ARCHIVE - Visualizing Ecology - Week 8: Silent Spring http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/taxonomy/term/26/0 en ARCHIVE - Mitch Gines http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/mitch-gines-6 <p>&quot;Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community: mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens; the cattle and sheep sickened and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death...&quot;-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Wow, that paints a pretty bleak picture of the apocalypses. This &quot;evil&quot;, this &quot;mysterious madness&quot;. It&#39;s pesticide! It affects both prey and bystander alike, and we created it! I really feel sorry for the poor flocks of chickens. Even though they were going to be eaten, most of them were bred for eggs or show (and hopefully not for cockfighting), life is stilll life, right? </p><p><a href="http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/mitch-gines-6">read more</a></p> http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/mitch-gines-6#comment Week 8: Silent Spring Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:14:41 -0800 ginmel01 533 at http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter ARCHIVE - Ari Sigglin http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/ari-sigglin-5 “It took hundreds of million of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth -- eons of time in which that developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment and balance with it surroundings.”<br /> - Rachel Carson, p. 6<br /> <br /> Perhaps it is man’s justification and hypothesis that if it took such an immense amount of time to create and establish life and all the living things’ behaviors, that it will take just as long for life to deplete itself. Perhaps we have spent too little time -- or rather, no time at all -- in accessing the potential dangers and outcomes in our actions. Perhaps this is all a part of our evolution as an especially unique species on this planet -- a sort of trial and error process that decides the general stasis of our ecosystem judged upon the way we behave amongst it. It seems as though the latter is most plausible. Through out our existence, we have duly acknowledged our superiority with much pride -- a pride so arrogant that most often than not, the human race has then had to learn the hardship of their actions. It is expressed through years of war, especially. We wage with war with ourselves, and unknowingly, with the environment around us. Only so few have recognized the strong bond we have in our place in the ecosystem. In the human mind, it is possible that these “eons of time” also reflect, again, the time it take for life, or more specifically, a species, to disappear. From observation, the general consensus believes that this is logical because things must operate symmetrically -- if you traced the growth of a species until its climax, it then has to reflect the same pace in the decrease. Unfortunately, considering the rapid rate at which we have grown, that is not the case since our creations have seemed to begat more bad than good. Carson mentions the “rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created” and how they “follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature.” (Carson 7) Humans have distanced the gap between ourselves and nature, and the more we expand the gap, the more me make our connection with nature more obvious by the amount of harm we are inflicting upon it.<p><a href="http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/ari-sigglin-5">read more</a></p> http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/ari-sigglin-5#comment Week 8: Silent Spring Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:24:44 -0800 sigari25 531 at http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter ARCHIVE - shaun libman http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/shaun-libman-4 <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">To adjust to these chemicals would require time on the scale that is nature’s; it would require not merely the years of a mans but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream: almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United states alone, The figure is staggering and its implications are not easily grasped- 500 new chemicals to which the bodies of men and animals are required somehow to adapt each year, chemicals totally outside the limits of biologic experience.</font></p><p><a href="http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/shaun-libman-4">read more</a></p> http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/shaun-libman-4#comment Week 8: Silent Spring Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:54:38 -0800 libsha19 472 at http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter ARCHIVE - Cody Cohan http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/cody-cohan-5 <div class="content"> <p class="MsoNormal">“Meanwhile as we pour our millions into research and invest all our hopes in vast programs to find cures for established cases of cancer, we are neglecting the golden opportunity to prevent, even while we seek the cure.” -Rachel Carson, Page 208-<br /><br /> </p><p class="MsoNormal">This quote sums up the entire book pretty well. I feel that <em>Silent Spring</em> was written with the intent to spread awareness of the ignorance our species currently chooses to operate under. Our current society is full of distractions for every walk of life and it can be quite hard to hold on to, or even find, yourself. It’s almost terrifying to think about where all the funding and entertainment for the things we enjoy in our daily lives really comes from. Supporting huge monopolies that only seek to expand their cliental instead of help them. How does it make any sense to pour money into meds for cancer and not the actually cure? I won’t just how much of the general population known just how much harm they have on their environment. A follow up question to the first would be how many would care about their effects on the environment? Our species tends to focus more on our own survival and in certain area’s, such as this country, the standard for survival is more then a modest one.<br /> <span>            </span>I can only hope that the author succeeded in her attempt to push our society into a new way of living. Why does sacrificing a few of the many comforts we have seem to be such a life threatening prospect to most of our culture? Our children are glued to television screens that hypnotize them with new toys and gadgets that only worth comes in the blissful moments of childhood that occur anyways. Our capitalistic culture is breeding our children without care, our at least our consent. I just do not feel that any child should be raised in such a subjective environment that could mold their reality around false idols and polished ideals. I suppose it could be a lot worse though and we should be grateful for what we have. </p></div><p><a href="http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/cody-cohan-5">read more</a></p> http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/cody-cohan-5#comment Week 8: Silent Spring Sun, 25 Feb 2007 22:40:14 -0800 cohcod02 455 at http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter