Silent Spring in Our Shared Shelf

May 25, 2011 Brian rated it liked it · review of another edition

(3.5) Becoming more of a historical document, but still disheartening

Thank goodness Nixon brought us the EPA. Silent Spring fits into a thread of revolutionary works like The Origin of Species and The Jungle. I didn't realize just how much of an impact it had until reading it...it's very clear that in the first half of the 20th century, there was a willful ignorance of the dangers of manufactured pesticides. We won't ever know how many plants and animals (including humans, considering the carcin (3.5) Becoming more of a historical document, but still disheartening

Thank goodness Nixon brought us the EPA. Silent Spring fits into a thread of revolutionary works like The Origin of Species and The Jungle. I didn't realize just how much of an impact it had until reading it...it's very clear that in the first half of the 20th century, there was a willful ignorance of the dangers of manufactured pesticides. We won't ever know how many plants and animals (including humans, considering the carcinogenic properties of many chemicals) were killed in the pursuit of an insect- and weed-free landscape.

Carson covers all the key points: a) these things kill indiscriminately, and interact in frightening ways b) they damage the air, water, soil, seas and everything that inhabits them c) they didn't actually work: most pests returned worse than ever as their natural predators were wiped out directly or indirectly by the poisining d) many cause cancer and directly harmed humans and e) there are much better alternatives out there already being used (e.g. natural parasites, viruses and predators of the pests--though introducing new predator species can have terrible side-effects itself).

So this is a great historical document, showing where we were in the sixties (and thankfully we've gotten a lot smarter and at least our government seems to try to police the use of dangerous chemicals--though I'm guessing the Department of Agriculture still takes the 'innocent until proven guilty' approach to pesticides that we fortunately do not take at the FDA). The disheartening part is that these chemicals are probably still having their effects today. I don't know what the half-life of any of them are, so maybe I'm wrong, but they don't just disappear; they've spread everywhere across the nation and globe. Perhaps we're finally seeing a plateau of cancers like leukemia (particularly among children) which were on the rise (yes, perhaps a lot of it is reporting bias) throughout the 20th century.

I can see why so many people pointing to Carson's book as the catalyst for the late 20th century environmental awareness and movement. Glad I finally read it. ...more

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Aug 06, 2021 Jason rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-book

Great book and I know this had a huge impact on DDT use being drastically reduced, but I must say I got the message pretty early on in the book and didn't need the additional case studies. Important work for sure, but maybe I'm just one of the people more easily convinced that poisons are bad? ...more

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