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Rachel Carson Silent Spring Chapter Summaries

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In chapter one Carson describes a community, in which all the elements of the natural world including humans, work together, where people are able to enjoy the sound of birds and the growth of spring. Suddenly, chemical poisons are introduced and spring is silenced. There are no more birds to sing in spring. Quite frankly, this notion is terrifying and disturbing and I personally find it vicious. Imagining a world where the sounds of wildlife especially the chirping of birds is no more is revolting. In chapter three, she describes in detail all the different kinds of chemical poisons; especially those used as insecticides. She explains how these poisons affect animals and birds by depositing themselves in fatty tissues where they are magnified. …show more content…

In the first few chapters Rachel Carson stated that the large number of harmful things announced each year was possibly making the earth unfit for all life. Insecticides or dangerous substances are becoming more poisonous. The persons in charge of monitoring safe chemical usage were worried only about materialistic worth and were losing sight of the overall picture. Before World War II, inorganic substances were the main pest controls. Carson highlighted that chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates was the central complications leading to animals such as bird and fish illnesses and most unfortunately death, human nervous system disorders (headaches, dizziness), and death of humans. Chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates are insecticide and pesticide used to destroy insects and other organisms harmful to cultivated plants and animals. In these seven chapters, also discussed was that herbicides, another harmful chemical to plants and vegetation were at one time considered no problem to animals but has proven to no longer be harmless. The book explored the possibility of surface and ground water contamination problems. It is observed that water treatment establishments did not remove chemicals because multiple chemicals in cesspool could interact to form toxic compounds or mixtures, and thus cancer risks from polluted waters would increase in the

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442 Words | 2 Pages

Insecticides are found in urban streams. Herbicides used in agricultural production are found in water from rural watersheds. Furthermore Bartram states that pesticides and herbicides used in agriculture frequently lead to the contamination of surface water and groundwater. According to Harrison pesticides in water aquifers are not easily degraded and persist in the aquifers due to reduced microbial activity, lower

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480 Words | 2 Pages

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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571 Words | 3 Pages

The excerpt taken from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring leaves a lasting impression on the importance of the environment and how humans have killed hundreds of thousands birds and insects due to the usage of pesticides. She uses rhetorical strategies such as diction and tone to convey what she sees as the destruction of the ecosystem. The careless actions of human beings is shown throughout this passage by the use of diction and tone the author creates. Carson immediately criticizes humans, she refers to their use of pesticides as “a habit of killing”. The reader can sympathize with the animals that have been killed by the plentiful amounts of poison and instead feel something akin to disdain towards the actions of the farmers.

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748 Words | 3 Pages

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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711 Words | 3 Pages

There was once a time where the rivers were venomous, the fields were poisonous, and even the air breathed by men, women, and children alike was toxic. This is a world that Rachel Carson, the famous and honored biologist, that wrote Silent Spring, lived in and envisioned as a world that could be saved. She immediately slams down on the national arena and alarmingly claims that the environment that humans thrive in is a world seeped with death and killing, and that the use of parathion (a type of pesticide) is the agent to blame. She targets farmers who she claims poison and kill creatures that they deem as pests to their crops, including insects and even birds. In the end, she mainly targets the “authoritarian” that was given the power to take

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890 Words | 4 Pages

One of these instances is in the Chapter Needless Havoc it is about the invasion of the Japanese Beetle that found its way to America. The Government tried to spray pesticides to get rid of them but all they did was infected all the human beings and domestic animals in the area and still had the beetle crawling around. This is just one example Carson uses throughout the book of the government and organizations who misuse the pesticides and dangerous chemicals and end up harming much more than the target. Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” as a whole was a major success. Soon after she published the book it was so powerful and awakening to the people that many laws came about that banned the use of DDT and put regulations on pesticide use.

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481 Words | 2 Pages

A biologist, Rachel Carson in her published book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, discusses the topic of living life on earth and argues that “There is a growing trend toward aerial applications of such deadly poisons as parathion to “control” concentrations of birds distasteful to farmers. She supports this claim by illustrating the way birds in harmful areas, then the poisons that use, then in where are these poisons found. Carson’s purpose is to warn others to help the bird species. She adopts an informative tone for her audience, the readers of current American and others interested in the topic of poisons harming amounts of bird species using rhetorical questions and connotation. With care for the birds, Carson tries her best in finding a way to save them.

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773 Words | 4 Pages

As a result, the chemicals “ had only limited success” due to the insects evolving their immune systems. As well as damaging the living space of many people by exposing the chemicals into the air. Thus, contaminating the same air the people’s breathes as well as the water supplies that many organisms depend on. Therefore, allowing Carson to express the need to find an alternate route to protect the future generation’s

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Chapter 7: Denial Rides Again: The Revisionist Attack on Rachel Carson Rachel Carson was considered an American hero in the 1960s because she called our attention to the harms of indiscriminate pesticide use. She explained how they were accumulating in the food chain, damaging the natural environment and threatening the bald eagle. Historians consider this a success story in science, however if you fast-forward to 2007 the internet is flooded with accusations that she was a mass murderer.

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She critiques the decision makers who prioritize economic interests over environmental and public health concerns. Carson challenges the ethics of these decision makers, questioning their right to decide for “countless legions of people who were not consulted” that a world without insects is more valuable than a world with birds and other forms of life. She was successful by providing specific numbers such as 65,000 red winged blackbirds and starlings were killed by parathion and appealed to the readers about the devastation caused by poison. Carson’s rhetorical strategies in Silent Spring are aimed at engaging the reader's emotions and values, as well as promoting critical thinking and public awareness. She uses specific examples, emotional appeals, and rhetorical questions to highlight the scale and urgency of environmental

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

The problems she targeted in the past have only expanded into modern times as they have accurately influenced more and more ecosystems worldwide. Pesticides and other man-made chemical compounds are the main source of these environmental issues, and Carson would have continued to campaign for the halt of the use of chemicals. Although pesticides and chemicals are continuing to harm the environment, Rachel's book was a monumental wake up call to humans, as it revealed how much damage we are causing every day to ourselves and our surroundings. Arguably thanks to Rachel Carson’s hard work and dedication to advocating against man-made chemicals, DDT was finally banned in the United States in 1972. Rachel’s legacy still carries on today, and her work, specifically within “Silent Spring,” continues to bring awareness to the present major environmental issues— marking it as one of the most influential books of the twentieth

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1077 Words | 5 Pages

Environmentalism is the belief in which one advocates for environmental preservation. In Rachel Carson’s narrative Silent Spring, she gives her activist insight on toxic chemicals for the benefit of humanity by exposing the detrimental effects these toxins bring. In comparison to Carson, I perceive myself to have developed my perception of nature through books however, as a hispanic woman my expected role in my culture did not allow me to have a one on one interaction with nature. Carson fails to comprehend how traditional values potentially promote an anthropocentric ideology that attributes to the unfavorable way humans treat the natural world. The author’s modes of argumentation mirror my own perception of nature only to a certain extent

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324 Words | 2 Pages

In today’s world, there are many people creating new chemical substances that has negative effect to our world. Rachel Carson, in her article "The Obligation to Endure" argues that the pesticides and other chemicals we use are harmful to more than just the environment. I agree with Carson in her article, in that we should reduce most of the harmful chemical use and instead use technological inventions. Carson is a person who seems very passionate about the environment and is very concerned of its inhabitants. It is hard to believe that intelligent human beings would use bad chemicals substances that would affect the environment and themselves negatively.

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757 Words | 4 Pages

Imagine having so much pesticides in use that people and animals were actually dying from it. In the 1950’s the overuse of pesticides was a serious problem. Rachel Carson was an activist who was against the use and overuse for these pesticides. She wanted to address this problem to the government and the public and warn about the harmful effects pesticides have on the environment and the people. In “A Fable For Tomorrow”, Rachel Carson utilizes ethos, logos and pathos in order to bring awareness to the overuse of pesticides.

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1206 Words | 5 Pages

This is what makes it approachable not only to the Scientifics but also to general public. Rachel Carson directs to the popular audience and not only the limited scientific one. She knew that for a complete society change regarding the use of pesticides, the general public is as or more important than the specific scientific public. A big effort had to be made in order to accomplish this goal.

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