Devastating Effects of Synthetic Pesticides in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring :: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation

Devastating Effects of Synthetic Pesticides in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Rachel Carson was a biologist, ecologist, and a writer. She was an advocate for environmental awareness and published a book to help the populous understand the effects of harmful substances like DDT. Her book, Silent Spring, explained to the public the dangers of synthetic chemicals to the environment and to the human race. She advocated that humanity should learn to coexist with the environment, not always trying to dominate it. Her book increased environmental awareness and allowed people to understand the delicate balance of the ecosystem. Rachel Carson’s central argument was based upon the fact that synthetic pesticides were destroying the delicate balance of the ecosystem. She explained that the toxic chemicals did not disappear but instead would build up over time up the food chain, eventually leading into the bodies of the upper tiers. She also used the destruction of life as a way to convince people that synthetic pesticides are bad. These specific examples of destruction, such as the death of lake fish and robins, had occurred in actually places. By linking all the occurrences of destruction, she was able to put together an argument able to change the way people think about chemical pesticides. Her argument and support made people understand that the spread of synthetic chemicals was a serious issue. In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s audience was not just the US government that she had been working for, but the regular people using these pesticides. She needed to reach every person and spread knowledge of the serious dangers that pesticides could inflict on the environment. She simplified the specifics and scientific processes in order for simple people to understand what these harmful chemicals were doing to them and what they were doing to the places they lived. People understood that she was writing not to discredit the chemical pesticide industry but to look out for everyone else’s well being. The rhetorical triangle was a significant part of Silent Spring‘s argument. Rachel Carson wanted to persuade people of the serious danger of this chemical threat. She used the appeal to emotion, or pathos, the most in her argument. She used the peoples fear in order to persuade them of the dangers. She compared the chemical pesticide to nuclear fallout and she explained the concentration and build up caused by the natural food cycle. She wanted everyone to understand that they would eventually be affected by the high concentration of toxic material.