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Pesticide Suicide: Silent Spring By Rachel Carson

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Pesticide Suicide
After reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson my perception on the use of pesticides has changed. I was aware of the possible effects that could occur if pesticides were applied incorrectly, such as contaminating the water supply. However, I didn’t realize the severity of such effects and their coupling consequences caused by unregulated sprayings only fifty-six years ago. As Carson illustrated, the pesticidal contaminants, including DDT, PCBs, Dieldrin, Heptachlor, phenols, and countless others, not only affected targeted pests, but also unintentionally affected surrounding organismal populations. These included salmon in the streams, robins in the trees, cattle in the pasture, and eagles in their nests, to list a few.
Fire ant removal in the Southern states caused public uproar. The insect wasn't bothersome to most, yet the government continued their mission to eradicate it. Dieldrin and heptachlor, chemicals far more toxic than DDT, were applied to lands. These chemicals caused a nervous system disease, and in a few weeks, numerous animals domestic and wild died off (Carson 168). Southerners then questioned food quality, worrying drinking milk and eating meat of the contaminated animals would harm them as well (169). Not to mention, once the program came to an end, it was believed there were more fire ants than when they …show more content…

I live surrounded by dairy farms and farmland, and if concerns arise regarding their operations I will report it to the appropriate authorities. As for individually spraying for weeds and insects on lawns or in trees, I will try and avoid it, but if it’s unavoidable I will take necessary precautions. This includes simple measures, such as only spot spraying where it’s needed, moving pets out of harm's way, and wearing appropriate attire to prevent skin contact and

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In the first chapter of “Living Downstream” by Sandra Steingraber discussed about personal experiences living in Illinois and discovering how much the landscape has changed over the years. In addition to the changing landscape, cancer, especially breast cancer, has increased in the prairies of Illinois and pesticides usage may cause. Much of the discussion first begin with the change of landscape as the prairies of Illinois has become a place for farming and pesticides. As farming became an important aspect of Illinois, pesticides were created to remove any bugs or insects from the product that is being farmed. A few pesticides formulas that came to be are atrazine, dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

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Carson appeals to the arousal of the basic emotions, such as the arousal of fear in the public. Carson also appeals to pathos, or the emotions, by questioning the “highly intelligent” creators of these pesticides. Carson believes irrational bad decisions based on faulty evidence threaten the future existence of mankind. “Along with the possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm-substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the future depends.” However, the statement supports Carson’s intention to present a persuasive, and logical point of view without confusing the reader; suggesting she ment to go against a patient audience rather than an impatient one.

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Her diction is undoubtedly her main “weapon” that she utilizes to address the issue of pesticides. With words such as “direct target,” “poisons,” “killing,” “death,” and “lethal” in her arsenal of care and peace, she roots an alarming sense into her audience by showing pesticide as a relentless beast that causes nothing but harm. In a way, Carson amplifies the word pesticide into much more sinister concept: death. She personifies it with her dire word choice, considering it a “universal killer” (28) and a “wave of death” (50) that was perpetuated by farmers and the authoritarian. She compares the farmers who use pesticide to “judge and jury” who have “doomed” innocent creatures that they are either ignorant of or for whom they care little for (31-32).

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