Silent Spring
Chapter 1 - A Fable for Tomorrow
"Once there was a town in the United States of America where all living things existed in harmony...This was a land that was beautiful in spring and in winter. Suddenly, something happened to make everything start to die." Rachel Carson begins with a very powerful narrative framework to describe the ideal scene of nature, before its fall into the massive use of poisons in the environment. Before that fall, all the organisms of the earth operated in natural harmony, but eventually it came to an end, and now everything was still and silent. |
Chapter 2 - The Obligation To Endure
"The history of life on the earth has been a history of the interaction between living things and their surroundings." However, it's been primarily people who have caused a change. The change has increased immensely in the past twenty-five years. People have contaminated the environment with dangerous and deadly chemicals. There are five hundred new chemicals introduced each year. Most of these which are to kill insects and other living things they think of as pests. These chemicals are killing all living things and not just insects. The use of insecticides has escalated since the U.S. government started letting civilians use DDT. The reason for the increase is that insects have evolved to become immune to insecticides. Carson isn’t against the use of chemicals at all. But does want to show the reader the dangers of the present course of action and to urge the reader to do something about it. |
Chapter 3 - Elixirs of Death
In this chapter, Carson describes the main chemical poisons which are used often in the world. She starts by saying how these human-made chemicals differ greatly from naturally occurring chemicals which people used to use to kill unwanted organisms. Now, every person on earth is contaminated with dangerous chemicals to one degree or another. These synthetic pesticides poison and changes the body's processes by destroying enzymes, blocking oxidation, and causing cancer. Synthetic, DDT It is one of a group of chemicals called chlorinated hydrocarbons. These chemicals are built on the basis of carbon atoms. By substituting other atoms for the hydrogen atom, it produces new poisons.
The three chlorinated napthalenes that are the most poisonous are dieldrin, aldrin, and endrin.
The three chlorinated napthalenes that are the most poisonous are dieldrin, aldrin, and endrin.
Dieldrin
Endrin
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Aldrin
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The second group of pesticides is called organic phosphates. Organic phosphorus insecticides kill this enzyme so the body builds up a dangerous amount of the transmitting chemical. This group includes:
Parathion
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Malathion
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We've also created herbicides to kill weeds. Some herbicides are classified as "mutagens." They cause problems in the next generations of organisms that are exposed to them.
Chapter 4 - surface waters and underground seas
The Earth is covered in water, which is one of our most important natural resources. However, its use for people is limited because most of it is salt water and the rest is being contaminated with pollution by pesticides. The pollution comes from radioactive wastes, nuclear explosions, domestic waste, and chemical sprays. Chemical residues have gotten into the underground water streams and moved slowly to the rivers and into the ocean. In this chapter, Carson talks about the birds that are being killed and at the same time about the fish that we are taking home. In Tennessee, the river was so toxic that it killed all the fish inhabiting its streams. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service issued a report in 1960 which found that fish carry pesticides in their fat. In 1960, at one of the refuges in California, at Tule Lake and at Lower Klamath, scientists found hundreds of dead and dying birds. These birds fed on fish, the fish fed on plankton, and the plankton were the first to be contaminated by residues of Toxaphene, DDD, and DDE. As a result, poisoned water affects the chains of life because it moves from the smallest life up through larger organisms until it reaches human beings.
Chapter 5 - Realms of the soil
We depend on soil for our plants to grow. The soil is born from an interaction of life and non-life. Living things form the soil and living things live in the soil and keep it alive. The soil is constantly changing due to the adding of new matter and the take up of matter by organisms. The three most important elements in soil are bacteria, fungi, and algae which help with decaying. Larger organisms in the soil improve its drainage and penetration of water to plant roots. Carson begins to describe the wholesale dumping of pesticides into the world of microscopic creatures. Insecticides such as herbicide, 2, 4-D interrupts nitrification, the chemical process that makes it possible for plants to grow. Unfortunately, even if someone puts only moderate amounts of insecticides into the soil, the problem remains. Eventually, if soil is full of insecticides, plants absorb them and produce fruits and vegetables full of insecticides.
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Chapter 6 - Earth's Green Mantle
Chapter 6 continues to inform about what insecticides do to each of its components. She describes the pretty plants and trees being destroyed with these ineffective methods which not only harm the landscape but also contaminate the world further. One sad example of this trend is seen in the case of the sagebrush lands of the West. That even though there's a balance of life in the sage lands, people want to destroy sagebrush altogether so that it can be replaced with grass alone and grazed by cattle. This widespread use of chemical pesticides is killing plants that were not intended to be killed. Other kinds of land is also under attack, such as roadsides where herbicides are used to kill brush to access the road. The most common forms of herbicides considered safe are 2,4D, 2,4,5-T and other compounds. However, it's been discovered that they damage chromosomes and eventually organisms. People need to remember that soil and living things are interdependent. The weed is taking something from the soil and it is contributing something to it. Such example Carson gives is about the planting of marigolds to improve the growth of roses. As a result, Carson wants to prove that there are alternatives to the widespread use of herbicides.
Chapter 7 - Needless Havoc
For this chapter, Carson again wants to prove that there are alternative courses of using natural enemies of particular insects for cheaper and longer-lasting solution. She introduces the case of the state of Michigan’s attack on the Japanese beetle in the late 1950's, where the Midwestern states began a campaign of extermination through insecticide . This program resulted in a shocking loss of life in many different animal and bird populations. According to program, there was no danger in the use of Aldrin despite the large body of evidence showing it to be extraordinarily dangerous. Cases of intoxicated cats and dogs started coming out in public. Eastern states which encountered the Japanese beetle before influenced the Midwest program to import parasitic insects from the Far East that would fight the Japanese beetle and they also imported disease organisms that would attack the beetles. The most effective method was the disease called milky disease. But, the program officials acted against these methods because they were too expensive.
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Chapter 8 - And No Birds Sing
In 1930 Dutch elm disease was unintentionally introduced into the U.S. from Europe, affecting the American elm trees. It is spread among trees by elm bark beetles. So, to stop the carrier insect from spreading the disease, we're sprayed with an intensive insecticide. Scientists found that the birds were dying of insecticide poisoning because they were eating earthworms contaminated by the poison. In this case, it was the elm trees that were sprayed twice a year with DDT which was passed on to earthworms from eating leaves, and then to robins. Even the birds that weren't killed from poisoning, became sterile. The American eagle is also in decline. I think it's pretty doleful to see our national emblem disappear. A world with no birds means a world with no pest control. People have to be aware of how ineffective spraying is. |