Free Study Guide for Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - Book Summary

BOOK SUMMARY NOTES / ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 16 - The Rumblings of an Avalanche

Summary

Darwin would be impressed today by the fact that insect populations so clearly bear out his theories of the survival of the fittest. Insects have worked under the stress of repeated chemical sprayings to weed out the weaker members of species and reinforce the strongest. People have been worried since the start of the century that insects will become resistant to sprays. The answer is obvious today; there’s no doubt that they do. Before DDT was introduced, chemical control experts had begun to recognize the habit of insects to come back after spraying. With the introduction of DDT, the "true Age of Resistance" began. People hadn’t become alarmed by this fact by the mid-century. Only those who worked with disease-carrying insects realized the severe danger of resistant insects.

Resistance began almost at the same time the chemical spraying campaigns began. Reports come out in scientific journals about a new chemical spray and in only a few months, an addendum has to be added describing the targeted insect’s resistance to it. People in the field of public health are most concerned with this problem. The relation between some insects and diseases in people is ancient. Diseases and their carriers include typhus and body lice, plague and rat fleas, African sleeping sickness and tsetse flies, fevers and ticks, not to mention mosquitoes and yellow fever, malaria, and encephalitis. No one questions that.........

Notes

Carson ends this chapter on the same note of ethical appeal with which she ended that previous chapter. She quotes a scientists, who writes, "We need a more high-minded orientation ad a deeper insight, which I miss in many researchers." Life s a miracle beyond our comprehension, and we should reverence ........

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Silent Spring Study Guide - Free BookNotes Summary

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