Silent Spring By: Rachel Carson

Silent Spring is a nonfiction novel by Rachel Carson. This novel talks about "man" alters the nature of this world. How we hurt the earth and the lifeforms that live on it, including ourselves. Carson describes just how we are hurting our planet in 17 chapters. So it starts off with chapter one called "A Fable For Tomorrow" In this chapter Carson describes a perfect town where everything is nice. There was food, an abundance of birds and everybody wanted to live there. But then all of a sudden everything was ruined and the birds flew away and people started to unexpectedly die. This perfect town does not exist, but it could , it is just that everything we humans did disturbed it.
Chapter two is called 'The Obligation To Endure" This chapter Carson talks about how "Man" altered the nature of this world by polluting our air, soil, and water. For example Strontium 90 that is in nuclear explosions comes to earth as fallout, where it enters the soil which enters the grass, then into the food that is grown there, then into our body, which it is there to stay. Albert Schweitzer said that "Men can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation" Also -i quote from the book- it said "They should not be called insecticides but biocides because these insecticides are not old killing bad bugs but good bugs too." Also it said that when a chemical is put on a plant the bugs soon become immune to it, which make them make an even heavier poison, and when that doesn't work they make an even heavier one than that, and so on and so on.
In chapters three through six talk more about how it is harming us. After pesticides were introduced for only two years, they were found everywhere! in rivers and streams, etc. And the residues of this lingers in soil and in bodies of fish, birds, reptiles,etc. Scientists found it impossible to find anything free of this chemical. It is even found in a mothers breast mils and tissues of an unborn child. Soil is actually very important to us and without soil we would not exist. People just think that they could put a bunch of chemicals in the soil thinking nothing would happen. Poisons actually stay in the soil and some poisons such as arsenic actually permanently poisons the soil. Also many people are killing off plant that they think are poisonous to their livestock. We are killing off plants and animals and they definitely deserve better than what we are doing right now.
In chapters 8 through 12: Birds are really affects by the spraying of chemicals, where migrating robins would be eliminated in about a week, and a new arrival of birds would come and then they would die. but that's not the only way they're dying but the majority of birds eat earthworms which live in the soil, but since the soil is poisoned then they are eating poisoned earthworms. And since many birds diets include many poisons the eggs they lay would have that poison too so the chicks would not hatch at all of they would day a few days after hatching. Spraying also is hurting fish because the poisons will get into the rivers and in about two days dead and dying fish were found along the banks. Also the insects would die too so the surviving fish would have nothing to eat. But what is worse is that today's poisons are more dangerous than any known before. They have become something to be showered down on us from the skies.
The last few chapters of the book are about how nature fights back and how there is another road we could take. So basically it is about how nature fights back, how sometimes it won't take all the damage that we have inflicted on it. Also the last chapter is about how there is a different road we could take. One which is the one we are taking now, it is fast, easy but yet it ends in disaster. The other road is less traveled but it offers our last and our only chance to reach a destination that assures the safety and preservation of our Earth.
The way this book is related to biology concepts is that this talks about how the pesticides are effecting our planet. That it is in our soil and even in us.These pesticides are harming us and our environment and it has lasting effects. For example from chapter three it said that only after two years of using pesticides they were found everywhere. Which is a problem because the pesticide are not supposed to be there and are causing harm.
They way Rachel Carson effected of changed science and society is that after writing this is, well first the chemical industry called her an extremist and hysterical. But since she used a lot of real-life examples in the book to show people how this is effecting them. SO people will start to second think about the chemicals they are using. Her writing help Americans understand that we are not different from nature. We are actually connected to Earth in an interconnected web life.

Links
http://classwebs.spea.indiana.edu/bakerr/v600/rachel_carson_and_silent_spring.htm
The Book: Silent Spring