51 years of Silent Spring

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was my other time warp book. Some of the things that you read about sound impossible, and then you remember that this was published in 1962, before the Environmental Protection Industry or Woodsy Owl or that whole green mindset.

The title refers to the death of songbirds from pesticides. Well, it was more than songbirds. Flowers and fish and small wildlife died. House pets died, especially cats because they would walk in the pesticide residue and lick their paws. Occasionally farm workers and children died. Insects died, but not as effectively as you would hope.

Carson had concerns about pesticides for some time, but events in 1957 and 1958 really set things in motion. It still took a few years for the book.

The book is elegantly written, and thoroughly researched. I believe it had a big impact at the time, and there are some things that are definitely different and improved now. That being said, the most amazing thing was how timely it still is.

One point that Carson emphasized, beyond the dangers of the various poisons, was also that the insects would build immunity. This is what led to the end of the use of DDT in many areas, not a ban. However, there are still people calling to bring DDT back. There are still people calling her primitive, and a hysterical female, and accusing her of causing suffering. Yes, the attacks happened in the 60's, but also in 2007, 2009, and 2012.

(The Wikipedia article is a good starting place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_spring)

It does not take a lot of research to refute Carson's detractors. It was interesting to find that one of them is Monsanto. They've been around for quite a while, and they are as they have been.

So that's interesting, and it would be interesting in light of the recently discovered genetically modified wheat that was found it a field where it should not have been, but that's not even a pesticide issue.

Silent Spring is timely in light of 25000 dead honeybees in a Target parking lot in Oregon after tree spraying, followed by 37 million dead honeybees in Ontario, shortly after corn spraying.

http://now.msn.com/millions-of-honeybees-found-dead-in-canada

This is not just about honey; there is a lot of nature and agriculture that depends on bees for pollination. The bee population has taken some pretty heavy hits lately. There are multiple theories for colony collapse disorder, but one of them is neonicotinoid pesticides.

But wait, there's more, because we have children dead and ill from pesticide contamination in their school lunches in India. I doubt anyone was being malicious, but I would not be surprised if at the root there was an issue of someone cutting corners, or trying to get a better crop in dangerous ways.

Yes, the dangers of pesticides are timely, but also the danger of greed just never goes away. In many of the cases in the book, there were more effective methods but the government went with the chemicals due to the influence of the chemical companies, and it is all about money.

Here's the fun part: there were people from this, especially farmers, who learned to mistrust the government. There would be other times in the future when the government would have the right idea, and if people stuck with blind distrust, that could lead to other problems.

There is a need for integrity, and firm regulations and policies in place to guard against the influence of money, but also there is a need for educated people. There is the need for basic knowledge, and the ability to think, and the willingness to study issues so that citizens are neither blindly complying nor resisting.

It takes effort. Sometimes I am just tired, and I don't want to take in any more information, or read another article, or try and get anyone to listen, but it's important.

And, I know I am a broken record here, but I can't help but wonder if our blithe acceptance of so many chemicals in food and clothing and everything has something to do with the prevalence of depression and bipolar disorder and allergies and sensitivities, let alone cancers. Lead in the environment has correlated strongly with criminal activity, but it took a while to figure that out. What else do we not know?