Silent Spring
byRachel Carson
“There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where hadthey gone?” “The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birdsseen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was springwithout voices.” “On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched.” “Theroadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and witheredvegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by allliving things. Even the streams were now lifeless.”
This is a strange scene described by Rachel Carson, who is regardedas “the mother of modern environmental protection movement”. Silent Spring is her representative workwhich lighted the fire of environmental protection in America and the wholeworld. Before 1960s, no books or magazines talked about things like environmentand ecosystem. Such a phenomenon means that environmental protection had notcome to people’s mind and the social consciousness. Indeed, the main opinion inhuman society from the very past about nature is to “set war against” or“conquer” it. In fact, many of human’s progresses are made on the base of suchopinion. Rachel Carson was the first person who doubted the correctness of thebelief and brought the topic under focus.
In Silent Spring, Carsondescribed a miserable village which was dying under the using of DDT. Thevillage used to be prosperous and beautiful. “In spring, white clouds of bloomdrifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up ablaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxedbarked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in themists of the fall mornings.” She thought that with the using of variety kindsof pesticide, especially DDTs, the village suffered enormous and irreversibledamage and gradually withered and died. Soon it became just like the onedescribed in the beginning. From her fine and smooth describing, I can evenfeel the groan of the town. Moreover Carson also sharply pointed out that thedeep-seated cause for the environmental problem is the human’s arrogance andignorance. So she asked people to correct the attitude toward the nature andreconsidered the developing path of human being.
Carson thought that because of the antibody and differentiation,pesticides would never be completely useful. On the contrary, those more andmore poisonous medicines, because of the enrichment effect, would accumulate inhumans’ body. It’s quite sarcastic that we hurt ourselves much badly whilehurting the others. Then she analyzed many poisonous components in pesticides.Those are all unfamiliar names except DDT, such as chlordane,chloronaphthalene, compound 497, etc.
Those things really make me feel scared. We are on the top of thefood chain, and it is such a perfect and fragile system. We human beings arejust part of it and we depend on all of the creatures who stay on the lowerpositions. It is so hard and ridiculous to try to match the nature. ”Only in thestate does man have a rational existence.” Every species have their value to beon this world. Then no one knows what would happened if we force them todisappear. For example, let’s imagine the food chain as a meticulously madecastle built by billions of little blocks and we human beings are the top one.There might be several tiny blocks on the bottom which you think is useless anddispensable. But what would happen if we take them away? Perhaps nothinghappened, and perhaps the whole castle ruined.
Destruction is always much easier than recovery, not counting thoseincurable ones. Humans always think that we are much cleverer than the otheranimals, so we become more and more conceited and firmly believe that we arethe king. We didn’t see that the nature is so magical and knows how to revenge.The pay back is much more violent and cruel. We need balance and order. Thenature has its own rule. Our aim is to use it and live in harmony with it. Theecosystem is so delicate that even a tiny disturbance could lead an unexpectedconsequence, just like the butterfly effect.
At the last chapter, some scientists came up with other ways tosolve the pest problem----biotic control. There is now a strongly running tideof interest in chemical sterility. Those sterile insects are released and matethe normal ones so that they won’t have any larva and get extinct gradually.This “solution” seems to be reasonable and helpful, but thinking about itcarefully, you’ll find that it is just another way to ruin the food chain castle.Not only spring, but also summer and autumn would be still and silent in thefuture.
It is lucky that Rachel still kept her mind clear. She didn’t agreewith the way of conquering the nature. At the very end of the book, she wrote,“The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of theNeanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that natureexists for the convenience of man.” This sentence can be regarded as the book’stheme topic which is widely quoted in all kinds of articles about environmentalprotection.
Carson is a great woman and fighter. When writing the book, she wassuffering from huge pain of the operation for mammary cancer. After the bookwas published, the widely affect brought her not honor and fortune, but fierceattack from the chemical estate. She died only one year after the book’spublishing. On the spring of 1964, the great woman passed away, but Silent Spring made her voice neversilent.
The 20st century was a time that technology and economy developedrapidly, especially the 40 years after SilentSpring was published. But every spring, when flowers bloom, trees sprout,and water begins to flow, we used to recall a woman and her enduring works. Weopened the window, and wonder if the spring is silent today, if it will besilent tomorrow.
byRachel Carson
“There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where hadthey gone?” “The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birdsseen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was springwithout voices.” “On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched.” “Theroadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and witheredvegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by allliving things. Even the streams were now lifeless.”
This is a strange scene described by Rachel Carson, who is regardedas “the mother of modern environmental protection movement”. Silent Spring is her representative workwhich lighted the fire of environmental protection in America and the wholeworld. Before 1960s, no books or magazines talked about things like environmentand ecosystem. Such a phenomenon means that environmental protection had notcome to people’s mind and the social consciousness. Indeed, the main opinion inhuman society from the very past about nature is to “set war against” or“conquer” it. In fact, many of human’s progresses are made on the base of suchopinion. Rachel Carson was the first person who doubted the correctness of thebelief and brought the topic under focus.
In Silent Spring, Carsondescribed a miserable village which was dying under the using of DDT. Thevillage used to be prosperous and beautiful. “In spring, white clouds of bloomdrifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up ablaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxedbarked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in themists of the fall mornings.” She thought that with the using of variety kindsof pesticide, especially DDTs, the village suffered enormous and irreversibledamage and gradually withered and died. Soon it became just like the onedescribed in the beginning. From her fine and smooth describing, I can evenfeel the groan of the town. Moreover Carson also sharply pointed out that thedeep-seated cause for the environmental problem is the human’s arrogance andignorance. So she asked people to correct the attitude toward the nature andreconsidered the developing path of human being.
Carson thought that because of the antibody and differentiation,pesticides would never be completely useful. On the contrary, those more andmore poisonous medicines, because of the enrichment effect, would accumulate inhumans’ body. It’s quite sarcastic that we hurt ourselves much badly whilehurting the others. Then she analyzed many poisonous components in pesticides.Those are all unfamiliar names except DDT, such as chlordane,chloronaphthalene, compound 497, etc.
Those things really make me feel scared. We are on the top of thefood chain, and it is such a perfect and fragile system. We human beings arejust part of it and we depend on all of the creatures who stay on the lowerpositions. It is so hard and ridiculous to try to match the nature. ”Only in thestate does man have a rational existence.” Every species have their value to beon this world. Then no one knows what would happened if we force them todisappear. For example, let’s imagine the food chain as a meticulously madecastle built by billions of little blocks and we human beings are the top one.There might be several tiny blocks on the bottom which you think is useless anddispensable. But what would happen if we take them away? Perhaps nothinghappened, and perhaps the whole castle ruined.
Destruction is always much easier than recovery, not counting thoseincurable ones. Humans always think that we are much cleverer than the otheranimals, so we become more and more conceited and firmly believe that we arethe king. We didn’t see that the nature is so magical and knows how to revenge.The pay back is much more violent and cruel. We need balance and order. Thenature has its own rule. Our aim is to use it and live in harmony with it. Theecosystem is so delicate that even a tiny disturbance could lead an unexpectedconsequence, just like the butterfly effect.
At the last chapter, some scientists came up with other ways tosolve the pest problem----biotic control. There is now a strongly running tideof interest in chemical sterility. Those sterile insects are released and matethe normal ones so that they won’t have any larva and get extinct gradually.This “solution” seems to be reasonable and helpful, but thinking about itcarefully, you’ll find that it is just another way to ruin the food chain castle.Not only spring, but also summer and autumn would be still and silent in thefuture.
It is lucky that Rachel still kept her mind clear. She didn’t agreewith the way of conquering the nature. At the very end of the book, she wrote,“The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of theNeanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that natureexists for the convenience of man.” This sentence can be regarded as the book’stheme topic which is widely quoted in all kinds of articles about environmentalprotection.
Carson is a great woman and fighter. When writing the book, she wassuffering from huge pain of the operation for mammary cancer. After the bookwas published, the widely affect brought her not honor and fortune, but fierceattack from the chemical estate. She died only one year after the book’spublishing. On the spring of 1964, the great woman passed away, but Silent Spring made her voice neversilent.
The 20st century was a time that technology and economy developedrapidly, especially the 40 years after SilentSpring was published. But every spring, when flowers bloom, trees sprout,and water begins to flow, we used to recall a woman and her enduring works. Weopened the window, and wonder if the spring is silent today, if it will besilent tomorrow.
