The Magnificence Of Nature In The Silent Spring, By Rachel Carson

The advent of industrialization and mankind's insatiable quest to devour nature has resulted in a potentially catastrophic chaos. Our race against time to sate the ever-increasing numbers of hungry stomachs has taken toll on the environment. Man has tried to strip every resource Earth has to offer and has ruthlessly tried to eliminate any obstruction he perceived. Nature is an independent entity which has sustained and maintained the balance existing within it. Traditionally, spring season hosts the complete magnificence of nature in full bloom. It is evident in the very first chapter when Rachel Carson talks about a hypothetical village which was the epitome of natural rural beauty and was a delightful scenery for the beholder. The village

Rachel Carson was a zoologist, writer, and an ecologist. She recognized the issues which would prove to have deleterious long-term effects. On 27th September 1962, a book which changed the course of the 'environmental movement' was published. It was lauded by supporters who had witnessed the ill-effects of biocides and those who had amassed similar scientific proof. Both Rachel Carson and her publishers had expected a backlash of criticism which unsurprisingly came from chemical industries like Dupont and American Cyanamid. Soon after the book was published, a Dupont initiative 'Union Carbide' single handedly caused the biggest industrial chemical disaster in Bhopal. Major companies like Monsanto led colorful defaming campaigns against the author. The campaign seemed to backfire as the publicity led to increased book sales, and the public awareness rose proportionally. The overwhelming public response had forced the U.S Senate to pay heed to Rachel Carson's views. She presented the scientific data accumulated for the book to President John F. Kennedy and his sub-committee. Their agenda was to formulate policies to counteract the pollution caused by

The author describes each chapter with a surreal narration. It begins with “A Fable for Tomorrow”, which starkly declares a bleak future of every U.S village if they erred to use pesticides. “The Obligation to Endure” describes the lack of public awareness and how it would become grievous. She justly reasons that if the public might suffer from long-term misfortunes due to insecticides usage, they have a right to know the facts. Felicitous “Elixirs of Death” describes the nature of insecticides in three apt words. Chemical structures of common biocides are explained in an uncomplicated fashion. A series of three successive chapters is dedicated to Earth and its components. These chapters include the closely inter-connected ecological cycles, existing in the water, mantle and soil horizons. Pesticide dispersal in soil followed by its access into the ground water table and the waterways is an inconceivable process. The book promulgates the escape of biocides from their place of application, and their integration into natural bodies. All her chapters thereafter revolve around the various short-term and long-term effects of biocides on the biosphere. Rachel Carson had stated countless dire cases wherein complete ecosystems faced annihilation. The influx of detrimental chemicals extended their reach over animals and plants, and were causing human mortalities as well. Humans are a part of