The Obligation to Endure Rachel Carson challenges the progress that this world has taken and questions if it is truly progress at all. We as humans endanger and harm ourselves in ways that we are often unaware of. Carson persuades her audience, the progressive intellectuals, in her book, “Silent Spring”, that the use of chemicals is causing destruction and should be put to an end. She concentrates her ideas in the chapter “The Obligation to Endure”, where she goes against the horrible consequences of chemical use on pests. She elaborates on the issue of spraying chemicals and if it is increasing or decreasing the progress in the world.
Tracy Ramos Mr. Reisinger English 101.11 4 October 2013 Rhetorical Analysis: Exigence: When Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in September 27, 1962, it triggered a storm of disputes over the use of chemical pesticides. Her book helped raise awareness for the environment, warn humans of the dangers of using pesticides such as DDT, preserve several plant and animal species, and make the atmosphere cleaner. Her intent in writing Silent Spring was to warn the public of the dangers related with pesticide use. Throughout her book are countless case studies documenting the harmful effects that chemical pesticides have had on the environment. Along with these facts, she explains how in many occasions the pesticides have done more harm than good in eliminating the pests they were supposed to destroy.
Abstract Waste management persists of the handling of the waste that has been produced. Everywhere, the earth is being dirtied by people's wastes, yet there are few ways to get rid of them. No disposal method is attractive, except for waste prevention and reduction. Dumping wastes in landfills threatens to contaminate the underlying groundwater and dumping wastes into oceans poisons the water which causes the death of species living underwater. Prevention is ideally appealing because it has got many profits that need to be taken advantage of.
Alas, only small amounts of these ‘home sprays’ actually hit their target resulting in a mass contamination of soil, air, and food. Rachel Carson, a member of the US Fish and Wildlife service, quit her job as a biologist and devoted her full time to the research for her watershed book, Silent Spring. The book aimed to expose the unknown horrors of pesticides that scientists did not want the public to know about. An immediate New York Times best seller, Carson’s work had a massive impact, resulting into more than 40 bills passed in Congress to take back the environment. Carson maintains a striking message for the modern utilitarian conservation movement stressing the effects of unregulated chemical use and a push for governmental legislation with the central theme of nature existing for all of us.
In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson uses the apocalypse trope, logos, and ethos to grab the general public’s attention and to inspire the necessity for changing the way the environment is treated by mankind. The apocalypse trope is implored right from the beginning before Carson even starts writing. She dedicates the book to Albert Schweitzer who said, “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.” This quote gets the reader thinking before they have even turned to page one. In Ecocriticism, Thompson writes that in the apocalypse trope “violent and grotesque images are juxtaposed with glimpses of a world transformed” (Garrard 86).
Price mentions this historical fact to criticize that Americans are using the image of a bird that they had themselves once massacred with no serious thought behind it. She condemns Americans because Americans would only use the image of the bird without any interest in the actual bird itself. To continue her criticism of the American culture, Price implores the use of an allusion, as she describes the flamingos as “forward-looking rather than old-fashioned, just right for a generation, raised in the Depression that was ready to celebrate its new affluence” (lines 36-9). This satirical reference to the Depression makes fun of American culture by implying that the unnecessary spending and extravagant living style (living beyond their means) were the primary causes of the Great Depression. She uses the flamingo to focus in on the fact that although Americans were still getting over the Great Depression, they are still running back to the habits that led to their suffering.
The war was pointless in the American’s eyes and they thought that America had no right to impose its views on Vietnam. Napalm, a jellied gasoline, was used in the Vietnam as tactic for the Americans. As they drop Napalm onto Vietnam, it lures out the Vietcong from their hiding places due to the black smoke spreading from the explosion. But by doing that, the bomb killed many innocent villagers, children and women that had nothing to do with the war. Source A suggests that US used the air raid for chasing out the Vietcong that were hiding because it shows in the source that many Vietnamese Children are running away from the danger that the American troops are causing.
The Hand Maid’s Tale and An Inconvenient Truth Literary Essay The environmental future Atwood predicted in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the reality of our planet’s condition as presented in Gore’s 2006 film, “An Inconvenient Truth” summon important issues regarding the consequences of man’s irresponsible and mindless relationship it has long kept with its’ environment. As we sit down and compare the novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, and the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore we can come to the frightening conclusion that this book which was once written in fiction, can know be related to Al Gore’s environmental crisis documentary. As we are starting to be aware of the global environmental issue, people everywhere are starting to take action to help our environment. Yet, what is important to consider is that our bodies are directly linked to our environment and that the more damaged our environment is, the more health problems we will have. It has already been proven through Italian researchers that traffic pollution causes significantly weaker sperm (Science Blog).
The areas in the greatest decline are Central America, the Caribbean, and Australia. The three primary causes for the frog decline are habitat destruction, global climate change, and a new emerging disease called chytridiomycosis (chytrid). Frogs have been given very little concern as we develop new roads, build homes, cities and industries. As a result of these cultural developments, we are destroying the frog’s habitats worldwide. Global warming and climate change have been given a lot of attention and discussion worldwide and most likely has had a significant negative effect on the frog.
Intentionally or not, such characterizations have helped to create a pervasive bias against alien species that has been embraced by the public, conservationists, land managers and policy-makers, as well by as many scientists, throughout the world.’ The issue of native and invasive species is not clear, even though we tend to value native species and view invasive species with suspicion. As Thompson (2014) notes, native and alien are not ‘nice, unambiguous categories’ and the mantra of ‘aliens bad, natives good’ has hidden the truth that natives also have negative impacts on ecosystems. Increasingly, the value of the native and alien division in conservation is decreasing, and becoming counterproductive (Carroll, 2011). However, there are many who still consider this division an important principle in ecology (Fleishman et al. 2011).