My Thoughts on “Silent Spring”
I recently decided to delve into Silent Spring, as I knew how important the book is to environmental science, being probably the most famous book ever published regarding environmental issues. It grew to popularity mainly because not many knew about the dire circumstances of ecosystems being caused by the careless pollution, destruction, and the expansion of our species, and because when people realized just how badly we were treating the environment, they started shifting their views and making changes. The book, although widely credited with being the catalyst for the environmental movement in the U.S., also focused on environmental problems that stemmed from corporate greed on a global scale, and ended up changing the world outlook on what should truly be within the bounds of our jurisdiction when it comes to how we shape the natural world.
The book placed a lot of emphasis on pesticides and insecticides, which, it claims, are chemicals that are directly negative for all aspects of the environment. It states that they are widely developed and implemented today, and although the book was published over sixty years ago, this still remains true, with around a billion pounds of pesticides being released into the U.S. each year (source: usgs.gov). I found it especially interesting how Rachel Carson brought up sources to point out that the effectiveness that companies claim these synthetical chemicals to possess is in fact a lot lower than appears, and in some cases, pesticides that were released on the environment actually ended up resulting in further growth of the region’s targeted species. The book also touches on more specific forms of these general industrial chemical groups, like DDT, which it explains leads to the decline in bird populations due to the fact that it softens eggs shells, causing the deaths of unborn birds when their parents sit on the shells in an attempt to keep them warm.
Another big emphasis for the book is the impact of industrial chemicals, including insecticides and pesticides, on the public. Carson claims that the pollutants that we have been releasing into the atmosphere, dumping into bodies of water, and embedding into soil nationwide have vast ranges of effects that have not been studied. She claims that upon the development of a new chemical, companies run it through a series of tests to see its functionality, and if they see that there can be an application for it in a particular industry, they will start to put it on production lines. The problem with this, however, is that the amount of safety tests conducted on such synthetic chemicals is alarmingly low, with companies having released them without studying their effects on not only the environment, but also the human body and a vast array of other things. In some cases, global corporations have distributed chemicals that are now known to put people at higher risk of developing cancer, giving birth to an unborn or defective baby, or cause hormone imbalance in a species, entirely oblivious of such negative impacts. However, Carson claims that even when companies are put into positions where they have to choose between using a chemical that they know has such negative impacts or making less money, they choose to implement the harmful chemical, leading to nobody being able to stop the process from continuing. Carson claims that there need to be radical changes put in place that majorly limit this corporate greed and institute a much higher number of safety tests before a chemical is deemed safe enough to be put on production lines. Sadly, however, not much has changed since she published the book in terms of business dynamics and the regulation of such chemicals, with companies still being able to choose to subject their buyers to almost any chemical they wish. The EPA, which is responsible for regulating industrial and public chemical use and distribution, does not have nearly enough power, as it has only been able to ban nine of the over 85,000 chemicals being used in markets worldwide (source: acs.org). This topic remains one that we will need to focus on and address.
Silent Spring also brings into focus another interesting subject, which is that our destruction of natural habitats and introduction of deadly chemicals to the environment diminishes the effects of ecosystem services. For instance, when we diminish the amounts of trees in our forests in order to clear out the land for further suburban development, we are effectively killing thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of plants that use photosynthesis to consume carbon dioxide and replace it with clean, breathable oxygen. According to the book, we also pollute ground water with our various forms of waste and other unwanted chemicals. However, Carson claims that carelessly dumping such items into groundwater, or even unintentionally doing so by allowing it to seep through the ground and reach such water, has a directly negative impact for us, as it allows the waste to be carried from the groundwater to multiple other sources of water, including lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, and oceans. The problem with this, as stated by the book, is that we are consequently infecting some of our only sources of available safe drinking water, which makes up only 0.5% of water worldwide (source: usbr.gov), with unwanted waste, meaning that we are rapidly increasing the rate at which we are running out of such water. Due to these effects, as well as multiple others, that bring harm to our species upon being introduced in a moment of industrial spontaneity and the desire to eliminate and inconvenience or to speed up a process, we are drastically worsening not only the circumstances of the environment, but also of our human condition.
Another big emphasis for the book is the impact of general human pollutants, including insecticides and pesticides, on the world food web. Carson repeatedly states that all species are connected by one food web, and places special emphasis on the fact that there is not a single species that cannot be placed somewhere on this web. This means that seemingly small implications for one particular species can move up the food web and quickly evolve into large-scale crises, diminishing worldwide populations and threating multiple species’ extinction. For instance, slightly diminishing the population of one particular species of fish in a particular region off of the eastern coast of Japan, as was the case with regional tuna following the Fukushima disaster (source: noaa.gov), can lead to predators of the radiation-exposed fish developing health problems or structural abnormalities, leading to later generations of the same species to end up with severe impairments. In addition, by the process of the fish moving up the food chain and eventually reaching humans, we can also suffer consequences of the effects that we thought had only pertained to one particular species.
In conclusion, Rachel Carson brings up many excellent points regarding our impacts on the environment, and after reading the book, I can see how it was able to bring about such change and shift our view on the environmental issues of our time. With regard to how we both directly and indirectly change the natural world, I have developed a greater understanding of how our species can truly have either a positive or negative impact on the world, and realize that we must treat every choice regarding the environment with a great deal of consideration. We must acknowledge that we have developed to the point where the fate of other species, as well as ourselves, lies in our hands, and must be responsible with every choice for the greater good of the world. This calls for change, however, and such change can only be instigated by the public as a whole. What Carson called for in Silent Spring, and what still needs to be worked on, is our ability to cohesively agree to be responsible and focus on protecting the natural environment, rather than destroying it. When we leave the power to make decisions regarding how the environment will be treated in the hands of corporations, governments, and other small groups of people, they will almost always choose to benefit themselves first, even if it means drastically damaging the environment. In order to counter this, we need more people to acknowledge and confront environmental issues, and to do what Rachel Carson encouraged us to do in 1962, which is to change the way we act. Only then can we better our planet.
