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written to alert the world with the toxic legacy of pesticides, Silent Spring was one of the most effective books ever written

Rachel Carson, brought a planet: his book The Sea Around Us was a best seller of 1951, and remember with emotion the beginning of my teaching of science. You can see it now: for her, the world was only 2.5 billion years and the moon was made of granite soil of what is now the Pacific Ocean, torn from the earth current fade up in some early disasters.

At that time, exploring the deep ocean had begun. Diving technology was in its infancy, the submersible remotely even a fantasy. Space exploration was still a dream, continental drift and seafloor spreading, an absurd heresy. Thus, his book was one of the shots that led to the next generation of oceanographers and marine biologists. In 1962, and died of cancer, published Silent Spring.

If I had to choose a text for a single person as the cornerstone of the conservation movement, the signal of environmental activism politically astute, and the lighthouse was the world's knowledge of ecological systems, Silent Spring Most people would clear choice. Its impact was immediate, far-reaching and ultimately improving the lives, earning him a medal posthumously presidential and put his face on the stamp 17 U.S. cent. He also won his scathing assault supported by the chemical industry and a complaint from a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture that (because she was not married) that was "probably a Communist" is in a world of McCarthy, was almost the ultimate in defamation.

But how do you read now?

is great: clear, controlled, authoritarian, confident poetic flourishes that lights suddenly the pages of cold exposure. Pesticide residues in sewage systems in the United States are unexpectedly counterpoint to "sight and sound of drifting ribbons of waterfowl in the evening sky." Soil bacteria and fungi to become a "horde of creatures minutes, but by working hard. "

Analysis of accidental damage

agricultural spray operator leads to a passionate issue, "Who has put in a pan of the balance sheets could have been eaten by insects, and the other, it is unfortunate many colored feathers, the lifeless remains of birds that fell before the poison insecticide nonselective club? "

Your use of images and emotions is almost perfectly judged. It keeps his anger under control and that the tragedy of the quarter does not need comment. "In Florida, two children found an empty bag and used to repair a swing long after they were killed and three of his teammates got sick bag containing the insecticide parathion, one of the organic phosphates, testing defined .. death parathion poisoning. "

most cases, information is left to do the job, and simply calls the chapter title poetic and strange conclusion, disposable. The book is a study on how to make an argument and win.

was at the time, and to some extent still is, an excellent teaching text. It must have been one of the first really popular book to introduce the ideas of the food chain, and the amplification of chemical waste sustainable ecological interdependence and the web of life on Earth, the complexities of cell and the potential for catastrophic intrusion level of the molecule, the balance of predator-prey relationships and the madness of the clumsy intervention

is - although this would not have been what it is - a brilliant critique of capitalism, free market, in which chemical companies only for the balance could convince the government and large Enterprises dust and splash on the American continent expensive products persistent, highly toxic and carrying a minimum and sometimes less visible, warning of danger to health, in which research on the effects of excess chemical was funded almost in all cases, and alternative approaches - including biological control - were rejected because no one (except perhaps the farmer and the confidence of uninformed consumers) may benefit from them

.

Finally, of course, must be in his own words one of the most successful books ever written. Many organochlorines and organophosphates in the heart of his story are prohibited, are hard to find or use only in strictly controlled circumstances, are now networks of amateur naturalists and professional monitoring of the status of all wild things developed countries, trout and salmon rivers once again devastated, groups of people screaming and environmental awareness campaigns, industry in the rich world has been held accountable and forced to clean up its act. and most governments have adopted environmental laws and inspections

Today there are even voices that say that the world of an overreaction, and DDT - the most famous of aerosols, but perhaps not the most dangerous - in their own way was a chemical useful in appropriate circumstances. Ironically, it was also the America of Walt Disney and Fred Astaire, Norman Rockwell covers for The Saturday Evening Post, homespun decency, rock and music of Aaron Copland, the Beat poets and Kennedy's campaign for the presidency and a new Camelot in Washington. a happy, safe - even if you do not know, since the spring of silent reading

This book is profoundly important. It is an example of a very good book. He won a secure place in history and is a reminder that complacency is a dangerous condition, that all human commerce has implications that must be carefully considered and that monitoring is safer to defend democracy. It was on my shelf for decades. But to be honest, even if it began to read with pleasure, I was relieved to get to the end of it: the warnings have a way to make you feel terribly depressed