tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post8640906033756934978..comments2023-08-20T02:55:42.721-05:00Comments on Welcome to the Rachel Carson Centennial Blog: Comments by Tom DunlapNCTC Librarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16160333822375645632noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-74285441279835579352007-04-20T16:48:00.000-05:002007-04-20T16:48:00.000-05:00I just found this blog and I can't tell you how mu...I just found this blog and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying reading this discussion. Some very thought-provoking ideas being raised and interesting parallels being considered. In trying to decide how to weigh in on this I’m smiling at the thought of Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, and Che Guevara as a trio of comparison. And I like considering the parallels of that because passion is a Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-1286725829019997892007-04-17T18:46:00.000-05:002007-04-17T18:46:00.000-05:00It's especially nice to read Sandra Steingraber's ...It's especially nice to read Sandra Steingraber's comments after just finishing her beautiful essay on Carson in <B>Courage for the Earth</B>. I agree with her position that Carson was prescient, yet the speculations in Silent Spring, I think, also left her vulnerable to some of her critics. For example, she tells a story about a physician-gardener who uses DDT and malathion, then develops Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-44135175854160452092007-04-16T11:15:00.000-05:002007-04-16T11:15:00.000-05:00What's amazing to me is how prescient Carson was a...What's amazing to me is how prescient Carson was about the unintended consequences of low-dose exposures. Analytical chemistry in the 1950s and 60s did not even allow researchers to study effects in the exposure range of parts per billion or parts per trillion. Now we know that many of the chemicals that Carson wrote about in Silent Spring actually exhibit non-monotonic dose-response curves, Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-28285652395205414812007-04-15T14:59:00.000-05:002007-04-15T14:59:00.000-05:00Julie's question is a good one and the anaogy with...Julie's question is a good one and the anaogy with the abolition movement has possbilities. Let's break this down. I would argue that Silent Spring stirred action on persistent pesticides (Carson's main immediate target) and made the public aware of her larger target, the idea that we could do whatever we wanted to with nature. Perhaps Carson did as much as anyone could in getting things going Tom Dunlaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11662272171713716177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-76097492789778316492007-04-13T16:55:00.000-05:002007-04-13T16:55:00.000-05:00Lisa's comments about U.S. vs. European responses ...Lisa's comments about U.S. vs. European responses to biotechnology makes me think again of Carson's distress over our individual and collective irrationality. In the 19th century, Frederick Law Olmsted wrote about a similar disconnect in reports recently collected in a fascinating book, <B>The Cotton Kingdom</B>. A journalist before he was a park designer, Olmsted was commissioned by the New Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-75135432655512008882007-04-12T05:48:00.000-05:002007-04-12T05:48:00.000-05:00I find it interesting that Europeans seem to be mo...I find it interesting that Europeans seem to be more concerned about genetically-modified foods and cloning than Americans seem to be. There has been much more skepticism in Europe over the impact of these new technologies, especially since so little is known about their long-term effects.<BR/><BR/>As Carson pointed out, there are some scientific discoveries that take a long time to show their Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06632461032592288605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-53881872240147088582007-04-11T21:29:00.000-05:002007-04-11T21:29:00.000-05:00Some things aren't as dated as I wish they were. ...Some things aren't as dated as I wish they were. Carson describes a typical lawn chemical ad, with children & dog tumbling over the ultra-green grass. That ad's on tv this spring!<BR/><BR/>I'm struck by Carson's deft balancing of hard science and emotion in her rhetoric. Especially effective and unusual in scientific arguments I think are her stories of individuals' illnesses and deaths, both Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-88961131494670894932007-04-11T13:13:00.000-05:002007-04-11T13:13:00.000-05:00A.R, Your comment about finding the details dated ...A.R, Your comment about finding the details dated but Carson's stand applying to situations today is just the reason people keep coming back to Silent Spring. Carson criticized not just a particular chemicals or set of chemicals, or even the way they were used, but the attitudes that led people to use them in what turned out to be very dangerous ways. She spoke for a way of living with nature, Tom Dunlaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11662272171713716177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-56603654971031496712007-04-09T17:07:00.000-05:002007-04-09T17:07:00.000-05:00That is so interesting to go back and read about w...That is so interesting to go back and read about what people thought the "future" would be like. Maybe a lot of the details aren't exact and do sound "dated" but in many ways they got it right. For example, we don't push one button to clean our house but we do push lots of buttons like on all those appliances, gadgets, etc. What is amazing me about re-reading this book at this time is how Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35546240.post-32742971725491355552007-04-09T13:13:00.000-05:002007-04-09T13:13:00.000-05:00Tom, You nicely lay out the themes for this week. ...Tom, <BR/><BR/>You nicely lay out the themes for this week. In reading Chapter 4, I was struck by Carson's choice of case studies. She notes in that chapter how California National Wildlife Refuges (run by her former employer the Fish and Wildlife Service) were becoming contaminated by agricultural runoff. Earlier in the chapter she describes Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, an infamous Mark Madisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521284783258051680noreply@blogger.com