Silent Spring at 50 Quotes

“The balance of nature’ does not exist, and perhaps never has existed. The numbers of wild animals are constantly varying to a greater or lesser extent, and the variations are usually irregular in period and always irregular in amplitude. Each variation in the numbers of one species causes direct and indirect repercussions on the numbers of the others, and since many of the latter are themselves independently varying in numbers, the resultant confusion is remarkable.”30 These were rumblings in what was soon to become a major paradigm shift in ecology from the balance of nature to the flux of nature.”
― Roger Meiners, Silent Spring at 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson

“Desrochers and Shimizu (Chapter 5) identify several shortcomings in Carson’s Silent Spring that stem from major omissions. These include her silence on the benefits of chemical pesticides, such as higher agricultural production—which reduced hunger in a world of chronic starvation and limited the loss of wildlife habitat. Another flaw is her reliance on anecdotes rather than systematic analysis of available information. But perhaps the book’s biggest failing is its discussion of cancer.”
― Roger Meiners, Silent Spring at 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson

“One wonders whether Rachel Carson would have been as adamant against the use of genetically modified Bt crops as many environmentalists have been in more recent times. Moreover, given the book’s ambivalence over the use of chemical pesticides, it raises the question of how far she would have traveled on this branch of the Other Road that she herself pointed out.”
― Roger Meiners, Silent Spring at 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson