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| Silent Spring (Perennial Bestseller Collection) | 
| Author: Rachel Carson
Publisher: G. K. Hall & Company
Category: Book
Buy Used: $24.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  135 reviews
Sales Rank: 1902503
Format: Large Print
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 437
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.8 x 1
ISBN: 0783880537
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.7384
EAN: 9780783880532
ASIN: 0783880537
Publication Date: March 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Large Print, 1997 hardcover//Ex-library. No marks except library's, the front blank page removed by the library, uncreased spine, moderate wear.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Classic Read May 11, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Joni Mitchell perhaps most aptly summarizes the driving idea of Silent Spring in her song "Big Yellow Taxi": "Hey farmer farmer / Put away that DDT now / Give me spots on my apples / But leave me the birds and the bees. Please!" While both the book and the song are a bit outdated in the United States as DDT was banned in 1972, it's still an interesting analysis of insecticides/herbicides, societies relationship with science, and the effects a capitalistic driven culture has on the environment. Likewise, the interaction of the natural web and human's impact on it is greatly emphasized. Something I've always found interesting about Carson and her book was the publics (often misogynistic) reaction to her as being "hysterical" and my favorite quote from a board member of the Federal Pest Control Review Board: "I thought she was a spinster. What's she so worried about genetics for?"
last minute purchase April 4, 2007
4 out of 12 found this review helpful
My daughter had to have this for English and of course she waited till the last minute. To her surprise, she enjoyed the book and the author's writing very much. As usual Amazon saved the day with a huge selection and fast shipping.
 Al Gore surely loves this March 26, 2007
11 out of 89 found this review helpful
Hurrah for "sustainability" and "biodiversity"! Down with the human race!
classic February 19, 2007
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
We needed more than 30 years to understand that Rachel Carson was not an alarmist. This prophetic book about our environment is very well written.
What would DDT opponents say if mosquitoes carried HIV instead of malaria? February 18, 2007
27 out of 68 found this review helpful
I've seen many reviewers argue that the use of DDT to prevent malaria deaths in the developing world is unjustified because 1) it may cause greater long-term harm to the environment, and 2) mosquitoes will eventually develop resistance to the insecticide.
One San Francisco reviewer even claimed "We have no idea of how many millions, or billions, of people globally have been impacted by its use in the forms of debilitating illnesses and death from cancer and the like." According to her, it's irresponsible to use DDT when we have no idea to what extent the negative impact, if any (although "billions of people" is a bit ridiculous), is of using it.
But there's no question what the negative impact has been of banning it: millions and millions of preventable deaths. So some environmentalists are apparently more than happy to allow an absolute--millions dead--in exchange for an unknown.
Part of the reason why it's so easy for them to trade lives for theory is that they don't give much day to day thought about malaria. It's a disease that doesn't worry people in the developed world. It happens "over there" in the third world, and if we actually get it over here, well, no worries--we get treated and fully cured with relatively affordable drugs. Who in the West actually worries day to day about dying from malaria contracted from a mosquito bite? It ranks up there with polio and typhoid.
But what would the "ban DDT no matter what the cost" environmentalists be saying if HIV suddenly became transmittable by mosquitoes? Would they continue to argue "we have no idea how many millions of people have been impacted by DDT's use" if they were one mosquito bite away from a death sentence with no cure (as peoples of the third world don't have or can't afford a cure for malaria)?
Nope, you can bet your bottom dollar virtually every one of them would change their tune pretty quickly--especially here in San Francisco. All their objections about "long term damage to the environment" and "resistance to insecticide" would suddenly transform into a mere theory once faced with the possibility their own lives could be in mortal danger. Activists would be storming the streets demanding the return of DDT with the same vengeance they exhibit today when marching for a solution to HIV/AIDS. Because it's a different story when it's no longer someone else's life that's on the line.
And hence we would have an even clearer expression of the hypocrisy of the new environmental imperialism they impose on the third world today--the kind that makes activists feel better about themselves from the comfort of latte studios and Volvo station wagons. Every day they tell the third world "we have cures for these diseases that you don't, so it matters not to us that our environmental crusade will take away your line of defense and you die by the millions" in exchange for good conversation at Starbucks. It's an easy trade when mosquito-borne death isn't tugging at *your* arm every day.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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