In today’s world, environmentalism is still controversial, although it’s becoming more popular (witness the growth of the Green Party in Europe’s recent elections). Environmentalism and economics are often counterposed against each other as if one loses when the other wins.
In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote this book that brought environmental concerns to the fore. She contended that taking care of the plants and animals around us is a worthwhile project. For the most part, smart environmental planning helps financials as the beauty of the natural world tends to sell itself through overall health.
Reading this book fifty-some-odd years later, I still find her first chapter quite moving. She imagines a world in which nature is disrupted and in which there is no natural equilibrium anymore. Human wastes have won the day. Although this future was not realized in the 1960s as much as it’s not real today, the rapid pace of environmental change (quick and massive) threatened to make it real. Broad-spectrum insecticides and herbicides were in vogue, and they threatened all of the biosphere with ill effects like cancer in humans, high toxin counts in species’ livers, and contaminated sources of water.
Much of her evidence, of course, is dated from the year 1962 or before. One can pass over much of this book’s middle chapters with rapidity because the history of science passes quickly. Nonetheless, the beginnings and endings are relevant today through Carson’s vibrant voice. Those inclined towards a greener planet should pay attention as well as those interested, for or against, in the so-called Green New Deal. Indeed, Carson’s brains can inspire us to lead ourselves out of conflict into a smarter future.
Silent Spring
40th Anniversary Edition
by Rachel Carson
Copyright (c) 1962
ISBN13 9780618249060
Page Count: 378
Genre: Non-Fiction, Environmentalism, Biology
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