Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as it relates to Ecology

 A blog on an outside reading

    Rachel Carson was a groundbreaking scientific writer that marked a change in the relationship between humans and extra-humans. In her novel Silent Spring,  Carson’s haled and view of unprecedented connectivity between humans and extra-humans. The human and extra-human connectivity is a theme throughout the course.

    Carson expands and elaborates upon the traditional notion of the extra-human. The extra-human is not a simple concise series of objects, rather a complex system that we fail to fully comprehend. In her novel Carson relays to the general public her findings on the effects of humans on the extra-humans, “But what happens in nature is not allowed to happen in the modern, chemical-drenched world, where spraying destroys not only the insects but their principal enemy, the birds” (Chapter 8, pg. 113). The quote illustrates the complex relationship of the systems of life between insects, birds, and humans. According to Carson human misunderstanding led to the unintended death of birds, because we sought to destroy their food source. Carson’s message contrast starkly with the 18th and 19th century views of extra-humans holding that extra-humans were in existence to serve humans by resource or by symbol. 

    Carson’s writing leaves me to reflect on the modern intersection of technology and ecosystems. What will we look back on in 20,30,or 50 years with disdain for our misunderstanding and interruption of extra-humans? I believe the answer will most likely lie in industrialized agriculture. Modern crop systems solve ecological consequences as they arise, rather than working with the extra-human systems and feedback loops that occur naturally.

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