I have a confession to make. Although I teach Environmental Science, I
have never read Silent Spring. I first
learned about it in American Literature in High School and we also discussed in
my environmental engineering courses in college. I know the basics of what the book was about
and the importance to the environmental movement. Knowing the overview did not prepare me for
just how powerful and well written this non-fiction book is. It reads like a science fiction novel, but
the truth turns out to be even more frightening then fiction.
Carson starts the book with a powerful fable. All of the song birds have died, the livestock
is sick, and the people have also started to show strange symptoms. It isn’t nature that caused these hardships,
but the people themselves. Carson
explains this hasn’t happened yet, but “what has already silenced the voices of
spring in countless towns in America?
This book is an attempt to explain.”
Carson explains how the soil, earth, and air to
provide habitat for all of the creatures of the earth. She discusses these creatures and how even
creatures that we deem unimportant, can have an important role in the cycle of
life. She also explains the chemicals
that were being used in the 1960’s, how they were applied, and the effects that
they had. Basically the chemicals were
being applied indiscriminately and were killing far more than they should. She talks about both herbicides and
insecticides, but the book focused more on insecticides. The insecticides killed far more insects then
what they were aiming for. They killed
everything, including the natural insect predators of the insects they were
trying to get rid of. They also would kill the birds that act that insects
coated with the insecticides. They also
traveled up the food chain, causing poisoning of birds, fish, and humans.
Luckily the book was not all gloom and doom. Carson
also described what could be done. She
implied that certain insecticides such as DDT should no longer be used. She also discussed how natural predators’
should be introduced to take care of problem pests. She discussed how insecticides and herbicides
could be applied topically to the offending vegetation specifically rather than
a blanket spray. These are all great
options and what is typically used by ecologists today.
Distressingly though as I read the book, I realized
times had changed, but a lot remains the same.
Different chemicals are used now, but our lives are completely
surrounded by chemicals. What effects to
they have on us and the wildlife around us?
The book discussed how insecticides were killing off the honeybees; a
problem that has also recently been in the news the past few years. Are we always so sure what we are applying to
land and vegetation does not have any harmful effects on humans and nature?
“The pollution entering our waterways comes from
many sources: radioactive wastes from
reactors, laboratories, and hospitals; fallout from nuclear explosions;
domestic wastes from cities and towns; chemical wastes from factories. To these is added a new kind of fallout – the
chemical sprays applied to croplands, gardens, forests and fields. Many of the chemical agents in this alarming mélange
imitate and augment the harmful effects of radiation, and within the groups of
chemicals themselves there are sinister and little-understood interactions,
transformations, and summations of effect.”
This is still true today, particularly with all of the medications
ending up in water ways. We don’t know
all of what they are, how to remove them, or how they interact with each
other. We do know it is causing changes
in fish.
“The trouble is that we are seldom aware of the
protection afforded by natural enemies until it fails. Most of us walk unseeing through the world, unaware
alike of its beauties, its wonders, and the strange and sometimes terrible intensity
of the lives that are being lived around us.”
I just loved this quote. Carson
has a wonderful way with words and I also thought this was too true.
I also liked that there were examples in this book
from Wisconsin and Michigan; my current state and my state of birth. In 1954, Michigan State University started
spraying their campus for Dutch elm disease.
The following year, there was a sharp decline in the robin population as
eggs seemed unable to hatch. Perhaps
most horrifying was how in 1959, Southeast Michigan (including suburbs of
Detroit) was heavily dusted with pellets of aldrin to kill the Japanese beetle. Residents talked about how it looked like
snow falling from the sky. Then they
started to report the deaths of songbirds and housecats and the illness of
dogs. Also people that watched the
planes had “nausea, vomiting, chills, fever, extreme fatigue, and coughing.”
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It gives me great examples and discussion points
for my environmental science class this fall.
I also enjoyed how Carson was a wonderful wordsmith and did a great job
of taking a complex problem and breaking it down so that it was understandable
for the average citizen. There were also
great illustrations at the start of each chapter. I would like to keep this book forever to use
for my classes, but I must return it to the library. I need to purchase my own copy!
Book Source:
Kewaunee Public Library
