Rachel Carson and the Fight Against Indiscriminate Pesticide Use Essay Example for Free

Rachel Carson and the Fight Against Indiscriminate Pesticide Use EssayIn her 1962 book, Silent Spring, Rachel Carson details the riskinesss of undiscriminating pesticide use, which had already silenced the voice of spring in countless towns in America (Carson (1962) knave 3). Miss Carson, as many of her detractors referred to her, received ridicule from academics, perseverance leaders and professional journals for over a decade. Years after her death, conservative and libertarian groups such as the Cato bring in, American Enterprise imbed and the Competitive Enterprise Institute attacked her and the app arnt successes for environmentalism in the human beings of the Environmental Protection Agency and the dismiss of DDT to provide an exercise of a failed government program. Rachel Carson revealed the dangers imposed by undiscriminating pesticide use in her 1962 book, Silent Spring. Although Carson used DDT as her focus, the chemical was an example of the numerous synthe sized pesticides employed in many aspects of mankinds cursory lives.As a biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson was alerted to the numerous case reports of damage to birds and fish after DDT application and believed that because DDT was so effective, it unbalanced ecosystems (Oreskes (2010) page 219). Carson expanded her research and eventually published her revealing book to alert the public and bring an end to indiscriminate use. The book made numerous claims against pesticides, illustrated the wipeout caused by prior use and warned of a future in which over increasingly large beas spring comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the too soon mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song (Carson (1962) page 88).These elixers of death, she warned, are less insecticides as they are biocides (Carson (1962) pages 15, 8), infiltrating water supplies, food supplies and organisms from the audacious eagle to man. If Silent Spring stimulated the public to press for unwise and ill-conceived restrictions on the production, use or development of new chemicals, it will be the consumer who suffers.Dr. William Darby, 1962Heralded as one of the most influential books in the environmental movement, Carsons writing was less scientific and more thought provoking. Her often-extreme word choices and diction provided a experience of urgency for some, but drew many detractors. Doctor William Darby, a Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, reviewed Silent Spring shortly after its publishing. According to Darby, the dramatic descriptions were just now a ploy to mask other scientific findings are mislead the public (Darby (1962)). Darby accused Carson of name-drops by quoting or referring to renowned scientists out of context leading the lector to conclude that the authority mentioned is in accord with the authors position (Darby (1962)). To further refute her claims, Darby refers to her as Miss Carson throughout his essay. This treatment of certainly harmed, or was an attempt to harm, her credibility in the scientific ambit.He continues her ignorance or biases on some of the considerations throw doubt on her competence to judge policy (Darby (1962)). Darby give tongue to that if it stimulated the public to press for unwise and ill-conceived restrictions on the production, use or development of new chemicals, it will be the consumer who suffers. Here was an academic, in the field of biochemistry, blatantly denouncing Carson and her conclusions. In The Chemicals Around Us, a viewpoint published in Chemical Weekly in July 1962, Carson was referred to as a crank and that her writing demeanor was more indicative of a lawyer preparing a brief (Chemical Weekly (1962)). Obviously a somewhat biased publication, the article continued to claim that although her facts are correct, her conclusions less certain, and her innuendos misleading such a public be damned attitude was outmod ed some years ago and too many throng are watching.The excogitate, too many people are watching referred to the chemical industry and pro-chemical government, implying that despite her efforts, they would fight back against such erroneous claims with ease. Carsons detractors were non publishing this information against her for publicity, but were concerned. They were not concerned rough the indiscriminate use of pesticides, but rather the ability of public outrage and the future of the chemicals industry. By attacking Carsons conclusions and writing style, they could distract from the dangerous scientific findings. Facing harsh criticism, Carsons urgent push for policy against indiscriminate pesticide use seemed to stall. When chairperson Kennedy tasked the Presidents Science Advisory Committee with investigating the claims, a new hope emerged. Although the committee did not back or deny Carsons claims, they lay the burden of proof on those who argued that persistent pesticide s were safe (Oreskes (2010) page 222).The paradigm shifted against the chemical industry. The findings established that the industry itself was tasked with proving the pesticides used were not a danger to human health or the environment, explicitly invoking the standard of groundsable doubt, rather than those against indiscriminate use proving pesticides were a danger (Oreskes (2010) pages 220-224). According to Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway in their 2010 book, Merchants of Doubt, the legal phrase reasonable doubt suggests that they were guided by existing legal frameworks to demonstrate the safety of their products, and that manufacturers had not demonstrated the safety of DDT, and reasonable people now had reason to doubt it (Oreskes (2010) page 222). It took two more Presidential Administrations before President Nixon authorized the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and in 1972, the ban on the use of DDT in the United States.The environmental movement, the work done by Rachel Carson, the Presidents Science Advisory Committee, numerous scientists and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and banning of DDT was often heralded as a true governmental policy success story. Not until the early 2000s did the evidence exist that DDT was in fact harmful to humans, and a dangerous carcinogen (Oreskes (2010) page 229). For three decades, the establishment of the EPA was used as an example to come about for the creation of new social, economic and environmental policies. As conservative and libertarian think tanks in the mid 1990s were facing new policies and government regulation impertinent with their ideals, a new strategy for combat emerged. By slandering Carson, freemarketeers realized they could strengthen the argument against regulation in general. (Oreskes (2010) page 218).To argue against regulation, they would destroy the main example of successful policy and regulation the establishment of the EPA and banning of DDT. In the late 1990s, groups such as the Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute renewed the attacks on Rachel Carson and the junk-sciencescientific findings that could not be explained under the free-market systemthat led to the ban of DDT in the United States. These think tanks, backed monetarily by Philip Morris and other corporation, organized off-the record briefings with members of Congress, wrote and placed op-ed pieces, and organized radio interviews (Oreskes, (2010) page 234). The Heartland Institute, focused on free-market solutions to social and economic problems insisted that some one millionlives could be saved annually in developing countries around the world through the use of DDT (Oreskes (2010) page 233).There were even claims that her false alarm about pesticides led to the death of millions, making her worse than Hitler (Oreskes (2010) page 217). By destroying Carsons reputation at the expense of key facts and scientific f indings, these groups were changing history. Orwell understood that those in power will always seek to control history, because whoever controls the past controls the present (Oreskes (2010) page 238). Conservative and Libertarian think tanks believed they could control history to derail the progress of regulatory authority in the United States. In the forward to Silent Spring, Carson quotes Albert Schweitzer, Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall, He will end by destroying the worldly concern (Carson (1962) Forward).According to Carson, it took hundreds of millions of years for life to produce the life that now inhabits the earth and to adjust to these chemicals would require time on the scale that is natures, it would require not merely the years of a mans life but he life of generations (Carson (1962) page 7). Rachel Carson believed indiscriminate pesticide use and the continued development of semisynthetic chemicals would devastate our planet in a way that woul d require generations for the environment to reach equilibrium.E. B. White, an American essayist once wrote, I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival is we accommodated ourselves to the planet and viewed it gratefully instead of skeptically and dictatorially (Carson (1962) Forward). By allowing the leaders of this nation to be manipulated by groups controlling history, we failed not only Rachel Carson, but ourselves, our environment and our future.Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston, mummy Houghton Mifflin Co,1962. (Carson (1962))The Chemicals Around Us. Viewpoint, Chemical Weekly. July 14, 1962 5. (Chemical Weekly (1962))Darby, William J. Text from Jukes, Thomas, 1962. A Town in Harmony. Chemical Engineering News (Aug 18) 5.(Darby (1962))Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Chapter 7 Denial Rides Again. Merchants of Doubt How a handful of S cientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York Bloomsbury, 2010. (Oreskes (2010))