Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is a 1962 environmental science book that follows Carson’s research on the environmental effects of the use of pesticides, focusing on pesticides that carried the chemical DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) that had been administered through aerial spraying, meant to diminish insect populations in 1950’s and early 1960’s. The book served Carson’s argument on how we are so set on desperately trying to sustain and control aspects of the environment that bother us or get in our way, we are ultimately destroying it as a whole. She also emphasized how these chemicals not only disrupted elements of nature, but how toxic and ineffective the use of them are in general.

The book begins with a made up tale of a seemingly environmentally perfect town, full of life and lavish in nature, but then out of nowhere mysterious illnesses start to be seen within the people of the town and animals. People are sick and dying along with plants and crops, rivers have no fish, birds are dying, farm animals stop reproducing, all due to the white powder that had been dropped over the town. Though this is just a fictional tale it is something that could happen in the real world. Carson then introduces real life pesticides showing how they work by her documentation of the toxic results from their use, and how the suppression (or attempt of suppression) of a species can negatively impact the rest of the ecosystem including humans. She also explains how we are all intertwined by the ecosystem and shows how pesticides affect not just the insects that are targeted but soil, vegetation, water, and other animals, leading to entire ecosystems to become disrupted and ultimately death. Carson also says that the insects could even become unaffected by the pesticides and we would just be just polluting the earth for no reason, along with risking ourselves since these pesticide chemicals end up in our food and water supply, even our respiratory systems.

In the following chapters, Carson says that humans have an instinct to control the environment, and our attempts in doing so has lead to mass environmental destruction.

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