The balance of nature is the main force of human existence. Silent Spring gave mankind such a spur, which made human arrogance and ignorance converge, and chose another way to balance interests in simple control and blind obedience to nature. On this road, rachel carson's strong and brave cry will never be silent. The following are my reading notes on Silent Spring. Welcome to read this article!
Notes on Silent Spring Chapter 1 Fable of Tomorrow
At the beginning of the first chapter, the author depicts a natural landscape from heaven to hell with extremely touching brushstrokes: in a small town in Central America, in spring, flowers are dotted like white clouds on the green Yuan Ye; In autumn, through the screen window of the pine forest, oak, maple and birch shine like flames, foxes bark on the hills, and deer quietly pass through Yuan Ye shrouded in autumn morning fog. ? From this town? In fact, the suburbs are famous for their colorful birds. Throughout the spring and autumn, when migratory birds flock, people travel long distances to watch birds here. But it was not until one day many years ago that a strange shadow began to cover this place, and some ominous omens came to this village. Mysterious diseases attacked flocks of chickens, and cattle and sheep fell ill and died. The shadow of death is everywhere, farmers are talking about their family's diseases, and doctors in the city are more and more confused about the new diseases among patients. ? Where have all the birds gone? Many people feel confused and uneasy when they talk about birds. The places where birds feed in the garden are neglected, and several birds that can only be seen in some places are dying, shivering and unable to fly. This is a silent spring. There used to be crows, pigeons, wrens and other birds singing in the early morning, but now all the sounds have disappeared, only silence covers the fields, Woods and swamps. ? The author further points out that although the above changes are only a virtual scene, they do occur in every town in the United States to varying degrees. Such a big change has set a great suspense for readers. What caused the silence in American towns, Rachel? Carson's book is to solve this great mystery.
Chapter II Obligation of Endurance
The birth of human beings has changed the general mode of harmonious development of nature. Before human beings came to the earth, the habits of plants and animals were determined by nature, but since human beings came into being, especially in the past century, human abilities have had a great impact on the balance of nature. Humans try to control nature, and the powerful means to control nature is chemical industry. Humans use chemicals to control and threaten agricultural development? Harmful? The purpose of insects. The problem is that people's understanding of natural ecology is very limited. The crusade to create an insect-free world by using chemical weapons, in turn, brought great damage to the soil, air, water and biological world on which human beings depend, and directly threatened people's own survival. The key to the problem is not to kill harmful insects, but to change people's lifestyle and establish a balance between man and nature.
Chapter III Specific Drugs for Death
Firstly, the author introduced various artificial insecticides and their lethal toxicity. From primary inorganic pesticides to advanced organic pesticides, from DDT, chlordane and chlorinated naphthalene to dieldrin and aldrin, although our understanding of all the contents of chemical drugs is limited, this does not prevent people from producing them at an amazing speed and scale. In addition to producing a large number of toxic compounds, there are arsenic-containing sprays and pesticides. A large number of toxic elements flow into nature and are finally absorbed by animals and people through the food chain, which seriously hinders the balance between nature and human health, damages human digestion, nervous system and immune system and threatens human life.
Chapter IV Surface Water and Underground Ocean
The author, like the previous chapter, shows with a large number of vivid facts that chemical substances not only harm the human body, but also endanger the water environment of the earth and indirectly endanger the living things of drinking water. The author uses exact data to prove that these toxic substances will never disappear. Although the harmful components in the water are gone, they actually enter the organism through ecological circulation and gather in the organism at an increasing concentration. Finally, the author reminds me again that there are no isolated things in nature, and water pollution is the pollution of the whole nature.
Chapter V Soil Kingdom
Soil is by no means as dead as it looks, but a vibrant kingdom with a lot of life. Few people in modern times know this. They blindly use a lot of pesticides to kill insects that hinder the growth of crops. As everyone knows, on the one hand, these insects update quickly and have developed drug resistance. On the other hand, it seriously interferes with the life cycle of a large number of microorganisms in the soil, destroys the self-metabolism function of microorganisms, and turns the soil from a life cycle into a dead thing. Due to the extensive use of pesticides, there are a lot of toxic components in the soil, which are absorbed by crops and eventually directly destroy people's health.
Chapter VI The Green Cloak of the Earth
The author tells readers a profound truth with very detailed and vivid examples. Our attitude towards the biological world is extremely narrow. We often use chemicals to destroy a creature because it has no direct use, thus causing far-reaching and difficult ecological consequences. The first example is the eradication of sage in the western plateau of the United States. Due to hundreds of millions of years of evolution, sage has become the only plant that can survive in the cold and harsh areas of the western United States. It is also because of the existence of sage that grouse and antelope can survive in these high mountain areas and form a unique ecological balance. However, people's greed for grass prompted the government to kill thousands of acres of sage with herbicides and replace it with grass. As a result, sage was successfully eliminated, but pasture could not survive. The original prosperity is gone forever, and the artificial ecological landscape can never be established. These areas eventually became barren. The second example is that the extinction of sage not only affects the local area, but also affects the areas around the grassland. The surrounding willows began to wither because of poisoning, and the beaver could not manage its pond because of the lack of willow branches. Due to lack of food, waterfowl and fish also began to flee this area. The surrounding area has degenerated from a tourist resort to a lifeless ordinary area. The ultimate behavior of killing creatures with chemicals is like Indian boomerang. People throw hard, but in the end they hurt themselves. As an alternative to using pesticides to kill organisms, the author recommends biological control and lists two successful examples. One is to control the Klamath grass imported from Europe by introducing two scarabs from southern France, and the other is to successfully curb the improper introduction of cactus from Australia by introducing a scarabs from Argentina. These successful cases can inspire people.
Chapter VII Unnecessary Destruction
The author still leads to the economic motives leading to the large-scale use of pesticides with specific examples. In order to kill beetles from Japan, aldrin, a broad-spectrum and highly toxic pesticide, was widely used in eastern States of the United States. In fact, these highly toxic drugs not only failed to stop the progress of Japanese beetles, but also killed a large number of other unrelated insects and livestock. One possible reason why ordinary people should support this large-scale spraying of pesticides is that the harm of Japanese beetles has been maliciously exaggerated by relevant parties. It is the so-called insecticidal experts and pesticide manufacturers who contribute to the fire. In order to make a fortune for themselves, these manufacturers do not hesitate to confuse the audience and reverse black and white. In fact, the eastern States of the United States are much wiser to deal with Japanese beetles. It is not only more economical but also more effective to introduce wasps from North Korea and China.
Chapter 8 No more birds singing
The author criticizes the anti-ecological consciousness of machinery by enumerating the ecological relationship between American elm and robin. In 1930s, dutch elm disease was introduced into the United States, resulting in a large number of deaths of American elms due to fungal infection. In some areas, poisonous pesticides are sprayed to kill beetles carrying fungi. As a result, although the elm disease was temporarily contained, earthworms on the ground became carriers of toxins because they ate toxic elm leaves. Earthworms are an important ingredient in many birds' diets. Robin eats dozens of earthworms every day, and the venom of ten earthworms is enough to kill robin. As a result, robins died in large numbers in a spring, and many other birds were never heard from. Even if some birds successfully resist toxicity, these drugs also lead to infertility of birds, so there is a tragic situation of no birdsong in spring. How to treat dutch elm disease? Anti-ecological mechanists insist that you can't have your cake and eat it. They will never understand that elms and robins, as an indispensable part of the biological cycle knowledge network. They are not life and death, but life and death. Contrary to the management mode in the western United States, the management mode in new york is more reasonable. They adopted the method of isolating and burning diseased trees and achieved remarkable results.
Chapter 9 The River of Death
The author also proved the serious harm of extensive use of pesticides to fish with conclusive facts. Salmon migrate from the deep sea to freshwater streams every year to lay eggs. This cycle was finally interrupted in 1953 by the Canadian government spraying pesticides in the forest to kill aphids on a large scale. Ironically, the extensive use of pesticides not only failed to curb the spread of aphids, but also accelerated the rampant of aphids, because pesticides killed some aphids, but also killed their natural enemies, and the slow-breathing aphids continued to multiply at an alarming rate because they had no natural enemies. On the other hand, the use of pesticides has led to the elimination of mosquitoes on the river, the pollution of streams, the lack of food for salmon and the direct killing of fry, so the spectacular scene of large-scale migration of salmon can no longer be reproduced, and the vibrant river has become a stagnant pool.
Chapter 16 The rumble of hitting God
Chapter 16 is about insect resistance. With a large number of irrefutable facts, the author points out that the method of controlling harmful insects with pesticides is barbaric and incompetent, and its only result is to make insects resistant to drugs. The emergence of this drug resistance is a wonderful interpretation of Darwin's theory of evolution. Due to the widespread use of broad-spectrum pesticides, 100 kinds of harmful insects have developed drug resistance. The use of pesticides against flies, lice and mosquitoes carrying pathogens seems to have achieved short-term results, but usually in a year or less, these insects will evolve magical drug resistance. As a result, the evolving strong survive better, while the evolving weak are eliminated. Why are insects so capable of evolution? It is because the evolutionary time of insects is shorter and the reproductive time of insects is shorter. For people, evolution is once in a hundred years, while the evolution of most insects is only one month to one year. Rapid propagation leads to rapid inheritance of drug resistance. On the contrary, some organisms, as natural enemies of insects, have a slower evolution speed and are difficult to escape the harm of pesticides.
Chapter 17 Another road
In the last chapter, the author discusses the possibility of biological control. The method of biological control is contrary to the method of killing insects with chemicals. It is a management method based on a detailed understanding of the whole ecological world. If chemical control means that human beings are galloping towards death on the highway of blindly controlling nature, then biological control points out a bright road for the prosperity of man and nature. At present, there have been some successful examples of biological control. Biologists successfully stopped the spread of gypsy moth by male sterility, killed mosquitoes by ultrasonic technology, and successfully killed Japanese beetles by introducing Bacillus thuringiensis. These methods are based on a detailed understanding of insects and ecological cycle, and are also responsible behaviors after extremely detailed demonstration of the consequences of biological control. Facts have proved that the ambition of blindly controlling nature can only bring disaster to nature and human beings. Respect and unremitting exploration of ecological knowledge and cautious attitude towards nature are the correct attitudes.
This book tells people an extremely serious ecological fact with detailed data, conclusive facts and vivid brushstrokes. It is also a successful ecological textbook, which can leave a deep impression on people after reading it. Mankind's ambitious control over the evolution of nature will eventually bring its own destruction to mankind. As a symbol of human barbarism, chemical control of nature not only creates a silent spring, but also creates a morbid person himself. If you want to save nature, you must change the concept of controlling nature and treat nature equally with the mentality of * * * *. We should not kill the enemies of mankind with chemicals, but should coexist with nature in the chain of nature. Living in harmony with nature requires us to study ecological knowledge seriously, and the success of biological control methods also shows that it is possible for human beings to realize the harmonious existence between man and nature on the basis of continuous exploration. There is no doubt that the author did not explore the social reasons for human cruelty to nature. In other words, the author doesn't realize that the brutal action of controlling nature is essentially the inevitable expression of the brutal impulse of capital expansion. Although the author touched on this topic, it is a pity that it was not discussed in depth. The author limits the basic way of harmonious coexistence between man and nature to the level of concept change and ecological knowledge accumulation, which determines that his knowledge level is only that of an ecologist or a green activist, which is the author's regret and limitation. As you can imagine, this book is of great significance to William during his writing of Controlling Nature. What kind of influence did Les have?
Silent Spring Reading Notes 2 Silent Spring 1962 was a controversial book when it was published in the United States, which marked the first time that human beings paid attention to environmental issues. At that time, people had no concept of environmental protection at all, but only knew how to increase productivity to supply the growing population. So in 1939, the pesticide DDT was invented for the needs of agricultural production. At first, people thought it was a great invention. DDT can not only kill pests in farmland, but also kill the spread of pests? Typhus? 1957 after DDT, fleas were also used to kill mosquitoes in a large area. When people think DDT is a gospel given by God, careful Rachel? Carson found out. A strange silence hangs over this place? .
? What silences the sound of spring in countless towns in America? All the evidence in the book points to? Now, everyone must be exposed to dangerous chemicals from birth to death, which is the first time in world history. Synthetic pesticides have been used for less than 20 years and have spread all over the animal kingdom and non-animal kingdom. We have detected these drugs in most important water systems, even in the middle of underground water, which is difficult to see. As early as ten years ago, there were still poisons in the soil where chemical drugs were applied. They generally invade fish, birds, reptiles, domestic animals and wild animals and survive. ? Until today, DDT residues can be found in the uninhabited ice fields of the North and South Poles and in the snow on the top of the world.
When fragments of this book appeared in new york, a group of people immediately accused the author Rachel? Carson is a hysterical and extreme woman. Its amazing prediction about the harm of pesticides to human environment has not only been severely criticized by the relevant production and economic departments, but also strongly shocked the general public. Where's Rachel Carson, an angel sent by God to save the ignorant, returned to God who understood her after two years under such great pressure.
It was not until 1970 that the United States began to realize this problem, set up the environmental protection agency and banned DDT, but? The environmental crisis is getting worse, not better. Perhaps the growth rate of disasters has slowed down, but this is a disturbing problem in itself. ? When we realized that our living environment had been destroyed, we began to panic, began to give first aid, and began to call for global action to protect the earth, and then environmental protection agencies and organizations.
However, is this really useful?
The influence of this book comes not only from the work itself and the author, but also from the impact on me, which is actually an association with modern society. Extreme, what have we been talking about now? Environmental protection? Only use? Hypocrisy is two words to sum up. Through the propaganda of environmental protection, we know that pesticides will cause great harm and ecological balance, but we still use a lot of pesticides; We know that electrical appliances such as air conditioners and refrigerators have seriously damaged the ozone layer, but they are still used in large quantities; We know that automobile exhaust destroys the ozone layer, but we still keep buying private cars; Do some enterprises know that many wastes will have a very serious impact on river soil if they are not treated, or do they randomly discharge these wastes because of low cost and environmental protection? Many times it is just a form, a slogan and a dead letter.