Silent Spring Chapter Summaries

Carson’s primary argument is that the ecosystem is unable to adjust and rebalance itself due to the rapidity of the introduction of chemicals into the environment. She points to the common knowledge that it took hundreds of millions of years for life to evolve to its current state. She goes on to explain how, given time (eons), the environment adjusted to natural dangers such as radiation emitted from certain rocks and short-wave radiation from the sun, but that it is impossible for the earth to adjust and rebalance in the face of man-made threats in the relative miniscule timeframe of decades. Her appeal is both logical and emotional. Logically, chemicals sprayed on croplands, forests or gardens will kill not just “pests” but other living organisms, and that some amount of these chemicals will end up in ground water, causing problems for anyone or anything that depends on this water. Emotionally if the possibility of permanent gene damage, which cause deformities, cancers, and early death, is not enough to encourage a second look at this issue then there is no hope for the planet’s future.

Throughout his essay, Suzuki supports his arguments with specific examples. To justify his reasoning, the author uses the case of DDT, otherwise known as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. This chemical compound is used as an insecticide to eliminate the population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which it did effectively, and saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, complications arose, which led to an increase in chemicals and caused a domino effect of

In fact, Carson outlines her evidence and claims for the global environment and the whole of humanity. In addition to this, it is worthy to mention that, Carson was directing her message to policymakers because they had the power to ban the manufacture of the pesticides and insecticides. Furthermore, Carson’s messages were directed at certain companies and the manufacturers of pesticides such as DDT. The catalyst of this message stemmed from the widespread use of insecticides both at home and in offices. As it seemed, there was a widespread rate of ignorance and misinformation across the public on the harmful effects of these pesticides.

The book is set in a small Texan town (Fentress) that is prone to chronic heat waves. The town is surrounded by greenery, farms and fields. Callie Vee (Calpurnia Tate) often explores San Marcos River. The river was separated from her house by a crescent-shaped field of five acres of feral, uncleared woods. There is a thin, clear path created by dogs, deer and other animals. There are high bushes of sticky burrs. There are “bags” of webworms above the river like a canopy of oaks and high bushes. Around Calpurnia’s house there are hundreds of insects that gather around the porch (grasshoppers, fireflies, spiders etc.).

In her essay Rachel Carson targets anyone who will listen as her audience. She wants to inform human beings of the effects chemicals have on the environment. Rachel Carson’s audience had little knowledge of the effects radiation and pesticides might have on nature or to themselves. She successfully enlightened her audience to the harm man was causing to the environment not only presently, she also wrote of future ramifications. She predicts “Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by methods that contaminated the entire environment…?” (Carson 615). This statement might make her audience scrutinize their actions through the eyes of future generations.

The following involves the second chapter of Carson’s book, Silent Spring that was written in 1962. In this chapter Carson argues persuasively the adverse impacts of pesticides upon the environment and the risks on human health and the environment associated with these “genetic invaders” (Carson, 1962). Many of the extremely diverse people from Carson’s audience targeted were under the impression that chemicals like DDT, at that time in history, were safe for their health. Carson reconciles and attempts to persuade the public to consider the idea that DDT, which in the 1950s and 60s was one of the many chemical pesticides being manufactured and sold to

Carson speaks about the diminishment of us as a human being. With the amount of harmful pesticides we use without fully understanding its consequences, we are slowly killing our human race. When pesticides are sprayed on crops and insects, they end up getting into our bodies. Adopting the easy way of getting rid of insects is harming us in the long run.

1. Carson is asking a rhetorical question (p.376), not making an argument. The rhetorical question is a device intended to encourage thought, in this case about the proper apportionment of power in our society. The use of DDT and other insecticides has outcomes that go far beyond the immediate desired effect of the user, yet there is no specific cost attached to these externalities. Carson recognizes that such decisions are often made by small groups of people with narrow interests, and simply wants the reader to question whether such a system of stewardship for the world is ideal. Given that the audience is the majority of people who are not party to such decisions, the question is a fair one to ask, since it engages the audience to think about their role as complicit bystanders in actions such as the use of DDT.

Within this book, she tackled the issue of harmful pesticide usage, bringing to light an unknown issue. Carson's research forced the mass population to view pesticides as a harm to public health, thus, emphasizing the public's role within environmental frameworks. Ultimately, Carson made society rethink their relationship with the natural world.

In 17 chapters, many of which can stand alone as essays, Carson develops a deceptively simple premise: the use and overuse of synthetic chemicals to control insect pests introduces these chemicals into the air, water, and soil and into the food chain where they poison animals and humans, and disrupt the many intricate

Genetically modified crops are being developed to produce their own pesticide. This will bring the rapid appearance of resistant insects. Even worse, these pesticide producing plants have killed some beneficial insects and pests that many farmers use in their crops. For example, inserting a gene from a snowdrop, a perennial herb found in Europe and Asia into a potato, made the potato resistant to the green fly, but killed lady bugs that feed on green flies.

Craig Mullaney definitely made many challenges for himself and accepted challenges from others with no questions asked. Being the thriving Valedictorian of his high school class and earning other prestigious accolades he stood out from the other entire student. But at West Point, Mullaney would be intertwined with hundreds of other classmates with the same, if not more achievements, making it seemingly impossible to be any kind of a predominant student.

This book was focused on the concern of pesticides that industries, along with us as individuals, have been dumping (both knowingly and unknowingly) into water. Carson was concerned that the chemicals which the farmers spread on their fields, and even the chemicals we use in our homes (among others), in the end, might come back around and harm us. The beginning of the book tells a story of a place, that was once so beautiful, turned dead and ugly due to a “strange blight that crept over the area” and destroyed everything. Later in the book, she goes on to explain that chemicals, particularly one known as DDT, are the major cause of environmental damage and the near extinction of

According to Carson we have given rise to a new range of health problems because the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and everything else in our environment is polluted. As a result the total

A gloomy, dark, broken, isolated, boring place was known as Frightful Fields. There stood a land of no happiness where crickets chirp, owls hoot, cries, and screams were heard. This place was a run down, rough, and dry city which no one ever strolled on the grounds of. Rats ran on the streets and trash was thrown all over the roads. The night glared at whoever was outside at anytime. The air always had a smell of blood in it. Never was there any sun or color. In fact, the city was more like a slaughterhouse. There were dead bodies in every alley. Scared people all over the city prayed they would not get killed. People disappearing was quite common in Frightful Fields. Most of the food here tasted tremendously like a sock. Even in