The Obligation to Endure Essay

Rachel Carson is a noted biologist who studies biology, a branch of science addressing living organisms, yet she has written a book called Silent Spring to speak about the harmful effects of pesticides on nature. Carson doesn’t write about birds’ genetic and physical makeup, the role of them in the animal food chain, or even how to identify their unbelievable bird songs, yet strongly attests the fight for a well developed environment containing birds, humans, and insects is just and necessary. To Carson, the war for a natural environment is instantly essential for holding on to her true love for the study of biology. Thus Carson claims that whether it be a direct hit towards birds or an indirect hit towards humans and wildlife, farmers need to understand the effects and abandon the usage of pesticides in order to save the environment by appealing to officials, farmers, and Americans in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. She positions her defense by using rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questioning to establish logos, juxtaposing ideas, and using connotative and denotative diction.

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

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.

Obviously then, an insect that lives on wheat can build up its population to much higher levels on a farm devoted to wheat than on one in which wheat is intermingled with other crops to which the insect is not adapted”. We as humans would rather risk killing ourselves in the process with all these chemicals which makes these insects stronger which in return we would have to create even more powerful poison/chemicals, so it is basically a never-ending war but in the end, we as humans will always come to the point of lose. As we create more chemicals, these bugs become more resistant just how like in todays current time, the more we treat everything with antibiotics the more the disease becomes resistant to the point that we can’t kill off the disease we just have to allow nature to take its course as there is nothing we can do at that point. We already see this happening around the world, yet we keep on treating everything with drugs instead of using natural products that nature provided us with. Through researching this topic, there was a quote that spoke to me. It was by Bill Whittle who stated, “We are the Architects of our own demise”, this statement could be felt like echoes across the world as it is a true statement. It is because of foolish thirst for money and power that we are destroying our precious resources at the cost of dominating the earth instead of protecting and

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

In the 1960’s, there was a very popular pesticide, known as DDT. The pesticide was sprayed relentlessly in public places, while the public payed no attention, simply assuming it would be a simple solution to keep those pesky mosquitoes away from their swimming pools and ice cream parties. While it may have solved that problem, DDT caused much more unnoticed harm than good. Rachel Carson was clearly aware of this, as in her book, “Silent Spring”, she brings to light the evils caused by this convenient bug spray. She does this by conveying intense imagery, discussing various real situations, and by expressing a very serious tone to suggest to the reader that this is truly no laughing matter.

Organizing our poster into three parts—opposition, standing up, and legacies—we attempted to display the crucial steps she was forced to take. We also strived to create a 3D model representation of the path of DDT or biomagnification in an ecosystem along the food chain, which took great efforts in not only drawing, painting, and building, but also extra scientific research. Moreover, we attempted to recreate a copy of Silent Spring, in which we filled with selected pieces of Carson’s

In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson proves that pesticides do more harm than good. She details how ineffective most pesticides are, how toxic they've become, and how they've managed to radically alter entire ecosystems by killing off animals like robins and eagles. Carson begins by noting that attempts to improve the efficiency of pesticides have merely resulted in their becoming even more toxic. As those toxins move up the food chain, they increase in potency to the point of killing many animals, including eagles. Carson also details how pesticides are bad for humans. The toxins are stored in fat, where they linger around in the system, causing many problems, including diseases like cancer.

The book is based off of the harmful effects that chemicals have on the Earth like DDT. According to Proquest ,2001 it mentions in Rachel Carson that, “ One of the most dramatic results of her environmental activism was the U.S. government's order to stop spraying the pesticide DDT in 1964” ( p.1). Because of the government orders; the chemical was stop being sprayed, which led to a dramatic change in the environmental movement. From the government banning the use of DDT led scientist to realize the

“The idea that nature can harm us is not new. Have you ever heard of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, botulism or tetanus? Why, then, are so many convinced that anything and everything natural is healthier for us than synthetic products? It 's true that modern chemistry has brought us a number of toxic chemicals, like DDT and dioxins, but do you really think that nature 's chemicals are any less

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

The changing environment is everyone’s issue. No one academic discipline has any more jurisdiction over the way we need to be approaching these problems. Every person, and living thing for that matter, on this planet should be able to have some say in how we should be addressing these issues. Carson makes the idea of unity between different backgrounds clear through the use of many supplemental anecdotes to get her point across, all of which work at different angles to try and reach a broader audience. Carson introduces references to “the sorceress Medea” and she created a robe to give the wearer to suffer “violent death” (32). Carson relates this Greek myth to systematic insecticides, which forces the intended audience to view the issues brought on by DDT, a harsh chemical, through a different perspective. Carson is trying to reach a larger audience because of the broad nature of the issues at hand. Everyone needs to be able to feel the urgency of the issues

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is still today as controversial, groundbreaking, and relevant as it was when it was first published in 1962. The book argues that uncontrolled and unexamined pesticide use harms and even kills not only animals, but humans too. Carson documents the negative effects of pesticides on the environment. The text includes strong accusations against the chemical industry and a call to look at how the use of chemicals can cause damage and impact the world around us. The book’s intended audience is the general public because Carson wants to bring the problem of harmful pesticide use to everyone’s attention. She also successfully demonstrates the fragility of the biodiversity on the planet and emphasizes how chemical use can have large repercussions.

The pronounced change from hunting and gathering to agriculture and domestication can be simplistically designated the Agricultural or Neolithic Revolution (Pringle:1998). The catalytic developments of the Neolithic Revolution mark a major turning point in the history of humankind. The resulting animal and plant domestication established the foundation on which modern civilization was built.