Originally Posted by
TheFifthElement
I think it is still relevant in the sense that it seeded the environmental movement. I was reminded of Silent Spring in the recent campaigns to ban certain pesticides which appear to be decimating the bee population. So really its meaning has not gone away.
The 'several authors' are quite right on their point, but that is also actually Carson's point; if you read the book her focus is very much on the indiscriminate use of pesticides and their damaging impact on the environment. It does not just focus on DDT, in fact DDT probably gets much less of a mention than heptachlor or chlordane, and neither does it expressly criticise the use of these chemicals in the fight against transmissable diseases.The focus of the book is very much on the inappropriate and excessive use of these chemicals in the agricultural and forestry domain. The only real mention of use of DDT in disease control centres around evidence of resistance in the mosquito population again largely owing to it being dusted in excessive concentrations over vast areas of land. It does make you wonder, had the indiscriminate use of these pesticides continued, would we now have an entirely resistant mosquito? As it happens, DDT is still authorised for use in disease control, in the right dose and subject to determining that the local mosquito population is not resistant.
She also raises the point that these kinds of dangerous chemicals were not just in the hands of farmers who didn't know what to do with them, but in the hands of the general population. Where access to medicines was restricted, access to chemicals that could, and did, kill was not restricted at all. They were also dusting these chemicals on to people and environments, without really knowing or understanding what the effects were, or allowing people to prevent it. Significant damage occurred to populations of bird and fish, whereas the insect pests which it was intended to wipe out tended to recover very quickly and then thrive because their natural predators had been killed. Carson's point was that rather than us being 'masters' of our environment, the environment is a delicate balance which should be tinkered with carefully and sparingly. I think, over the years, that message is sinking in and in that respect I see the book as being as relevant today as it was at the time it was published.
The Karen Armstrong book was also fascinating. A very compact assessment of the history of myth and very easy to follow. If anything, I would have liked to have seen it expanded, as it did leave me wanting more.
