Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 3

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 15

 January 15, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 3 - Pages 103-152

Reading Time - 60 minutes

Every chapter of this book is like a body blow. It makes me wince and shake my head. For example - Dutch Elm Disease. We've likely all heard of it. Back in the early 1900s, city planners decided that elm trees were "the" tree to plant along city streets. Exclusively. Not variety. No diversity. Just elm trees. An epidemic just waiting to happen. Somewhere along the line, a fungus was introduced into North America from Europe. It is spread by the Elm Bark Beetle. Elm trees started dying by the hundreds. The solution... DDT sprayed across cities in the late 1950s. The result... wholesale destruction of the song bird population. You see... birds eat bugs... even dead bugs. So, killing bugs means you end up killing birds. Oh... and all that DDT ended up in the leaves, which fell to the ground in the fall, and were eaten by worms who were then eaten by songbirds in the spring and... more birds died. Let's not even mention the death toll of cats who are fastidious groomers.

The result on the Elm Bark Beetle? Well... the spread rate of the beetle increased because the beetles natural enemies (e.g. birds) were destroyed. Crazy, no? Especially when you consider there are other options. NY State for example removes diseased trees and has had a great success rate in keeping the beetles and disease under control. Other places have imported the European Elm which is resistant to the fungus. Other cities have planted a variety of a trees rather than one species.

I really get that the biocides seemed like a panacea back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It seemed convenient and quick. But the results have been deadly. Not just for mammals, reptiles and birds but also for fish. Because the poison will find its way into the groundwater and eventually streams, lakes, ponds and rivers. Not good... cause fish are super-sensitive to chlorinated hydrocarbons. Plus... the biocides kill the mosquitos (for example) but then the fish have nothing to eat.

We are a crazy species... trying to save trees by killing insects, birds, mammals and fish. All because the trees look nice, or have an economic value. Very sad.

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 2

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 14

 January 14, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 2 - Pages 52-102

Reading Time - 60 minutes

Every new chapters in this book hits hard and hits home. Herbicides, Pesticides, Insecticides - they all ultimately end up entering the soil. And what's in the soil? Little insects and mammals and fungi that are vital to the productivity of the soil. Carson notes that back in the 1940s, the tobacco growers in the southern US stopped using arsenic insecticides. Decades later, their tobacco is still contaminated by arsenic that is in the soil.

All of those biocides (to use her term) also damage other lifeforms - mammals, birds, fish. Cats apparently are highly susceptible to biocides because of their grooming of paws and fur.

I know that things have gotten better though. I was just looking up the European Chafer Beetle infestation that has taken hold in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver. People probably wouldn't even know that the beetles are there, except that the grubs are delicious (to other animals). Raccoons, skunks and birds happily dig up the lawn in search of these tasty morsels. In doing so, they are helping to stop the spread of the beetle. This is a good thing. But tell that to the homeowner who sees his pristine green lawn as a necessary part of life or status or something. The City of Vancouver, and many municipalities in BC, have banned insecticides for residential use (but not for commercial or industrial use). They say that the chemicals don't really have an impact on the beetles. They recommend buying nematodes and applying them to the lawn during a certain window in July when the nematodes can attach the grubs at a vulnerable time. This is good to know.

It seems, that in some ways, we have come some distance in the last 50 years. It is all a matter of perspective as well. We see something as a "weed" because it is growing somewhere where we don't want it to grow. Dandelions are fine in ditches, but not in our front yards. Even though they are a vital food for bees in the early spring. Carson gives an example from Holland of a rose garden doing poorly due to nematodes in the soil. A bit of research and they planted marigolds in with the roses. The marigold roots make a secretion that kills the nematodes. Guess what... the roses with marigolds at their feet did amazing.

It seems to me that we, as humans, are trying to fix something in nature that we see as being "broken" or "undesirable" or "different than we want it to be". In some cases, this is because we have introduced insects or plants to continents where they are not native. Without natural predators, these plants and insects become invasive.

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
"The questions is whether any civilization can wage
relentless war on life without destroying itself,
and without losing the right to be called civilized."

Chemicals aren't going to solve the problem though. In fact, chemicals need to be applied year after year, much to the delight of the chemical manufacturers. spray machine manufacturers and companies that spray the stuff. They make tonnes of money while communities, nature, pets and people pay the price. In some situations, parasites, insects or native predators have been imported from a plant or insect's native land. They are usually chosen because they have a narrow field of operation. They like to eat the grubs of the Japanese Beetle or something similar. Using natural predators seems like a smart idea... although I do wonder what would happen if the introduced "predator" did its job too well and killed off the invader. Would it turn its eyes to some local victim?

Carson leaves us with this: "The question is whether any civilization can wage relentless war on life without destroying itself and without losing the right to be called civilized." Good question.

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Part 1

Silent Spring - Rachel Carson

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 13

 January 13, 2017 

Book 3 - Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson (1962)

 Part 1 - Pages x-xix, 1-51

Reading Time - 80 minutes

I wasn't born in 1962 when Rachel Carson published her book on the dangers of chemical contamination of the environment. Somehow, this book also never crossed my path in university - possibly because I didn't take a lot of biology and/or chemistry classes. Having read the first 50 pages though, I am appalled.

I know that nicotinoids are bad for bees. I know that they are sold by Home Depot under a variety of names. I know that RoundUp is bad for the environment. We don't fertilize our lawn or use weedkiller or mosskillers. We prefer to take out little stabbing tool and tear each weed out of the ground. On the other hand... we have used rat poison and we have used wasp spray. That is going to change.

I just find it hard to believe that 50 years after the publication of this book, we can still get our hands on pesticides and insecticides? How can that even be possible? Knowing how these man-made chemicals accumulate in our bodies. Knowing how they have polluted our waterways. Why do we keep using these things? Why do I still see "Sprayed with Pesticide" signs along railway right-of-ways or highway right-of-ways?? The questions that come up just boggle the mind.

We're concerned about oil pipelines polluting our waterways because that's a Big issue. But, honestly, the amount of pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers being pumped out onto farms, orchards, fields and forests is way more than the oil that would spew out of a ruptured pipeline. Pipelines are Big though... whereas Farmer Joe spraying his crop of apples is Small. The thing is... even Organic isn't safe anymore. Carson quotes studies that found DDT in water supplies that were miles away from any spraying. It's everywhere... even in places that haven't been touched.

Oh... and I learned about systemic insecticides that you put on plants to make them toxic to insects. Or that you put on your pet dog to make its blood toxic to fleas. Seriously? We do this??

I think one of the most telling points she brings out is this:

We shouldn't be calling them insecticides or pesticides...
We should be calling them biocides.

I'm going to have a whole new appreciation for gardening and pest-control by the end of all this, that's for sure.

1984 - George Orwell - Part 6

1984 - George Orwell

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 12

 January 12, 2017 

Book 2 - Nineteen Eighty Four (1984)
by George Orwell (1948)

 Part 6 - Pages 341-407

Reading Time - 60 minutes

Winston's re-education is almost complete. He likens it to a shift in perspective. Rather than swimming against the current and fighting it, he simply turns around and goes with the flow of the current. His intellect has been subdued. He can believe that 2+2=5. He can recognize his "false" memories from the past and not dwell on them. But deep inside his heart, he still harbours a deep hatred for Big Brother. He visualizes the day when he will be executed and how he will be able to let his hatred shine in that split second before the bullet takes his life. In that way, he will have won.

Alas, for poor Winston, he has a dream in which he cries out "Julia, I love you, Julia". He is taken to Room 101 where he faces his most abject terror - rats. At the crucial moment, when he believes the rats will be released to devour his face, he cries out "Let them have Julia, not me". His emotional submission is complete. He is a destroyed man, a burnt out husk with nothing remaining. He is released back out into the world. At some time in the future, when the Party feels the time is right, he will be re-arrested, re-tried and executed.

What a depressing end to the story! Good does not triumph over evil. It is a true dystopian future in which hope is gone. According to O'Brien, the Proles were never rise up. The Party will survive for hundreds/thousands of years. Sounds rather like one of Dante's levels of hell - "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". O'Brien told Winston that the reason the Party will survive is because it craves Power simply for the sake of Power. Not to make a better world or to care for the less fortunate. Power for Power's sake will ensure it's survival. And yet... there is another quote that comes to mind - "Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely". At one point... one would think... something would crack within the Party. Perhaps. But in having wiped away all traces of the Past, of destroying and rewriting books and plays and histories... one would wonder if humanity would be able to recover. It would almost have to be a complete reset... starting from Level 1 so-to-speak.

In Unity is Strength - Aesop

The message I take away from this is... a human being is a frail thing... on their own. It is only in numbers that we are strong. Like the story of the bundle of twigs. It's easy to break a single twig, much, much harder to break a bundle.

1984 - George Orwell - Part 5

1984 - George Orwell

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 11

 January 11, 2017 

Book 2 - Nineteen Eighty Four (1984)
by George Orwell (1948)

 Part 5 - Pages 297-340

Reading Time - 40 minutes

All is not well for Winston and Julia. Turns out O'Brien was not a member of any conspiracy and that Winston was under surveillance for a long time. He and Julia are separated and tortured independently. It is not a pleasant process. O'Brien is one of the torturers and explains to Winston that they want him to be a true convert before executing him. They don't want any martyrs. Far better to convert the heretic than to have him go to his death unrepentant and defiant, even if only in his mind and heart.

The brain-washing or re-education of Winston is a long and labourious process. It takes a lot for him to agree with heart-felt truthfulness that 2+2=5. O'Brien tries to convince Winston that reality does not exist as an objective fact but is a construct of the mind. Everything is a construct of the mind. It is just too bad that Winston's mind struggles to grasp this. In the eyes of O'Brien, Winston is a lunatic.

It is a sad thing to realize how weak the human psyche is. It also makes one question the use of torture by any so-called democratic society. And yet... can any country claim to be untarnished by the stain of torture? While Orwell has portrayed a totalitarian state even beyond the likes of Nazi Germany or Stalin's Russia... one wonders how much of what he portrays actually takes place in various countries around the world. Dictatorships are not an extinct species by any means. I had rather held out hope that Winston might survive or escape but this section tells me that he is doomed.

1984- George Orwell - Part 4

1984 - George Orwell

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 10

 January 10, 2017 

Book 2 - Nineteen Eighty Four (1984)
by George Orwell (1948)

 Part 4 - Pages 217-294

Reading Time - 60 minutes

This section was like watching a slow-motion train-wreck. Winston takes Julia to see O'Brien, the Inner Party member whom Winston thinks is part of a conspiracy against Big Brother. At first, it looks like O'Brien is on their side. He even manages to get a copy of a heretical book to Winston that documents the history of the Revolution and the workings of the world and Big Brother. Winston reads the book to Julia who quickly falls asleep during it.

Turns out the world is in a state of perpetual war between three competing world powers - Eurasia, Eastasia and Oceania. The over-production of consumer goods which was a problem in the first half of the 20th century has been solved by War. "In principle, the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population."

Sad to say that does not seem that far off from today's society where billions of dollars go to the Department of Defence in the United States with a mere pittance going to Education and Health Care. But as Victor Lebow, a Retail Analyst said in 1955 "Our enormously productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of  life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate." It would appear, we aren't consuming fast enough if all that excess productivity needs to still fund the war effort.

Later in the book Winston is reading, the author notes "the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival". Not so far off from today and our never-ending War on Terror which continues to chip away at individual freedoms and civil liberty.

Alas for poor Winston, turns out that he has been under surveillance by the Thought Police for at least the last 7 years. Their little secret nest has a hidden telescreen and the man they rented it from is a member of the Thought Police. They are caught.

1984 - George Orwell - Part 3

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 9

 January 9, 2017 

Book 2 - Nineteen Eighty Four (1984)
by George Orwell (1948)

 Part 3 - Pages 152-216

Reading Time -53 minutes

Ah, Winston, he has begun a romance with Julia, the dark-haired girl from work whom he initially thought was a member of the Thought Police. Love seems to agree with Winston - he is putting on weight and his health has improved. While he and Julia share a certain rebelliousness against the Party, they have very different views on how that is carried out.

Winston remembers pre-Revolution days. He thinks that there is a Brotherhood that resists the Party and Big Brother. He believes that if people could only gather together and rise up, they could topple the Party. Julia is 10 years younger than Winston and for her, politics is immaterial. She doesn't care that history is being modified everyday, that the Past is meaningless and changeable. What matters for her is breaking the rules while still staying alive. For her, revolution of the kind which Winston speaks, is stupid. She believes it has always been like this and will always be like this. Winston recognizes that many people like Julia likely exist: they speak the rhetoric of the Party but don't really understand it. It is "by lack of understanding, that they remain sane".

Poor Winston also believes that one of the Inner Party members at his workplace is a conspirator, a man by the name of O'Brien. Winston dreams of speaking to O'Brien and telling him about everything - about his journal, about Julia, about his rebelliousness. Deep down, Winston knows that his death is approaching him. He and Julia acknowledge though, that when they are arrested, tortured and induced to make confessions, as long as they retain their love for each other, they will have one. Confessions are meaningless as long as one's feelings remain pure. Optimistic folk they are.

I confess that I don't remember how 1984 ends. I can't remember if Winston and Julia survive. Perhaps they escape to Eurasia or Eastasia or join the Proles in the countryside? My normal tendency to read the end of a book is on abeyance because I don't want to ruin the suspense.

There are passing similarities between the world of Winston and our own world. Julia, for example, thinks that the rocket bombs that land on London are actually fired from within Oceania (their country) and not from an external enemy. It keeps the people scared and keeps the "War" front and centre. Today, while wars rage around the globe, we are faced with the War on Terror. We lose bits and pieces of our civil rights in the name of "Safety" and "Security". We give them up willingly in many instances, convinced by our government that Security is important in the War on Terror. At least in the world of Winston and Julia, surveillance is rather crude and rudimentary - limited to telescreens and microphones. Our world is slightly different - cameras are everywhere, GPS in our phones and Fitbits track us as we move through our day, emails and blogs are monitored.

I read a blog or a book a while ago that said that our world didn't really match Orwell's 1984 so much as it did Huxley's Brave New World. I'll be interested to read Huxley, another book that I read in high school of which I have only vague memories.