questions

d^-Dnlil,ll-!lduaoWW^

BEFoRE sHE roox up the problem ofchemical pesticides in Silent Spring, Rachel carson (r9o7-r964) was already a respected scientist and a bestselling author. After earnlng a rnaster's degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in r932, she spent her eady career as an aquatic biologist with the u.s. Bureau of Fisheries and its later incarnation as ihe Fish and Wildlife Service. ln r949, she rose to the posi- tlon of chief edttor of publications for the Flsh ana Witdiiie Service anO puUtist"eO th ree books about the ocea n: U ndcr the Sea-\Mind fg4t), The Sro iro, na U, 11951, 1nd

Tle Edee ofthe sea lg55). The second ofthese books won the Natronar Book

l:rj: i11 sold so many copies that Carson was able to giu. up h"r-1oJnno o"uot.ner tlme to writing.

With the publication ofher most famous work, Silent Spring,Carson tooK on rheunfamiliar role ofsocial activist. The ro n.m ef ta J i mpact or pesticides, fi:: Ti':iil"':n'rff I'riiT,Tjhili. trichloroethane, better known as DDT. Durirg and after Wo;ld Wur. ff, OOf f.,..t U""nused throughout the worid to control insects, remove disease threats, and increasefood production. Carson traced the poisonous effects of DDT and other pesttcrdes

illlrgh 1l;.*"3rrt"m, beginnrng with ptants and insects and ,"r,"f ,r,,,ry a f,rf,,b r r d s , w i l d l i f e , d o m e s t c a n i m a l s , a n d f l n a l l y t o p e o p l e , f o r w h o m , i r o o n

" r g r . a ,DDT was a carcinogen. W h e n t h e b o o k w a s p u b l i s h e d , t h e c h e m i c a i p e s t i c i d e i n d u s t r y l a u n c h e o a m a j o rc o u n t e r s t r i k e a i m e d a t d i s c r e d i t i n g C a r s o n . D e s p i t e t h e i r a t t a c k , t h e b o o r < o e c a m ea p n . . n o m e n a l b e s t s e J l e r a n d c a u s e d m i l l i o n s o f A m e r i c a n s t o r e e v a l u a t e t h e i r t a i t hin technology, scientiflc progress, and the role ol gou"r.n r.n,-; f,lJa".,,nr rn",r.i n t e r e s t s .

"^,4:":n

O'* ofbreast cancer in r964 before she could see the eflect that her workhad on the woid. rn tg7z, largely because of sirent spring, the Environmentar pro- teciion Agency banned the use of DD the Presidential Medal of Freedom. olr':t.n^1": !:":: ltt

posthumouslv awarded

ranked sitent Sp,ng as one"r,n" ;":: ;Jn:;n*,T:#;"J51[:H"ff:f century.

Carson's accomplish menl in Silen, ex po s i n g t h e d a n ge rs of pe,t i c i J l ; ;t:"' ;t;,:,::-n:S"'"*ff*i:, 5::; i :l:::connected natural world, where chan seen consequences for the enrire .9::^::-^:": llecies

havl far'reaching' unfore

her readers,n a .".n f r.,. " g" ji;;; r"",.#;1 ;ni"il;"]ijiirl".* .:::ij",T:

R a c h e l € a r s o n The abligatian to Endure

( 1 9 6 2 )

€A . fi\i c1,,,a"1 AL'-'*i''t Nu) Nnla'w+G,NV.;toto

4 1 9

6 . S c r E N c E A N D N A T U R E

42.,

publication ol Silent Spring to rnark the beglnning of the r'odern envrTonmenta

movement. C a r s o n ' s c l a l m a b o u t t h e d a n g e r s o f c h e m i c a L s

l s p r i m a r i l y s u p p o r t e d b y f a c t s a n o

statistlcs. She tlnkt togtiht' a slries of historical and sclenilfic facts to focus read'

ers attention on the negatlve consequences ol uslng cnernlcals that rnost people

saw only in terrns oftheir positive effect '":'

T"u "rrro*"

oF LrFE on earth has been a history of intencrion between living

,i"rr-""a,ft"" surroundings To a large extent' the ohu::"].{-T and the

habits

.i,fr" ""rafr', ""*","tion

and its anirnal life have been molded by the environment'

;;;;t th"--hnl" tput.' of "arthly time' the.opposite effect' tn which life

actu-

il^;Jifi; it, ,.,r,ou"Jit-'gt, has been relatively slight only lvithin.the

moment

of time represented by the ptesent century has one species-man-acquired signil-

i.urrt po*". to alter the nature of his world'

During the past quarter century this power has not only increased to orre of clis-

-+"i.,g Jus"it"d" bul 1lTTf::ili:1fi::: lt":,::iliT::: ":;rttrl;assaults upon the er-rvironment ls tne

i""t"r.ti *a even lethal materials This poilution is for the most part itrecover-

able; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support iife but in

ir*, ,or"", is for the most part irreversible ln this now universal contamination

of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners ot radr-

ation in changing the very nature of the world-the very nature of its life Stron-

ar'"- ;, ,"f""r.irhrough nuclear explosions into the air' comes to earth in rain or

drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass oI corn oI wheat glorl'n

ii.r", ""4t"

,t"," *t". ttp it' nbod" in the bones of a human being' there fo remcin

r",ti'f-rt, a*,fr. Similatly, chemicaLs sprayed on croplands or forests,or eardens lic

hrng in soil, entering into tivrng organisms' passing from one to anothef in a chain

.io-.ir."t"u ""a

a""th Or they pas mysteriously by underground streams until ther

"..'".r" ^"a, through the alchemy of air and sunlight'

combine into new forms thal

kili vegetation, sicken catile, and work unknown harm on those who drink from

;;:" ;"";" ,u"ttr. ,q, atr'"tt Schweitzerr has said' "Man can hardlv even recosni:(

the devils of his orn'n creation """li,."t ftt"a*d. of millions of years to produce the

life that now inhabits the

""r,il.o,r, o{ time in which thar developing and evolving

and- diversifying lite

."^.t,"a-""""ofadjustmentandbalancewithitssurroundings,Theenvironment.'*"".-" fu ,f-r"o,"t

"nd tlirecting the life it supported' contained elements

that were

r. Albert Schweitzerr Cerman-Alsatian theo- Prize in 1952 for his lifelong devotLon

to prLr'

i ' ' ; : 1 ; i ; ; ; ; , ' , ' " ' c h o r a '

' n d p h * ' v d i n g ' n e d c a r ' e n c e '

i n A r r .

. , ; , , r l b ? 5 I o o s ) , w h c w " n r r ' e \ o b e l P e a ' e

R A C H E L C A R s o N T H E O | L l a a r r o N r o E I v D u F E

_ . f i l e i r s w e l l a s s u p p o r t i n g . C c r t a i n r o c k s g a v e o u t d a n g e r o u s r a d i a t i o n ; e v e n $ , i t h i n

::c light of thc sun, fron which all life dr:lrvs irs energy, fhcrc rvcrc short-rvavc racli-

. :,,ns widr powcr to injure. Givclr time time not in ycars but in n-rillennia-life

--liusts, and a balance has been reachecl. For timc is the essenlial ingredient; but in

:l-,e moclern wolld rhere is no time.

The rapidiry o{ change and the specd rvith rvhich r-rerv situations arc creared fol-

l the impetuous ar-rd heedless pace of rnan rathcr than the deliberare pircc ofnatrue.

i.rJiiltion is no longer merely thc backgrouncl radi:rtion of rocks, the bomb:rrdment

: crrsnic rl.rys, the ultraviolet of the sun rhat have existecl before therc was any life

r eirfh; radratiolr is norv the unnatural creatior-r of man's tampering witl-r ti-rc atom.

hc cherricnls to rvhich life is asked to make its 2ld1ustment are no longer mercly the

--rlciurn and silica and copper ancl all the rest of the mincrals wasl-red out of the rocks

:nJ carriecl in rivers to tl-re sea; they are the synthetic crcrltions of niln's in\entLlr

:rrn.l, brervcd in l-ris lirborarories, and having no counteryarts in nature.

To :rdjust to tl-rese cl-remicals woulcl reqoirc titne on the scille thirt is nature's; it 5

,..,u1.1 recluire not merely the ye:rrs of a man's life but tl-re life of generations. And

:\ en this, wefe it by sone rnirircle possiblc, would be ftrtile, for lhe neu' chenicals

:ome from ou. labontories in an endlcss stream; almost {ive hunclred annually find

:hcir way into actual usc in thc Unitcti States alone. The figure is staggering and its

rmplications are nof easily graspecl-500 nel, chernicals to which the boclies of mcn

.l1J animals are requireLl somchorv to:rclapt eilch year, chemicals tot:rlly oursiclc the

i m i t s o f h i o l o g i c e x p c r i c n c e .

Among thcm arc many that are used ir-r nran's war against nature. Since the micl-

1940's over'200 b:rsic cl-remicals have been crcatecl fi)r use ir-r killing insects, weetls,

ir.lcnts, ar-rd otl-rer org:rnisms tlescribed in the nodcrn vernacular as "pests"; and they

.rre sold under sevenl thousand cliffcrcnt br:rncl n:rmes.

T h e s e s p r a y s , d u s t s , a n . i a e r o s o l s a r e n o r v a p p l i e d a l m o s t u n i v e r s a l l y t o f a r m s ,

v a r . 1 e n s , f o r e s t s , i t n d h o r e s n o n s c l c c t i v c c h c m i c a l s t h a t h a v e t h e f o w c r t o k i l l

e v e r y i n s e c t , t h e " g o o d " a n d t h e " b : r d , " t o s t i l l t h e s o n g o f b i r d s a n d t h e l c a p i n g

o i f l s h i n t h c s r r c a m s ! t o c o a t t h c l e n v e s w i t h a d e a c l l y f i l m , a n d t o l i n g . r o n r n

. o i l a l L t h i s r h o u g h t h e i n t e n d e d t a r g e t m a y b e o n l y a f e w w e e c l s o r i n s e c t s . C a n

a n y c , n c b e l i e v c i t i s p o s s i b l e t o l a y t l o w n s r r c h a b a r r a g c o f p o i s o n s o n t h e s u r f a c c

o i t h e e a r t h w i t h o u t m a k i n g i t u n f i r f o r a l l l i f c l T h c y s h o u l d n o t b e c a l l e d " i n s e c -

r i c i d e s , " b u t " b i o c i d e s . "

The rvhole process of spraying sccms caLrght up in iln endless spiral. Since l)I)T

r v a s r e l e a s e c i f i r r c i v i l i a n u s e , : r p r o c e s s o f e s c a l a t i o n h a s b e e n g o i n g o n i n w h i c h e v e r

m o r e t o x i c m a t e r i a l s m u s t b c f o u r t l . T h i s h a s h a p p e n e d b c c a u s c i n s e c t s , i n . r r r i -

urnphant vinclicarion of Darwin's principle o{ rhe survivaI of thc fittest, have evolvccl

supcr raccs immunc to d-re particular insecricitle used, hcncc :r de:rdlier one lus ahvays

to be .le ve l<4red-ancl ther-r a deacllier one than thar. It has happer-red also becausc,

{or rcasons to be dcscribed later, destnrctive insects often undergo a "flareback," or

4 t t

6 . S c l E N c E A N D N A T U R E

4 2 2

resurgence, after spraying, in numbers greater than before. Thus the chenical war is

neveL wo11, and all life is caught in its violent crossfire.

Along with rhe possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the

central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man's total

environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm-substances

that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ

cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the

future depends.

Some would-be architects of our future look toward a tin-re when it will be pos'

sible to alter the human germ plasm by design But we may easily be doing so lrow

bv inadvertence, for manv chemicals, like radiation, bring about gene mutations. lt

is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seem-

ingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray.

All this has been risked-for whatl Future historians may well be amazed by our

distorted selme of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few

unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environnent and

brought the threat o{ disease and death even to their own kindl Yet this is precisely

what we have done, We have done it, moreover, for reasons tl-rat collapse the moment

we examine them. We are told that the enormous and expandtng use of pesticides

is necessarJ to maintain farm production. Yet is our real problem not one of oc.'er-

p'roductionl Our farms, despite measures to relnove acreages fron production and to

pay falmers not to produce, have yielded such a staggering excess of crops that the

American taxpayer ir-r 1962 is paying out more than one billion dollars a year as the

total carrying cost of the surplus-food storage program. And is the situation helped

when one branch of the Agriculture Department tries to reduce production while

nnother states, as it did in 1958, "lt is believed generally that reduction of crop

acreages under provisions of the Soil Bank will stimulate interest in use of cherni-

cals to obtain maximum production on the land retained in crops."

All this is not to say there is no insect problem and no need of control. I am

saying, rather, that control must be geared to tealities, not to mythical situations,

and that the methods empLoyed must be such that they do not destroy us along with

the insects.

The problem whose attempted solution has brought such a train of disaster in

its wake is an accompaniment of our modern way of life. Long before the age ol

man, insects inhabited the earth-a group of extraordinarily varied and adaptable

beings. Over the course o{ time since man's advent, a smalL percentage of the rnore

than half a million species of insects have come into conflict with human welfare

in two principal ways: as competitors for the food supply and as carriers of human

d i s e a s e .

Disease-carrying insects become important where human beings are crowdeJ

together, especially under conditions where sanitation is poor, as in time of natural

disaster or war or in situations of extreme poverty and deprivation Then control oi

R A c H E L C A R s o N T H E O B L t c a f t o N f o E N D u R E

some sort becomes necess2try. It is a sobering fact, ho\vcver, as we shall presently see, that the method of massive chenicai control has l-rad only limitcd success, ancl also threatens to worsen the very conditions it is intended to curb.

Uncler primitive agricultural condirior-rs the farrner had few insect pnrblems. These ! 5 arose with the intensification of agriculture-the devotion of immense acre:lgcs to a single crop. Such a sysrem set the stage for explosive increases in specific insect populations. Single-crop farrniog does not t:rkc ndvantage of rhe principles by which nature works; it is agriculture as an engineer might conceive it to be. Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but m:rn has displayed a p:rssion {or sim- plifying it. Thus he undocs the built-in checks ancl balances by which nature l.rolds the species within bounds. Or-re imporrant natural check is a limit on the arnount of suitable habitat for each species. Obviously then, an insect rhar livcs on wheat can build up its population to much higher levels on a f:rrm devoterl to whcat than on one in which whcat is inrermingled with other crops to which tl-re insect is not adapted.

The same tl-ring happens in other situations. A generation or more agoj rhe rowns of large areas of tl-re United States linccl rhcir srreets with rhe noble eln tree. Now the beauty they hopeftrlly created is threatened rvith complere destruction as disease sweeps through the elms, carried by a beetle that would havc only limited chancc to buiid up large populations :rnd to spread from tree to tree i{ tl-re elms wcre only occasional trecs in a richly diversified planting.

Another factor in the modern insect problem is or-re that must be viewecl against a background of geoLogic and human history: the spreading of thousands of clifferent kinds of organisms from their niltive l1omcs to invade new lenitories. This world- rvide migration l.ras been studied and graphically described by the British ecologist Charles Ekon in his recent book Tfu Ecolop o/ lmrasions. During the Cretaceous Period, some hundred million years ago, flooding seas cur m:rny l:rncl bridges bctween

continents and living thir-rgs found themselves cor-rfinecl in what Elton calls "coios- sa1 separ:rte nature reserves." Therc, isolated from others o{ their kind, tl-rey dcvel-

lrped many ncw species. lVhen some of the land m:Nses were joined :rgain, :rbout 15 million years ago, these species began to movc out into new territories a move- neDt fhat is not only still in progress but is now receiving consicierable assistance from man.

The inportation of plants is the primary ilgenr in rhe nodern spread of species, lor anirnals have almost ir-rvariably gone along with the plants, quar2urine being ii comparatively reccnt and not completely effecrive innovation. Tl-re Ulrited States Office of Plant lntroduction alone has introduced almost 200,000 species and vari- etics of plants from l.rll over the world. Nearly half of the 180 or so major insect enc- mies of plants in the United States are accidental imports from abroad, and most of them have corne as hitchhikers on plants.

L-r new territory, out of reach of the restraining hand of the n:rtural enemies that

1 2 3

kept down its numbers in irs n:lrive land, an invadir-rg plant or anim:rl is ablc to

6 . S c r E N c E a N D N a r u R E

1 2 1

become enormously abundant. Thus it is no accident that our most troublesome

insects ale introduced species.

These itrvasions, both the naturally occurring and those dependent on human

assistance, are likely to continue indefinitely. Quarantine and massive chemical

can-rpaigns are only exffemely expensive ways of buying time. We are faced, accord-

ing to Dr. Elton, "with a life-and-death need not just to find new technological

means of suppressing this plant or that animal"; instead we need the basic knowl-

edge of animal populations and their relations to their suroundings that will "plo-

rlote an even balance and damp down the explosive power of outbreaks and new

i n v a s i o n s . "

Much of the necessary knowledge is now available but we do not use it. We train

ecologists il1 our universities and even employ them in our governlnental agencrrs

but we seldom take their advice. !7e allow the chemical death rain to fall as though

there were no alternative, whereas in fact there are n1any, and our ingenuity couid

soon discover many more if givcr-r opportunity.

H a v e w e f a l l e n i n t o a m e s m e r i z e d s t a t e t h a t m a k e s u s a c c e p t a s i n e v i t a b l e t h a t

w h i c h i s i n f e r i o r o r d e t r i n e n t a l , a s t h o u g h h a v i n g l o s t t h e w i l l o r t h e v r s i o n L o

demand that which is goodl Such thinking, ir.r the words of the ecologist Paul

S h e p a r d , " i d e a l i z e s l i f e w i t h o n l y i t s h e a d o u t o f w a t e r , i n c h e s a b o v e t h e l i m i t s

of toleration o{ the corrupcion of its own environment . . . Why should we tol-

e r a t e a d i e t o f w e a k p o i s o n s , a h o m e i n i n s i p i d s u r r o u n d i n g s , a c i r c l e o f a c q u a i n -

t a n c e s w h o a r e n o t q u i t e o u r e n e m i e s , t h e n o i s e o f m o t o r s w i t h j u s t e n o u g h r e l i e f

t o p r e v e n t i n s a n i t y ? W h o w o u l d w a n t t o l i v e i n a w o r l d w h i c h i s j u s t n o t q u i t e

f a t a l l "

Yet such a world is pressed upon us. The crusade to create a chernically sterile,

insect-free world seems to have engendered a fanatic zeal on the part of nany spe-

cialists and most of the so-called contlol agencies. On every hand there rs evr-

dence that those engaged in spraying operations exercise a ruthless power. "The

regulatory entomologists . . . function as prosecutor, judge and jury, tax assessor

and collector and sheriff to enforce cheir own orders," said Connecticut er-rtomol-

ogist Neely Tumer. The most flagrant abuses go unchecked in both state ar-rd fed-

eral agelrcies.

I t i s n o t m y c o n t e n t i o n t h a t c h e m i c a l i n s e c t i c i c { e s m u s t n e v e r b e u s e d . I d o

c o n t e n d t h a t w e h a v e p u t p o i s o n o u s a n d b i o l o g i c a l l y p o t e n t c h e m i c a l s i n d i s -

criminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their poten-

tials for harm. \7e have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with

these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. lf the

Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely

only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight,

c o u l d c o n c e i v e o f n o s u c h p r o b l e m .

R A C H E L C A R s o N . T H E O a u c a r t o N r o E N D U R E

I contend, furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with lit- :le or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man him- .elf. Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the :ntegrity of the natural world that supports all life.

There is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of .pecialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of rhe larger frame into which it fits. lt is also an era dominated by industry, in which rhe right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged, Vv/hen the public

frotests, confronted with sorne obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth. !7e urgently need an end ro these false assurancesr to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. lt is the public rhat is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The pub- lic must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so only when in full possession of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand,2 "The obli- gation to endure gives us the right to know."

U N D E R 5 T A N D I N c T H E T E X T

t . W h a t " p o w e r " h a v e h u m a n b e l n g s r e c e n t l y a c q u i r e d t h a t , a c c o r d i n g t o Rachel Carson, makes the current time period unique in the history of fe o n E a r t h ?

2 . W h a t d o e s C a r s o n m e a n b y " i n t h e m o d e r n w o r l d t h e r e i s n o t i m e " l

3 . W h a t h a p p e n s w h e n i n s e c t s a d a p t t o p e s t i c l d e s i n t h e i r e n v i r o n m e n t l C o u d any pesticide, theoretica ly, not result ln an increased tolerance for th2r np<ti- c i d e a m o n g i n s e c t s l W h y o r w h y n o t l

4. What arguments in lavor of pesticide use does Carson anticipatel How does s h e b u i d r e s p o n s e s t o t h e s e a r g u r n e n t s i n t o h e r t r e a t m e n t o f t h e s s u e s l

5. What role does single crop farming p ay in the rise of lnsect populations) Why is it dangerous, in Carson's view, to limit diversity in specific natural a r e a s l

6. Which ofthe dangers and rnysteries ofpesticlde use does Carson object to mostl

M a K T N G C o N N E c r r o N s

r . H o w d o l a r g e l n c r e a s e s i n h u m a n p o p u l a t l o n s c r e a t e c o n d i t i o n s i n w h i c h insects and other forrns of life must be controlled? low does lVlalthus antic- i p a t e t h e s e k i n d s o f p r o b l e m s i n h l s " E s s a y o n t h e P r i n c i p l e o f P o p u l a t i o n "

k. tz+)l

z. Jean Rostaad: French bioLosist and playwrlght (1894 199?).

4 2 5

6 . S c r E N c E a N D N A T U R E

4 2 6

2. Exactly how does Darwin's principle ofnatural selection (p 4ot explain

lnsects' adaPtatlon to Pesticldes?

3. How have Carson's vlews of nature influenced later environmental wrlters

such as David Suzuki (p 427) and Al Core (p 454)?

W R r r r N G A B o u r r H E T E x r

t. Conducting extra researcn as necessary' describe an environr'en-tal threat to

the ecosysiem in the area in which you live How are the lives of lnsects'

birds, fish, animals' and plants connected to each other' and how are they

threatened I

z. Analyzecarson's use ofevidence in this selectlon What claims does she

make, and how effectively does she support each onel

3. The international accord on pestlcides reached in Stockholm' Sweden' tn

2oo4 contains thls "malarla exceptlon" in its restriction of DDT:

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PolLutants (POPs) rec-

o g n i z e s t h a t i n s o m e c o u n t r l e s ' e s p e c i a l l y t h o s e i n s u b S a h a r a n A f r i c a '

D D T r e m a l n s a n m p o r t a r r t t o o l i n t h e w a r a g a i n s t m a l a r i a C o u n t r l e s

that ratlry the Convention may continue using DDT for controlling mos

q u i t o e s i h a t s p r e a d m a l a r i a T h u s , t h e C o n v e n t l o n w i l l n o t i n c r e a s e t h e

llkeLihood that people wjll be lnfected wlth malarla

Many environmental groups opposed this ex,ceptlon' but supporters argued

that DDT had already prevented hundreds of millions of people from dying

o f m a l a r i a a n d t h a t ' l f i t s u s e w e r e e n t i r e l y e l i r n i n a t e d ' t h e h u r n a n ' o s t s l n some ofthe wodd's poorest countries would be severe Write

an essay sup

p o r t i n g o r o p p o s i n g t h i s e x c e p t i o n ' b a s e d o n t h e c a s e a g a i n s t D D T t h a t C a r -

s o n o u t l l n e s l n " T h e O b l i g a t i o n t o E n d u r e "