The Use Of Pesticides In Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

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Silent Spring The novel Silent Spring by Rachel Carson reveals the downward beginning of a small nature town by inputting the use of pesticides and insecticides into everyday life. Throughout the novel, animals, humans, and natural resources are greatly affected by the chemical poisons that have been used to enhance agricultural production. Because of these leading contraries, I would require my students to read Silent Spring if I were an instructor of an environmental course, this book is still relevant to today’s environmental situation, and Carson’s prediction of a “silent spring” is rightfully justified. Because of the dangerous outcomes due to the power of pesticides, it is important to educate others on the importance of these deadly …show more content…
An example would be the Bald Eagles feeding on the contaminants in Michigan’s aquatic ecosystem. The fish that the Bald Eagles have been feeding on is full of pesticides and other unhealthy poisons. Because the bald eagles eat the fish, they end up inheriting the chemical in their bodies. When the bald eagles give birth to their offspring, the poison is spread to them and they end up inheriting the poison. According to Michael R. Wierda and Katherine F. Leith, “94% of the total DDT in eaglet plasma samples was DDE,” (2) Because of this, the eaglet’s egg that they stay inside before hatching is weak and don’t receive enough protection against predators, which resulted in a decrease of Bald Eagles from 1999 to 2008 (Wierda and Leith 2) With the decreasement in a species, this can affect the rest of the food chain and result in a “silent spring”, according to Carson’s prediction.
Silent Spring contains the strong contrary points of pesticides and demonstrates the negative effects of continually inputting the use of pesticides. Because of Carson, I would require my students to read Silent Spring if I were an instructor of an environmental course, this book is still relevant to today’s environmental situation, and Carson’s prediction of a “silent spring” is rightfully
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