Status Updates From Silent Spring

The impact of soil heath was largely ignored by insecticide producers. It was found that some were resistant, but others were not, and the delicate balance was thrown out of whack pray and predator were no longer equal, causing some to rampantly overproduce what used to be the formation of healthy soil.

Realms of the soil
Soil is a highly complex material. The top inch of an acre of top soil can contain 1000lbs of bacteria, 1000lbs of fungus, 1000lbs of insects that all work in harmony. Below that earth worms can burrow helping path out areas for plant roots, spreading nitrogen and aerating the soil.

And both the birds by people.
They all tested highly for DDD but the water showed no sign. “ but the poison had not really left the lake. It had merely gone into the fabric of life that the lake supports”

…….Mile radius.
In 1960 at Clear lake DDD was used to kill of pesky gnats. The dilution to kill the pests was far lower than what was harmful to fish and other wildlife. The plan worked but the following year less birds where born on the shores. One more year of treatment and the fish were showing highly reduced numbers. The plankton in the water had stored DDD. Then eaten by the fish, the fish by birds

Beiyond the theorizing of the chemist who created. Some pesticides will interact in weird ways when combined making more potent poisons then intending. One plant in Oregon during 1959 was producing chemicals that leaked into the tributaries. These chemicals while made in isolation contained all the major ingredients of 2,4-D the main ingredient in Round up. They combined underground and killed off all plants in an 7

Surface waters and underground seas

As the saying goes all water leads back to the ocean. But first it must go to lakes rivers and tributaries. When chemicals are sprayed on plants they invariably end up in larger bodies of water. This has been found to build up in fish similar to the ddt builds up in chickens and cows. Chemicals are never in isolation and it’s impossible to fortell what might interact

Arcenic incentives banned in 1950s globally but 1990s in the US.
Planting diversity is a natural way to reduce pests as many of them are highly specialized, for example only attacking corn, if a farm is planted with a diverse crop then these pests will have a harder time spreading. The current practice however is to put as many as one crop in an area as possible which allows pests to thrive

In world war 2 a German scientist was developing a weapon called nerve gas that one of the variations was found to destroy and enzyme found in the liver that break down toxins. This was adopted as an insecticide and makes animals more prone to poisoning.

Annual Parathion use in Cali was equal to 5-7x the lethal dose of entire world population. Banned in 1990s

I’ve had to read this book in very small doses because of how much it’s depressing me. I’m so saddened and angry over how little has seemingly changed in the U.S. since Carson’s time. We’re still battling so much of the same environmental destruction from evil people/companies. It’s a great book so far, just a bummer parade too lol.

Per Google ddt is only used in regions with high quantities of malaria carrying insects.

Also some of them cause hepatitis

These also build up throughout the food chain. A plant is eaten by a cow or chicken, digested, stored, the eaten at a much higher quantity.
People who have lost weight rabidly might feel sick as they are burning these stored poisons.

I wonder how much of this is still relevant today

This means that relatively small amounts of exposure can build up into large and harmful quantities quickly. As much as 2.5 parts per million are harmful to the liver. This is the average amount of ddt that was found in humans whose only exposure was dietary in the 60s. Farmers averages closer to 16 and pesticide plant workers closer to 675/mili

The elixirs of death.

This chapter is a big jump in technical jargon. Definitely harder to read than the first two. It focuses on the major forms of insecticides used today and all the ways they are bad for humans. I won’t try to name them, they have very sciencey names.

A lot of attention in fat solubility and parts per million. Fat soluble molecules can be stored easily in the body