create change. I was a teenager growing up in the South when I read Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”. This beautifully written book is a powerful indictment of the widespread use of pesticides. Rachel Carson criticized the chemical companies for claiming that pesticides were safe despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And she criticized public officials who accepted the chemical industry’s claims.