Maggie Spencer-Pick - outside reading reflection 11/29

 I recently re-read part of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and was again amazed by the profoundness of her writing. The actions that we take have consequences. We learn this as a child, right? Why is it that money and power become convoluted to support actions that are damaging? Why is it that humans are so quick to alter the environment in service of ourselves without further considering literally every other living thing on the planet?

I also think that Carson's understanding and explanation of the difference of time scales and concentrations in nature is interesting and provides a good crossover for environmental ethics. Pesticides aren't chemicals that go away quickly. They stay in the environment for a very long time. While they are technically naturally occurring chemicals and compounds, putting them into so many different ecological systems at such high concentrations is highly damaging. And they stay damaging for a long time. The use of pesticides is the reason that the bald eagle, a symbol of America, was placed on the endangered species list, because the large buildup of these chemicals ultimately weakened bird egg shells and no new birds were being born. These chemicals that were used to fight polio and increase crop yields ultimately impacted so much life outside of its intended insect targets. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lucas Spelsberg (011/27): Climate Fiction

A new genre of literature has been emerging over the past decade known as Climate Fiction. Along with the formation of this genre, a debate on whether or not Cli-Fi is an appropriate way to inspire action among young adults has followed. One argument is that traditional ways of teaching students about climate change weren't very effective but with creative writing as a new pathway to science, it would become more accessible to students who are not typically interested. Other arguments claim that climate deniers will see fictional stories as proof that climate change is a farce , only being exaggerated for effect. I believe that teaching Climate Fiction in low-level schools may give young students an inaccurate or apocalyptic vision of their future and therefore make them feel hopeless as opposed to hopeful and encouraged to make changes. I believe that if we had started earlier to learn to love the land which provides us with so much this would not be an issue today. Much like th...
Read more

Lucas Spelsberg (10/19): Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey offers a unique perspective on the topic of development within our parks and monuments seeing as he was working in the west at the time of this increased "progress" and was able to cite many changes he had seen firsthand at the time of this writing. One of the main themes throughout many of his texts is a disdain for the presence of motorized vehicles within natural landscapes. More than most I have read regarding the increasing amount of pavement and windshield tourism at the time, Abbey was able to write about how the Park Service dealt with the monetary and political side of development. This insight seemed to lead him to believe that it should be the Park Service's job to pry the tourists out of their automobiles, out of their back-breaking upholstered mechanized wheelchairs, and onto their feet, onto the strange warmth and solidarity of Mother Earth even specifically stating in Industrial Tourism and National Parks that "This is the problem that th...
Read more

Lucas Spelsberg (11/04): Kimmerer’s People of Corn People of Light

In the section of Braiding Sweetgrass : People of Corn, People of Light , Kimmerer describes a creation myth originating from the Mayan people. In this myth, it is said that the gods attempted to use resources from the natural world to create humans. Not until the gods were able to create people from corn who were "wise enough to be grateful" did they end their attempts to create a perfect lifeform. Ultimately, they settled on the humans that were able to show appreciation and gratitude for the natural world. Most of the Native American creation myths that Kimmerer writes about have to do with expressing gratitude for the natural world and showing appreciation for the elements which created us. These creation myths highlight the necessity to be grateful for nature because it is the foundation of our lives. Thus creating a culture with the belief that the natural world is something that should be valued highly and not be taken for granted. This seems to be emphasized in Indige...
Read more