BOOKS: Silent Spring

I'll Get that Bug!

Yesterday I noticed a “Chemical Lawn” truck pulled up in front of my neighbor’s house. A gentleman in a blue suit, brandishing a thick hose, sprayed a layer of chemical cool-aid all over my neighbor’s trees and lawn in an attempt to kill everything, especially the worst enemy known to a green lawn__ crabgrass. Since I am a librarian this distressing scene made me immediately think of a book. Yes this is how a librarian thinks. “See that thing over there? There’s a book about that.” So I thought of Rachael Carson’s, Silent Spring with an immediate urge to anonymously slip a copy into my neighbor’s mailbox. After the urge passed I found my old copy and had a look. Silent Spring was the book that changed the world's perspective on pesticides__DDT in particular. It’s the book that started the Environmental Movement. Silent Spring was unique for its time because it combined natural history with social criticism, a genre that is somewhat out of hand today. It seems that it is difficult to find a modern book about the environment unless it takes a political stance, which makes sense since that’s where environmental policy is affected. However it would be nice to see more books not tainted by politics. Carson’s book, although critical, was different because you could sense she loved natural history, especially marine biology. She wasn’t running for office. She had genuine concern and you could feel her love for nature in her writing. Her other books are full of this wonder for nature, notably, The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea. Actually read these books before you read Silent Spring. That way you will get a sense of where she was coming from. As for my neighbor he can sleep soundly tonight__ his crabgrass is dead.