Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

I'm currently delving into Rachel Carson's novel Silent Spring, which was significantly influential to the environmental awareness movement that started in the 1960's and 70's. Her early work focused primarily on science, and as she pursued field work, it revealed some harsh realities of our habits. Rachel Carson was one of the pioneers to write so directly about the very tragic effects that our use of insecticides and herbicides have on our natural world- not only our lawns and agriculture, but natural ecosystems, oceans, and the very groundwater from which we drink.

Though her work was undeniably important to the changes in policy that came during the decade, it is also evident that the very habits we as a society held in a post-World War II era are continuing today. (I'm writing a blog about this because it's still an issue, you see. This isn't a history lesson, but a commentary on contemporary society.)

Technologies developed during a time of war were, afterwards, adapted to everyday life - and you can bet that the companies producing toxic sprays for warfare were able to find a use for them afterwards. And so they were marketed as poisons for new enemies - those of the natural world. The chemicals that we feel compelled to dump on everything from natural areas, agriculture, and residential lawns are marketed as harmless - even necessary - and their side effects discreetly tucked away behind advertising that targets that American obligation for control over artificial perfection, regardless of the price. You see, the real tragedy of the chlorinated hydrocarbons (DDT, for example) is that we use them so mericlessly - inadvertently destroying dozens of insects along with the target pest, and along with those, hundreds of species along the food chain and ecosystem. Not only are we instigating the destruction of entire populations of animals -whether beneficial or not - we're sparking a chain of events that inevitably creates health risks for our own species, because we're unknowingly attacking our food and water sources, as well as our own dogs and children with generous lawn treatments.

Furthermore, the individual insects that are not wiped out by the outlandish doses of chemicals return the next spring, only to be met with the vengeance of greater and more frequent applications - the residues of which will never fully serve their purpose, but will linger in soil, vegetation, animals, and humans - accumulating until death or disease (the most prominent of which is a little something called "cancer".) You see, all of those thousands of chemicals that are sprayed every spring on acres of agriculture and blocks of neighborhood lawns contain known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents.) And yet this information is kept from those who continue to over-use it, the public kept completely almost entirely ignorant to the reality of their habits.

The real message here is that what is seen as a short-term benefit has very little value when one begins to weigh in the long-term, widespread health and environmental side effects. A single insecticide application is washed into streams, killing fish, birds, and insects (before moving up the food chain) and moving on into soil, groundwater or oceans.

Look, this novel points out realities; long-lasting and scary side effects of using chemicals about which we literally have almost no knowledge. You can believe the marketing and what chemical companies want you to think, or you can question it. I'm not saying you have to go into public policy, but if you're applying fertilizer, pause for a moment and consider how much the extra tint of green really matters in the heat of a summer sun. And if you have a choice between organic or standard apples, think twice about what the 8 cent difference really costs. Supporting organic products sends a message to everyone else. Small decisions on a daily level have an impact beyond yourself.