Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 6

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 18

 January 18, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 6 - Pages 264-297, 357-363

Reading Time - 50 minutes

In some ways, reading this book is a bit like reading some ancient prophecy. In this section, she speaks of how insects are becoming resistant to chemicals. Try DDT one year, and it works for a year or two and then is ineffective. Then try another one, which also becomes ineffective. After a while, you just run out of chemicals to use. One of the reasons... insects reproduce so quickly that their resistance builds very quickly as well. This is kind of frightening when you're talking about insects that are disease vectors - like mosquito that carry malaria. Or the Tsetse Fly. Nowadays we read in the news about how cockroaches and bedbugs are getting harder and harder to eradicate due to their chemical resistance. Carson knew what she was talking about. One entomologist said "the resort to weapons such as insecticides to control it is a proof of insufficient knowledge and of an incapacity so to guide the processes of nature that brute force becomes necessary". In other words, rather than understanding the complexities of nature and finding a way to work with it, we invariably try to use brute force, which inevitably fails.

Finally, in the last chapter, Carson gives us some hope. There are biological solutions, such as irradiating male flies (to make them sterile) and then introducing them into the wild in large enough numbers that they out-compete the fertile males. It has worked in isolated geographical regions. Another method is where you find a bacteria that is specific to the annoying insect - e.g. Bacillus thuringiensis which can be used against a variety of bugs. Carson spoke specifically of the Gypsy Moth which made me wonder... Vancouver sprays for the Gypsy Moth... so what do they use? Well... I looked it up and they spray with Foray 48B:

"Foray 48B® is a water-based product containing a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis variety kurstaki (Btk). Btk is a bacterium found in soil. It is known to affect only caterpillars, such as the gypsy moth larvae, if it is ingested while they are feeding. In addition, Foray 48B® contains a number of inert (inactive) ingredients which improve the performance of the Btk. Many of these ingredients are approved food grade additives. No petroleum products are used.
Foray 48B® is not harmful to people, dogs, cats, fish, birds, reptiles, or insects such as honeybees, beetles or spiders. Btk pest control products have been registered for use in Canada for about 40 years. It is now the most widely used pest control product in the world." (HealthLink BC)

It is heartening to read that... although... we still have a long way to go. Railway companies, for example, still spray their right-of-ways along the train tracks with toxic chemicals that include, among other things, the same components as Agent Orange (the defoliant used in Vietnam).

I can't say that I found this book enjoyable although it was highly educational. A bitter-sweet pill to swallow. Some improvement in the last 50 years but a long way to go as well.

Next Book 
The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart