Carson's "Silent Spring" sparked up a controversy over the use of chemical pesticides. Her purpose of this book was mainly to inform the public of what chemical pesicides do to the environment and how harmful they can be. She says that some believe that this product will be good for their crops or agriculture, but in reality it is actually doing more harm than good. Chemical pesticides also have long-term effects on both the environment and humans of which are still unknown.
In this excerpt from "Silent Spring" Carson talks about the result of what chemical pesticides and what it has done for our environment.
"Among them are many that are used in man's war against nature. Since the mid-1940's over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vernacular as "pests"; and they are sold under several thousand different brand names. These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes—nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the "good"and the "bad," to still the song of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to linger on in the soil—all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called "insecticides," but "biocides."
"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility."
- Rachel Carson
Carson's book was the beginning of a great controversy over the issue of chemical pesticides and what it does to our environment.
she is also a feminist queen.
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