Okay, I thought I wouldn't like this book, but I actually found it very interesting. I do have a few questions though: I know that DDT isn't used anymore - largely due to this book - but what about all of the other chemicals Rachel Carson discussed? Are any of them still used today? How can we find out? How do we know if the chemicals (like spider spray) we use in our houses are unsafe --- or are all chemicals unsafe?
Has anyone seen any positive results from Carson’s book? I know that you can still buy mosqueto repellant with DDT in it, even though we stopped talking about it publically, but have we stopped using the ‘dinitro’ compounds?
I think its DEET in mosquito repellent. But it is still a known carcinogen. A while back people were warning against it, but then the immediate effects of the West Nile Virus were apparently worse than testicular cancer years down the road, so people have been advocating DEET. I would like to know what chemicals are still prevalent and what we expose ourselves too also. I don't think I ever want to bug bomb my house, that's for sure.
Yeah... so my mom bug bombed our house a few different times when we were little. I'm probably full of DEET. Exciting...
Changing the topic... it's fascinating to me how much of a controversy 'Silent Spring' was, and still is, to some extent. Did anyone happen to notice the reference to our own Ezra (Taft) Benson (Secretary of Agriculture) on page 165? After a bit of googling, I found this quote in a few different places:
"Ezra Taft Benson, a Mormon elder who served as President Eisenhower's secretary of agriculture, turned viciously ad hominem when he wondered 'why a spinster with no children was so concerned about genetics?' He added his voice to those who saw Carson as an agent of subversion by concluding that she was 'probably a Communist.'"
So it appears that even President Benson wasn't too keen on her... this is not a slam on Pres. Benson, (we were all only in middle school when he died so I don't really remember him at all, nor do I know much about his political beliefs...) but do you think he would feel the same way today?
The Church doesn't have an official statement on environmentalism, but when I worked in Public Affairs for the Church in Salt Lake I was in more than one conversation focused on constructing one. I think in the future there will be one. If so, would it just be because of the times? Is the environmental movement, like Blair said, just a popular trend right now?
I think it is definitely THE thing to be 'green'... and while there's a lot of hype about it, I think it's having positive reinforcements as well. So what if it's 'cool' to be green if it actually gets people to pay a little more attention and recycle, etc... Let's just hope that it's not just a trend, but something that will actually stick and encourage people to become genuinely concerned about what's happening around them...
7 comments:
Okay, I thought I wouldn't like this book, but I actually found it very interesting. I do have a few questions though: I know that DDT isn't used anymore - largely due to this book - but what about all of the other chemicals Rachel Carson discussed? Are any of them still used today? How can we find out? How do we know if the chemicals (like spider spray) we use in our houses are unsafe --- or are all chemicals unsafe?
That is the exact question Adam and I have been asking ourselves since we started the book...
Has anyone seen any positive results from Carson’s book? I know that you can still buy mosqueto repellant with DDT in it, even though we stopped talking about it publically, but have we stopped using the ‘dinitro’ compounds?
I think its DEET in mosquito repellent. But it is still a known carcinogen. A while back people were warning against it, but then the immediate effects of the West Nile Virus were apparently worse than testicular cancer years down the road, so people have been advocating DEET. I would like to know what chemicals are still prevalent and what we expose ourselves too also. I don't think I ever want to bug bomb my house, that's for sure.
Yeah... so my mom bug bombed our house a few different times when we were little. I'm probably full of DEET. Exciting...
Changing the topic... it's fascinating to me how much of a controversy 'Silent Spring' was, and still is, to some extent. Did anyone happen to notice the reference to our own Ezra (Taft) Benson (Secretary of Agriculture) on page 165? After a bit of googling, I found this quote in a few different places:
"Ezra Taft Benson, a Mormon elder who served as President Eisenhower's secretary of agriculture, turned viciously ad hominem when he wondered 'why a spinster with no children was so concerned about genetics?' He added his voice to those who saw Carson as an agent of subversion by concluding that she was 'probably a Communist.'"
So it appears that even President Benson wasn't too keen on her... this is not a slam on Pres. Benson, (we were all only in middle school when he died so I don't really remember him at all, nor do I know much about his political beliefs...) but do you think he would feel the same way today?
The Church doesn't have an official statement on environmentalism, but when I worked in Public Affairs for the Church in Salt Lake I was in more than one conversation focused on constructing one. I think in the future there will be one. If so, would it just be because of the times? Is the environmental movement, like Blair said, just a popular trend right now?
I think it is definitely THE thing to be 'green'... and while there's a lot of hype about it, I think it's having positive reinforcements as well. So what if it's 'cool' to be green if it actually gets people to pay a little more attention and recycle, etc... Let's just hope that it's not just a trend, but something that will actually stick and encourage people to become genuinely concerned about what's happening around them...
Here's an interesting article if anyone is interested: http://blog.oup.com/2007/03/rachel_carson_s/
I read an interesting article about the "whiteness of green"...sorry, couldn't get a link so you will have to copy and paste..
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004259901_pacificpgreen09.html
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